Grade 1 Curriculum Summary

English Language Arts Curriculum

All areas of the curriculum are developed and implemented in accordance with the Massachusetts Curriculum Frameworks. Family-friendly frameworks are available HERE.

Readers Workshop is the cornerstone of our ELA program. Students apply purposeful, sequential reading skills and strategies, explore themes, and develop critical thinking skills. Teachers provide opportunities to read in the whole class, small group and individual settings. This supports vocabulary development, reading growth, and also provides many opportunities for students to engage in meaningful literacy dialogue. Students read a variety of genres and use texts as mentors for research and writing.

We use The Empowering Writers Program for writing instruction in the genres of narrative, expository and opinion writing. Through a spiraling of instruction, students build on their previous knowledge of the narrative writing diamond and the expository pillar to produce well developed narratives and expository essays in accordance with the common core state standards. This program highlights the reciprocal relationship between reading and writing. Teachers use the Empowering Writers summarizing frameworks to strengthen both reading and writing instruction.

Fundations is a multisensory and systematic phonic program in place from K-3.  Students learn the sound symbol relationships and apply them to reading and spelling. Heggerty is a phonemic awareness program for students in grades Kindergarten and Grade 1.  

Mathematics

Bridges Math Program

Science

The Scott Foresman science program provides opportunities for the first graders to use scientific methods and process skills for science inquiry. Children make hypotheses, collect and record data, and draw conclusions through learning experiences in life science, earth science, physical science, and space and technology. Units of study focus on topics that include Living and Nonliving Things, Animals, Plants, Life Cycles, Rocks and fossils, and Simple Machines. The Osgood Nature Trail affords children the opportunity to experience natural science in the school environment.

Technology

Students visit the computer lab each week. Activities are designed to allow children to become familiar with the keyboard, engage in writing, drawing, and projects that are connected to classroom themes. Supervised Internet research is also a part of the technology program along with Promethean Board activities. The Promethean Board is an interactive white board that is a highly motivational tool for learning. It enhances instruction and allows teachers and children to manipulate information and images directly on an electromagnetic board or with an electronic pen. 

Library/Information Literacy

A weekly library program offers initial exposure to library materials, authors, and resources, as well as lessons from classic and contemporary age-appropriate literature. Skills taught are connected to Reading Street weekly units. Children learn how to locate resources in a library.

Social Studies

The Scott Foresman Social Studies program is designed to extend the reading curriculum. Reading instruction and content are combined in units of study entitled Time for School, In My Community, Work! Work! Work!, Our Earth, Our Resources, and This is Our Country. First graders develop skills in reading simple maps, interpreting map symbols, and using map keys. Cohasset as a community is a unit of study which is also linked with literature. Teachers use an interdisciplinary approach through fiction, nonfiction, and poetry to promote understanding of concepts and events.

Music

Students perform, create, and respond to music through singing, reading and notation, playing instruments, and improvisation. Students enjoy preparing for holiday and end-of-year performances for parents.

Art

A variety of materials are used to produce different visual effects. Children explore and experiment with color, lines, texture, shape, form, patterns, symmetry, and composition. They learn vocabulary related to methods, materials, and techniques and learn how to care for art materials and tools. Projects are connected to classroom curriculum topics and activities that promote literacy are integrated.

Physical Education

Program planning and instruction focuses on motor skill development, fitness, and personal and social competency. Age-appropriate activities promote concepts of wellness and include games, dance, and gymnastics.