First Grade Curriculum

The Washington State and Issaquah School District learning standards guide all of our instruction.

Reading:
McGraw-Hill is our adopted reading series.  It consists of 5 anthologies of fiction, non-fiction and poetry.  It will cover skills in the areas of listening, speaking, alphabetic sounds and symbols, vocabulary and word identification, comprehension and study strategies.  Spelling in a integral part of our reading series.

Language Arts:
Story sequence, sentence recognition, nouns and verbs, punctuation and capitalization are all part of our program.  Students will learn to communicate their ideas clearly and effectively through a variety or writing forms (i.e.. Journals, poems, letter writing, etc.).  Six Traits of Writing will be introduced along with the writing process (pre-write, rough draft, revise, edit, final copy).

Spelling:
Formal spelling will begin right away, however, your child will be encouraged to use "best guess" spelling as needed when writing.  It is important at this stage of development to get ideas and thoughts down and not worry that everything is spelled correctly.

Handwriting:
We use the terms "head line", "waist/belt line", and "foot line" when teaching correct letter formation.  All letters stand on the foot line, except for those that go into the basement (g, j, p, q, y).  All letters are begun at the head line; none are started at the foot line.

Math:
Everyday Math is the adopted text.  Parent Homeroom

Health:
Units of study will include Nutrition and the Food Pyramid, Personal Safety, and Dental Health.

Social Studies:
Units of study will include Families, Maps and Globes, Family Needs and Wants, Veteran's Day, Martin Luther King, Jr. Day, Columbus Day, and President's Day.

Science:
Units of study will include Plants, Spiders, Magnets, Balls and Ramps, Sea Life, Water, Non-Powered Flight, Polar Life, Insects and Butterflies.