First Grade

When students move from kindergarten to first grade they bring with them a growing sense of familiarity with and confidence in the routines of the primary school. Wearing uniforms, playing on the large playground, and lunch in the Dining Room, among many other experiences that are a first in Kindergarten, are now comfortable places where first grade students can exercise their growing bodies, intellects, and characters.

First Grade students and families can look forward to:

Explorations of self and family
Learning to discuss history as students begin to solidify the concept of “long ago” by using timelines
In-depth study of fairy tales
Brainstorming and building a model town from the ground up.
Increasing independence with homework, daily assignments, tasks at school, and organization of materials
Many celebrations of lost teeth

These experiences and more make First Grade a year that is marked by pivotal learning and development. Six and seven-year-olds undergo significant physical, cognitive, and social-emotional change. It is during First Grade that most children begin to organize concepts symbolically and systematically and as such we work with each child and his/her family to foster the resultant eagerness, inquisitiveness, imagination, determination, and creativity towards new learning.

Six- and seven-year-olds are:

Industrious and enthusiastic workers.
Growing independent work skills.
Learning to “think in their heads” and so, as they develop these inner-thinking skills, a quiet hum in the learning environment can often be heard as children coach themselves through tasks.
Developing a more logical approach to the world.
More accepting of multiple points of view.
Increasingly attentive to the quality of presentation of their work.
Lovers of being read to.
Very caring and sensitive.
Better able to describe feelings and solutions for problems, though still in need of adult support to sort them out.

At the end of each week, families receive a newsletter describing highlights from the week and forecasting the learning and activities that lie ahead. We encourage families to contact us early and often with questions.

English Language Arts

The goal of the first grade English language arts program is to create a learning environment which will enable each child to grow in all aspects of language use and appreciation. Reading, writing, speaking, and listening are integrated within a richly literate environment appropriate to the interests of the child. Above all, we strive to foster in each child a genuine love of reading and writing in several genres.

Tuxedo Park School uses a research-based reading and writing curriculum developed by Teachers College Reading and Writing Project. The Teachers College Reading and Writing Project is a research and staff development organization housed at Teachers College, Columbia University. The teacher-educators who staff the Project are involved in long-lasting collaborations with teachers across the world. The Project has a lasting and deep affiliation with six hundred schools and develops ideas that are foundational to literacy instruction across the globe. While this program is the foundation of our curriculum, we believe thoughtful educators adapt and enrich the curriculum to meet students’ unique learning abilities.

Phonics

The following was adapted from Fundations™ Teacher’s Manual

Fundations™ systematically and comprehensively instructs students in phonemic awareness and word study and contributes to fluency, vocabulary development, and the applications of strategies for understanding text. Additionally, Fundations™ sets the foundation for writing with the direct teaching of handwriting, the study of English orthography for spelling, as well as basic skills for capitalization and punctuation.

Skills taught in Fundations™:

Phonological Awareness: the understanding that the spoken language consists of parts (words, syllables and phonemes-separate sounds)

Phonemic Awareness and Alphabetic Principle: the idea that words are constructed with letters to represent sounds; they must develop an understanding that words can be divided into smaller segments of sound

Sound Mastery: a phoneme is the smallest segment of sound in our language; it takes practice to pronounce a phoneme individually without adding a sound or distorting the sound

Forming Key Linkages: Letter Name, Formation and Sound: sound instruction is initially linked to letter formation, learning the letter name, its formation and its sound simultaneously; this utilizes motor memory learning to associate letters with their sounds

Phonics: sound mastery using keyword association (i.e. b-bat-/b/) and teaching sounds in two directions, letter to sound and sound to letter

Vocabulary: in kindergarten, students develop vocabulary through hearing stories read aloud, in subsequent grades, they also develop vocabulary from independent reading and explicitly instruction, learning a ‘word of the day’ with corresponds with the word structure being studied

High Frequency ‘Trick’ Words: high frequency words appear often in text, such as ‘they’ and ‘what’ and while some are phonetically regular, many are irregular and therefore need to be recognized and spelled quickly

Fluency: fluent reading is essential for comprehension, this includes not just automaticity but phrasing and expression as well

Comprehension: Fundations™ is not a comprehension program, however, it does provide instruction to help students learn how to think activity and self-monitor their understanding by forming a visual image or constructing a mental picture from words imagining a scene and predicting subsequent events and recalling and explaining written text

Handwriting: carefully planned and explicit manuscript handwriting instruction with the goal of developing legible and fluent handwriting

Spelling: students learn to segment and spell words in correspondence to decoding patterns

Punctuation: systematically learn punctuation, capitalization and proofreading skills, along with beginning concepts of sentence structure.

Reading

Unit 1: Building Good Reading Habits

This unit teaches students to draw on all the good habits they learned in kindergarten to preview books and to get unstuck as they read.

Unit 2: Word Detectives

This unit taps into the power of play as students move into reading increasingly complex texts with new words to solve on every page. Students will act as “word detectives” to solve all of the tricky words in their books.

Unit 3: Learning About the World: Reading Nonfiction

This unit balances support for nonfiction with support for reading processes. Children learn strategies to get smart on nonfiction topics, and they will also learn comprehension strategies such as previewing, predicting, noticing text structures, and synthesizing information from multiple sources (the picture, the print, the text boxes)

Unit 4: Readers Get to Know Characters By Performing Their Books

In this unit, students will develop a richer understanding of three story elements – character, setting, and story events.

Unit 5: Readers Have Big Jobs To Do: Fluency, Phonics, and Comprehension

This unit continues to focus on the reading process and sets children up to read increasingly complex texts. Students will work to expand their word-solving strategies and learn to monitor for meaning.

Unit 6: Meeting Characters and Learning Lessons: A Study of Story Elements

In this unit, the students are invited to track events of a story – paying attention to the shifts in setting, using pictures and words to keep track of they story events and keep up with the characters, along the way making predictions that look ahead and anticipate what’s to come. Students will hold on to longer and more complex texts by determining importance to retail key details in sequence. Students will also learn about main and secondary characters and to grow ideas about how they feel, as well as what they might be saying or thinking. Student will pull lessons from the stories they read and determine the message. Lastly, students will be encouraged to recommend favorite books to others, passing along those life lessons.

Unit 7: Reading Nonfiction Cover to Cover: Nonfiction Book Clubs

In this unit, students will improve their nonfiction reading skills, and speaking and listening skills. They will learn how to read nonfiction, really read it, fully and deeply from the first page to the last. Students will move from simply “fact collecting,” to a deeper understanding of main ideas and supporting information. Students will be reading longer books than they ever have, and will need new strategies for hanging on to the important information (and how to let go of the not-so-important information). They will also learn to take the information provided in one book and add it to information learned in another, and another, thinking and learning about a topic across many texts, not just one.

Whole Class Instruction

Mini-lesson: Each Reading Workshop begins with the class convening on the rug for the mini-lesson. During this time the teacher models a new skill or strategy that students will need to become proficient readers. The students are then given a chance to “try it out” with teacher support before being sent off to their seats to practice it on their own during independent reading time.

Read Aloud: Reading aloud exposes children to books on and beyond their current reading level. This enables children to enjoy and appreciate the world of literature, while giving them a glimpse into their future reading lives. It is a way to expose children to cultural and social issues that they are faced with daily. This exposure leads to rich conversation and reflection about both the literature and important worldly topics. Reading aloud is typically done in a whole class setting with time set aside for partnership discussion.

Shared Reading : Shared reading is when the teacher uses an enlarged text to teach skills and strategies. Skills and strategies are based around self-monitoring for meaning while reading, accumulating information, developing thoughts around the big ideas and making connections to what we already know about the world and ourselves. The text is enlarged so students can see and follow along in the learning process. Texts may include letters, short stories, poems, advertisements, newspaper articles, songs or nonfiction materials.

Small Group Instruction

Guided Reading: Instruction happens with students reading at the same reading level. This time is used to introduce a set of skills necessary to move on to the next reading level. This instruction incorporates strong teacher support as students become comfortable navigating more difficult texts. Teacher supports include strong book introductions, vocabulary exposure, tools to support students with new reading skills and in-depth book discussions.

Strategy Lessons: A time when the teacher works with a small group of students with the same needs. These students may not be on the same reading level but they need the same work with specific readings skills and strategies. Here students are taught strategies to practice right then and there. They work within their own books so the work is authentic. Discussions ensue about the usefulness of the strategy and how it can be incorporated into further learning. Often students set goals during this time for how they will practice this strategy in their future reading. Based on need, strategy groups are commonly held 2-3 times on the same strategy so that it becomes a natural tool for the student to use while reading.

Independent Instruction

Independent Reading: During independent reading, children are reading books at their “just right” reading level. These are books that are easy enough for them to read on their own, yet present challenges for the children to work through, using the lessons and strategies we are teaching. Children will “shop” for new books from their classroom library each week, and will have the opportunity to bring books home each night. It is during independent reading that most one-on-one conferences occur.

Teacher Conferences: Teachers meet regularly with students to individually discuss their reading progress and set individualized goals for their reading work. Teachers also use this time to both formally and informally assess students’ reading abilities. Further, this one-on-one meeting allows students to ask questions and seek advice in areas they are personally seeking instruction in.

Writing

Units of Study in Reading

Unit 1: Small Moments, Writing with Focus, Detail, and Dialogue

In this unit, students take the everyday events of their young lives and make them into focused, well-structured stories. They then learn to breathe life into characters by making them talk, think, and interact.

Unit 2: Writing How-To Books

In this unit, students will become experts on different topics and pass that knowledge on to others.

Unit 3: Nonfiction Chapter Books

In this unit, students learn how to write information texts. Each child will write lots of information books about lots of different topics and will revisit his or her writing to self-assess and revise.

Unit 4: Writing Reviews

The first portion of this unit is built on the notion that children collect things. Children will partake in a show-and-tell session. They will learn to review their collections and to make choices about which item in that collection is the best, writing defenses for those judgments. Next, students will write after review, writing these about anything and everything: toys, restaurants, video games, the works!

Unit 5: Music in Our Hearts: Writing Songs and Poetry

This unit teaches children to experiment with powerful language, and to use line breaks, metaphor, and comparison to convey feelings. By the end of this study, they will enjoy using both precise and also extravagant language to capture what they see and feel.

Unit 6: From Scenes to Series: Writing Fiction

In this unit, children will call on their pretending skills to invent characters and small moment adventures. They will write lots of realistic fiction stories quickly and with independence, using all they already know about writing small moments and bringing stories to life.

Unit 7: Independent Writing Projects

This unit is an invitation for children to write in a genre that the class has studied together over the year or to apply what they have learned about good writing to new genres that may intrigue and interest them.

Listening and Speaking

Children love to share their experiences orally, and, as they do, the teacher guides them to do so more effectively. The day is structured to provide opportunities for all children to be acknowledged and to have different types of verbal participation. Children have chances to lead activities; share opinions, writing, and objects of interest; answer questions; and ask their own. Morning meetings provide a time for the class to greet each other, share news, plan the day, discuss problems, and play games to practice listening skills and to help develop self control. Lessons and discussions provide further opportunities each day. Respectful listening skills are modeled and reinforced by the teacher and often appear in classroom rules generated by the children. Purposeful class discussion, poetry recitation, and dramatization of literature occur regularly. We emphasize taking turns and listening to others. It is a goal for the children to not only value the information provided by their teachers, but also the input of their peers. Children engage in public speaking when they participate in group science presentations, parent presentations after the Culture Study performance, and in the class performance.

Mathematics

The mathematics program in the primary school is designed to build strong thinkers and problem solvers who are proficient in a broad range of mathematical skills and possess a deep understanding of mathematical concepts. The core of our curriculum is TERC Investigations 3.0.

The Investigations curriculum is designed to support students to make sense of mathematics and to learn that they can be mathematical thinkers. A focus on computational fluency with whole numbers is a major goal throughout the elementary grades. Students work individually, in pairs, and in small groups. They learn to express their mathematical ideas as they explore each concept. The goal is for children to learn mathematical content and develop fluency and skill that is well grounded in meaning. Students learn that they are capable of having mathematical ideas, applying what they know to new situations, and thinking and reasoning about unfamiliar problems. A majority of instructional time in kindergarten is focused on representing, relating, and operating with whole numbers and describing shapes and space.

Investigations Mathematical Practices

Make sense of problems and persevere in solving them
Reason abstractly and quantitatively
Construct viable arguments – verbally explain mathematical reasoning
Model with Mathematics – Apply the math you know to solve real life problems
Use appropriate tools strategically
Attend to precision
Look for and make use of structure and patterns
Look for and express regularity in repeated reasoning: look for general methods and for shortcuts

Recognizing that one-size-fits-all does not comprehensively address the fluctuating needs and skills of children, we enhance and enrich the core of our math program by drawing from a variety of published resources. This allows our skilled faculty to provide appropriate extension and support to meet the needs of each student. In all grades, math homework typically consists of assignments that provide further practice, extend daily topics to home applications, review previous material, and enrich understanding.

Social Studies

The social studies program is strongly tied to literature and the first hand experience of the child. We begin the year by setting up a classroom community of learners. With guidance from the teacher, children generate the rules for their room. Classroom rules are then compared to family rules. Children at this age learn best when they begin with what they know and expand upon that with new information. The family is the main focus during the early part of the fall. By looking at their own families, children develop a definition of what a family is. The children use their own experience and information gained from literature to broaden their knowledge of families. We examine similarities and differences in families, contributions of different family members, and changes in families over time. The children use literature to compare their lives with examples of family life around the world.

In addition, children learn that all people have important needs and wants. Everyone needs food, clothing, shelter, and love to survive. As we look at different aspects of our own families, we use a combination of non-fiction and historical fiction to compare the differences between our lives today with life in the past.

Once the children have a clear definition of what a family is and the importance of people’s roles within a family, we use the information to begin to examine history. Using simple timelines to help make the difference between past and present more concrete, students begin with the experience of the pilgrim families that colonized Massachusetts. The children look at the motivations behind the exploration, life on The Mayflower and at the early stages of the colony. The children examine the great differences between the pilgrims’ lives back then and their own lives today. Students use historical fiction and other resources to see what their daily roles would have been had they lived at that time.

During November and December the children participate in the interdisciplinary Cultural Study that involves all the co-curricular teachers and culminates with a concert and class celebration. Each year, the class studies a different country. Recent countries have included:

Mexico;
Australia;
Italy.

The Culture Study incorporates the information that the children have learned about families as they make comparisons between family life in city and rural areas in another country and their own lives. During this time students engage in a variety of activities and practice many skills such as:

completing maps;
learning about geographical features;
recording non-fiction information;
discriminating between fiction and non-fiction as well as fact and opinion;
looking at climate, native animals and vegetation;
discovering places of interest;
learning vocabulary in the native language;
looking at cultural celebrations and national holidays;
listening to native folklore.

Winter social studies begins with lessons about map skills. Students take time to look at the different purposes of maps. Children learn how to read and draw simple maps. They apply this information as they begin to study communities. The class revisits the idea needs and wants and learns about goods and services. Students work cooperatively to plan, design, and build a community of their own. A series of town meetings foster practice with active listening, as students share ideas about layout for an effective community. The units culminates with a mapping project to depict the completed town.

In spring the class studies the changes in communication through time. The inquiry begins by developing a class definition of what communication is and what types of communication people use. Whether it is language or the devices used to share information, communication is constantly evolving. Throughout history people have developed spoken and written languages and created inventions or tools that allow them to share information. The class gradually builds a timeline showing these changes and developments starting long, long ago and working forward to the many options available to us today. The children experiment with some of the languages and tools used over time.

Geography is tied into the curriculum whenever possible. Children have a natural curiosity about maps. We begin with identifying the state and town that each child is from. We move next to the world map as we chart the pilgrim journey. We begin with a look at the countries of North America and then return to the world map as we learn about a new land during the Culture Study. As the year progresses, the children begin reading simple community maps and making some of their own. Throughout the year, literature, holidays, and travel lead us to our large wall maps, to the globe, and to online sources for interactive maps and video as we investigate different locations. Continents, oceans, and directions (north, south, east, and west) are introduced and reinforced throughout the year. The children compare different land features. During our Culture Study, the children create a large wall map of their country. During the community study, the class designs and constructs a 3D model of their own town.

Fiction, non-fiction, biography, historical fiction, and multicultural literature provide essential information throughout the program.

Literature for First Grade Social Studies (partial list):
Charlie Needs a Cloak, DiPaola
Sarah Morton's Day, Waters
Samuel Eaton's Day, Waters
The Story of Ruby Bridges, Coles
Three Young Pilgrims, Harness
Uncle Jed's Barbershop, Mitchell
Pioneer Girl, Anderson
Maps and Globes, Knowlton
As the Crow Flies, Hartman
Where Do I Live?, Chesanow
Coming to America, Maestro
Brothers and Sisters, Senisi
All About Things People Do, Rice
Follow the Dream, Sis

Science

Throughout first grade, students observe changes in organisms and watch interactions within ecosystems. Once they observe changes, the goal of their inquiry is to discover what causes these changes. This theme of change can be seen in the topics explored throughout the year. The students make observations and predictions, take measurements, and show cause and effect. They begin by asking how many seasons there are, why they occur, and what the characteristics of each are. For the fall, students make predictions about temperature, precipitation, wind, and light. This leads seamlessly into a study of how animals change with the seasons. Students study migrations, hibernation, and changing coats. This is linked to how different plants change or do not change with the seasons as well. As seasons change, these topics are further discussed, observed and measured at the appropriate times throughout the rest of the school year.

Physical states of matter and the behavior of atoms are the central themes for the next unit of study. Students discover characteristics of solids, liquids, and gases, addressing each state’s characteristic physical properties. The students learn to use tools to measure each, using the proper SI units and discovering how matter can change from one state to another. They also begin to explore engineering as they design and build insulated structures to prevent ice from melting, and then test their designs. Predicting, observing, explaining cause and effect, and drawing conclusions are important science process skills in this unit.

Students then transition to an emphasis on life science. This unit centers around differentiating between living and nonliving matter. While comparing and contrasting oceans, forests, and deserts, students research and explore a variety of habitats and biomes.

Following spring break, the students embark on an in-depth study of birds and their habitats. As a class, students research bird anatomy and adaptations. Then each student researches a bird of his or choice and its habitat, sharing discoveries at the class science celebration.

The year concludes with a look back at the changes they have observed throughout the year, paying particular attention to the seasons, animals and plants, and how they themselves have changed.

French

The first grade French program builds upon the language learned in Kindergarten. Children participate in activities that enhance the skills of listening, comprehension, and producing simple responses. They begin each class with greetings, expressions of well being, the date, and a discussion of the weather in French. Through literature, poetry, rhymes, music, and games, the teacher models appropriate pronunciation and inspires the children to listen and respond individually and as a group. As a precursor to reading French, students also practice word recognition, and they learn to identify cognates. In the spring, the class embarks on a project related to their science curriculum. During this time, they hear and discuss stories, learn the thematic vocabulary, and perform songs for the topic in French.

Art

First grade students mix shades and tints both to understand how to create pastels and darker color shades and as a way to reinforce their knowledge of their primary and secondary colors. First grade students have many opportunities for drawing as an observational skill and as part of the imaginative process. Students explore the concept of three dimensions through creating pop-up illustrations, working with clay and papier-mache. Many of their art projects are interdisciplinary. Examples of past connections include:

making masks during Mardi Gras in collaboration with the French curriculum;
creating paper and crafting a book;
visiting the Storm King Art Center to view geometric shapes as an extension of math class.

Music

First grade students build on Kindergarten music concepts. They begin to name rhythmic and melodic elements through the means of rhythm names and solfege. First graders are presented with the elements: ta, ti-ti, rest, sol, mi, la, and 2-beat meter. First graders also begin notating music on the 5-line staff. Dalcroze Eurythmics are used as a movement component, allowing students to not only count rhythms and pat beat, but feel the meter and rhythms in their bodies.

Vocal development continues to be the major focus, as students continue to learn to match pitch, sing in tune, and explore a wide vocal range while singing. The students continue to learn music history through storytelling. The music teacher tells stories of composers and musicians in ten-minute installments at the end of each class. Once the students are acquainted with the individual composers, they are more eager to listen to and learn about their music. When appropriate, students learn music that is connected to the social studies curriculum, providing an interdisciplinary unit.

Physical Education

The first grade program builds on the basic movement skills learned in Kindergarten. Students develop more difficult locomotor skills, which include galloping, sliding, leaping, and skipping. Concepts such as speed, levels, time, force, and space are then introduced. Students continue to move safely and efficiently through space both in indoor and outdoor environments during play. They learn proper rolling techniques and identify and use a variety of relationships with objects, such as over/under, beside, alongside, and through. Their manipulative skills incorporate throwing and catching of balls of various sizes with the hands. Other manipulative skills include bouncing and catching with two hands, striking skills using hand or implement, and kicking a stationary ball with a dominant foot. Health related fitness concepts such as strength, flexibility, and "heart healthy" are used to introduce personal fitness awareness. Cooperation continues to be a focus with positive ways to respond to conflicts.

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