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First Grade Foundations

 

Reading in First Grade

Literacy is the foundation for all learning. Our reading program is focused on providing the student with opportunities to:

1. Develop the skills and strategies that are essential to reading.

* use letter/sound association (phonics)

* decode words using consonants, short vowel, long vowels, blends,

digraphs, suffixes, prefixes

* recognize high frequency words by sight

* use sentence structure clues

* rely more on print than illustrations

2. Understand word meaning.

* retell main ideas from text

* identify characters and setting in a story

* retell the beginning, middle, and ending in a story

* use expression during oral reading to show awareness of meaning

* participate in guided literature discussions

* make predictions

3. Read different materials for a variety of purposes.

* identify basic genre (fiction, non-fiction, poetry)

* choose reading materials independently

* read and follows simple directions

* locate information by using page number, table of contents,

and glossary

* use illustrations, captions, codes and diagrams

* share favorite reading materials

4. Become confident as a reader.

* set reading goals

* work to improve fluency and comprehension

* connect reading to real - life

* read independently for 10-15 minutes per day

* notice own errors (miscues) and has strategies to figure out new

words

PARENTS AS PARTNERS IN READING

  • Read to your child every day. Include fiction and non-fiction.
  • Talk about the details in stories and pictures.
  • Encourage your child to retell stories and predict what might happen next.
  • Visit your local library.
  • Leave notes for your child.
  • Play games that provide simple instructions to read and follow.
  • Limit how much time is spent playing video games or watching TV.
  • Ask your child to retell stories they read or have listened to at school.
  • Model reading in your home, take time to read together. (Everybody reads)

Writing in First Grade

MANUSCRIPT First graders are encouraged to hold their pencil correctly, write letters from top to bottom, left to right and front to back on line placement paper. They will also learn to space between individual letters and words.

The "writing process" continues in first grade as students use parts of the six-trait writing system taught in the Eatonville School District. Not every step of the process will be used with each writing activity but you may see:

Pre-writing activities such as reading books, drawing pictures, making lists of ideas, or using graphic organizers such as webs, creating a rough draft in order to organize their ideas, revising and editing their writing in order to improve their work, and presenting or publishing their completed work.

The SIX-TRAITS:

1. Ideas - the "heart" of the message, the content of the piece, the main

theme, together with all the details that enrich and develop that theme.

2. Organization - the internal structure of the piece of writing. The

student focuses on one idea in the writing.

3. Voice - the writer coming through the words, the sense of the real person

speaking to us about the topic.

4. Word Choice - the use of rich, colorful, precise language. The

vocabulary of the message creates, enlightens, persuades, clarifies, or paints

pictures in the reader’s mind.

5. Sentence Fluency - the rhythm and flow of the language and the sound

of word patterns as they are read aloud.

6. Conventions - those items we look for in editing: spelling, grammar

and usage, paragraphs, use of capitals, and punctuation.

Writing Opportunities for First Graders:

* to start using the various phrases of six trait writing

* to tell and read their own writing (they become an author)

* to use pictures and print to convey meaning

* to organize their writing into a beginning, a middle, and an end

PARENTS AS PARTNERS IN WRITING

Be your child’s audience - a great listener that is enthusiastic, asks questions, and is eager to hear more. Provide your child with writing materials of all kinds - colors, textures, and sizes. Read with your child. Talk about the author’s message. Find ways to build a bank of words. Talk about words. Praise your child’s effort in writing and concentrate on their "ideas", not errors in spelling and punctuation. Provide them with a beginning dictionary.

Mathematics in First Grade

WASHINGTON STATE ESSENTIAL LEARNINGS IN MATHEMATICS as approved by the Washington State Commission on Student Learning.

The student will:

* understand and apply the concepts and procedures of mathematics.

* use mathematics to define and solve problems.

* communicate knowledge and understanding in both everyday and mathematical language.

* understand how mathematical ideas connect to the other subject areas and real-like situations.

As the first grade students in the Eatonville School District work toward achieving the essential learnings in math they will have an opportunity to:

  • Count and write numbers to 100
  • Count by 2’s, 5’s, and 10’s
  • Add and subtract facts to 12
  • Order numbers from smallest to largest
  • Use of calendar math
  • Know place value of tens and ones
  • Use mental math, estimation, graphing, and measurement
  • Explore patterning, shape and symmetry
  • Solve simple story problems
  • Sort and classify
  • Use mathematical vocabulary and symbols
  • Connect mathematics across other subject areas and in their everyday life.
  • Understand money values.

PARENTS AS PARTNERS IN MATHEMATICS

  • Play counting games at home and in the car.
  • Ask your child if they want fruit or other food cut in halves or fourths.
  • Practice using the clock (analog) and schedules.
  • Fill a jar with small things and have the child estimate how many items it took to fill the jar and then count the items.
  • Sort coins, then count the pennies, nickels, dimes, and quarters.
  • Practice the add and subtract facts at home.
  • Make patterns using blocks or legos.
  • Find numbers and geometric shapes in the environment.
  • When shopping, involve the child in counting, prices, and comparing.

 

Foundations for Learning

in

First Grade

 

Eatonville School District

2005-06