First Grade

First Grade

Welcome. The First Grade Team at Elmwood School would like to take this opportunity to inform you of our first grade curriculum. The purpose of this overview is to provide information which will encourage a partnership between the classroom and the home. Please read the weekly classroom newsletter that your child brings home each Friday.

1st Trimester (Aug.-Nov.)	Math	Social Science	Science	Literacy
2nd Trimester (Nov.- Mar.	Math	Social Science	Science	Literacy
3rd Trimester (Mar.-June)	Math	Social Science	Science	Literacy

Field Trips

Math

First Grade Curriculum
Trimester 1

Areas of Focus: Number and Operation

Developing strategies for comparing two quantities
Developing strategies for organizing collections of objects so that they are easy to count and combine.
Representing solutions to mathematics problems with pictures, numbers, and words.
Categorizing data in ways that communicate clearly to others.
Making sense of survey results and presenting them to others.

Resources

Mathematical Thinking in Grade One Introduction

Building Number Sense The Number System

The Problem Solver Problem Solving

How Deep Is the Water? Problem Solving

Materials

Math manipulatives (i.e. interlocking cubes, pattern blocks, geoblocks, counters, number cards (similar to playing cards)
Paper, pencil, crayons, and markers

Concepts and Content in the First Grade Classroom

During the first trimester, your first grade students will be introduced to some of the mathematical materials and processes they will be using this year as they explore counting, comparing, and combining. Students will use mathematical tools and materials as they count, combine numbers, play mathematical games, solve problems, and represent the results of surveys they take. They will also be engaged in critical mathematical processes such as sharing and explaining their strategies; using pictures, numbers, and words to show their work; and working with peers.

Students will discover ways that numbers can be made from other numbers; that is 12 can be made from 6 and 6, from 10 and 2, or from 6,4, and 2. Being able to take numbers apart and put them back together flexibly is the basis for developing good number sense and an understanding of the operations.

Students will learn about numbers in a lot of ways. Students will also use their growing number sense to develop strategies for solving story problems, finding their own way to solve the problems and record their thinking.

HELP AT HOME
Parents can help their children

Children work out number problems by using real objects. At home, try to provide a collection of small objects for counting, such as beans, buttons, or pennies. These will help your child work out solutions to problems.
Your child will bring home some number games. Play the games frequently with your child. Find a safe place to store the number cards and game directions, perhaps in an empty folder or manila envelope.
When working on problems at home, your child may use pictures, numbers, words, or a combination of these to keep track of the work. All are important ways of showing mathematical thinking. Let your child find his or her own ways to solve problems and record the work.
Encourage your child to ask questions, solve problems, and to explain his/her thinking.
Before story time, find specific page numbers in the book. Look for books that involve numbers.

Do not get worried about number reversals. This is a very natural part of first grade development. The more your child practices manipulating, seeing, writing, and talking about numbers, the better this will become with time.

Literacy

alphabet/sound symbol relationships
connecting the spoken word with the written word
initial and ending consonants
short vowel sounds
color and number words
pattern stories and sentence frames
creating class books
D'Nealian Handwriting: letters and numbers
journal writing
Writer's Workshop - 6 Trait Writing
developing sight word vocabulary
word wall
story mapping
beginning word family or 'chunk' strategies for decoding

Mosaic of Thought Comprehension Strategies
Author Study: varies by classroom

Social Studies

Family: Now and Then

Relationship: What are the relationships in a family?

How are you a family at home? At school? In the community?

What makes your family unique?

What rules do families need? Why do families need rules?

Math

Trimester 2

Areas of Focus:

Number and Operation

Developing strategies for solving combining and separating story problem

Geometry

Observing, describing, visualizing, and comparing 2-D and 3-D shapes and their characteristics
Constructing and representing 2-D and 3-D shapes.

Resources

Quilt Squares and Block Towns 2-D and 3-D Geometry

The Problem Solver 1 Problem Solving

How Deep is the Water? Problem Solving

Materials

Pattern Blocks
Geometric models
Paper, pencils, crayons, and markers

Concepts and Content

Geometry in the First Grade Classroom

When students first learn to identify shapes, they usually depend on an overall picture of what different shapes look like. A square is a square because it has a “squarish” look. Students can identify something as a square before they can say exactly why it is a square. They ay not yet be able to articulate that a square has four side, that the four sides are equal, and that the shape has a particular kind of angle, but they have an overall sense of what looks square.

As students used 2-D and 3-D shapes during this semester, they engage in different activities that require them to begin to take a closer look at shapes. What make a square a square? What makes a cube a cube? How are squares different from triangles? How are cubes different from triangular prisms?

During this trimester, all students will learn more about the geometric shapes, their relationships, and their properties.

Help at Home
Parents can help their children.

Create combining and separating story problems for your child to solve. For example, “I made 6 hamburgers for dinner and 4 were eaten. How many left? Encourage your child to express his/her answers in pictures, numbers, and /or words
Look for patterns or designs made from different shapes. Can you find floor patterns or wallpaper patterns made from squares, rectangles, triangles, circles, hexagons, and other shapes?
Take walks with your child to look at the shapes of building in your neighborhood. On longer trips, talk about the shapes in the buildings you see.
Look at boxes you have at home. What shapes are they? How many sides do they have?
Find books about shapes in the children’s section of your public library. Read them with your child.
If you enjoy drawing, spend some time with your child drawing shapes you see around your home.

Literacy

endings: -ed, -ing, -er, -s
digraphs: -th, -sh, -ch, -wh
beginning blends
reinforcing reading strategies
long and short vowels
word family associations
making words
word wall words
Mosaic of Thought Comprehension Strategies: Making Connections, Forming Sensory Images, Asking Questions, and Inferring Meaning
journal writing
writing a story
Six Trait Writing Focus: Conventions (capitals, punctuation, spelling word wall words), Ideas, Word Choice, and Sentence Fluency

Science/Health

construction unit: jobs and simple machines
friendship
dental hygiene

Social Studies

Family: Now and Then

Change: How and why do families change?

Math

Trimester 3

AREAS OF FOCUS: Number and Operation

Number Sense

Mastery of basic addition and subtraction facts
Creating story problems
- Combining situations
- Separating situations
Problem Solving
- Utilizing appropriate problem solving strategies

RESOURCES

Number Games and Story Problems - Number Sense

The Problem Solver – Problem Solving

How Deep Is the Water? – Problem Solving

Mastering Basic Addition and Subtraction Facts – Addition and Subtraction

MATERIALS

Cubes
Hundred chart
Number cards (similar to playing cards)
Counters
Pattern blocks
Calculators
Crayons and markers
Paper

CONCEPTS AND CONTENT

Number Sense in the First Grade Classroom

Students will deepen their understanding of number in several ways by:

Finding combinations of 10,20, and other numbers
Counting and combining different kids of collections

Students will use their growing understanding of number to solve a variety of addition and subtraction story problems. They will:

Learn to recognize and interpret addition and subtraction situations
Choose and carry out strategies for solving problems
Record their solution strategies clearly.

Students will solve problems by:

Modeling with objects or pictures
Counting
Using what they know about numbers and number relationships.

All of these approaches are encouraged.

HELP AT HOME
Parents can help their children.

· Your child will bring home some of the math games we are playing with number cards, dot cards, coins and counters. Take time to learn and play these games with your child.

· Look for opportunities to count large groups of objects. You might ask your child to count a handful of pennies, or marbles, or acorns. If several people take handfuls, your child can count each handful and compare them to find which is larger.

· Look for addition and subtraction situations at home (numbers under 25 are about right for many first graders). For example:

o If we have 4 apples, 8 bananas, and 7 plums in a fruit bowl, how many pieces of fruit do we have?

o If you have 20 cents, and you spend 15 cents, how much do you have left?

o Roll two dice and add the numbers show. Do this 20 times. Keep track of the results. What number comes up the most?

o Roll two dice and subtract the numbers shown. Do this 20 times. Record the results.

Literacy

development of reading fluency
long vowels
contractions

blends and consonant clusters

word family associations

making words

Mosaic of Thought Comprehension Strategies: Making Connections, Asking Questions, Inferring Meaning, Forming Sensory Images, Determining Importance, and Synthesizing Ideas

story mapping

writing and publishing stories

Six Trait Writing Focus: Conventions (capitals, punctuation, spelling word wall words), Ideas, Organization, Word Choice, Sentence Fluency, and Voice

Writer's Workshop

Social Studies

Family: Here and There
Case Study: Brazil and the Rainforest

Place: How does the environment affect families?

Curriculum Related Field Trips

Fullersburg Woods (Science Connection)

Geospace: Dupage Children's Museum (Math connections)

Constructing Bug Boxes (Science connections)

High Tech/High Touch-Dig It (Science connections)

Shedd Aquarium (Social Science connections)

Speaker on Brazil

Note: These are tentative and subject to change due to scheduling conflicts. We are also looking into a couple of other options that enhance our curriculum.

*Elmwood School’s First Grade Team is currently working on helping the district develop a new science curriculum. By being a “field test” team, the science curriculum will vary for students in the first grade attending Elmwood.

*More information can be found by clicking on this link and going to the district’s first grade curriculum page:

http://www.naperville203.org/assets/curriculumgrade1.pdf

District 203 Home page
Elmwood Elementary School
Updated Aug. 20, 2007

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