First Grade
First Grade is a bridge between kindergarten and the grades. The child is now ready to begin to work imaginatively in new, more focused and explicit ways with the mind. The first grade curriculum is designed to meet the children at their particular developmental level. First graders learn and live through imagination, feeling, and movement. Therefore, first grade academics foster and utilize these elements to support strong academics, cultivate a love of learning, and foster curiosity for the world around us.
The year begins with the discovery that within all forms lie two basic elements: the straight and curved lines. The child finds these shapes in her/his own body, in the classroom and in the world beyond. The straight and curved lines are practiced through walking, drawing in the air and on a neighbor's back and, finally, on paper. These form drawings train motor skills, awaken the child's powers of observation, and provide a foundation for the introduction of the alphabet.
Fairy tales and stories from around the world form the basis of the First Grade language arts curriculum. The students begin their exploration of the alphabet through vivid stories and images. Through practice visualizing and reviewing stories, students build strong comprehension skills even before formal reading has emerged.
Through the stories the child is introduced to each letter of the alphabet. In this way the child experiences the development of language in a very concrete yet imaginative way. Images arise from these stories, such as a mountain that takes the form of the letter M. The class composes short descriptive sentences to accompany each picture. The wording is then copied from the teacher's model. Through these activities the child learns word and sentence structure without conscious effort, and has the joy of creating her/his own illustrated books for reading material. By associating abstract symbols with concrete images, students can better master the sound-to-symbol relationship. Through collaborative story writing, pictorial representations combining letters and story, exploration of word families and word patterns, and other literary explorations, students develop the skills and motivation to begin their journey as readers and writers.
In a similar imaginative way, within the mathematics curriculum the child first experiences the qualities of numbers before learning the four processes. What is the experience of "oneness"? “Wholeness”? What is there only one of in the world? (Me! You!). Stones, acorns and other natural and familiar objects are used to introduce counting. They develop number sense experientially through movement and hand-on activities in may forms, including stepping and clapping and the rhythmic, choral speaking of numbers. Only after considerable practical experience in adding, subtracting, multiplying, and dividing are the written symbols for all four basic mathematical processes introduced. This approach leads to a deeper understanding of math concepts by engaging students creatively and imaginatively in their learning.
In social studies, the children learn to understand the rule-making processes in their classroom, school, and community. They learn how to be supportive, positive members of their community.
Science through gardening and nature study. Through weekly garden time and inquiry-based explorations of nature, students develop fundamental scientific skills of observation, curiosity, and reverence for the natural world. Grade school students learn from experts in the field, from foresters to marine scientists.
Learning a foreign language is ideally suited to the imitative disposition of the young child, as s/he learns through hearing and speaking the language. These classes use language immersion, song, and movement to explore language in an exciting, expressive, and natural way.
The arts. Through frequent music, art, and handwork lessons and extensive integration of music and the visual arts throughout the curriculum, artistic development is emphasized as a key element of the student’s imaginative interaction with the world and their personal growth.
The first grade enters the world of music through the pentatonic scale. In this scale all notes have a harmonious sound in any order they are played. The playing of the pentatonic flute develops finger coordination, concentration, and breath control. Songs are based on seasonal themes.