Religion
In Religion class, the students will continue to develop their relationship with Jesus. Through the use of daily prayer, scripture readings, music, art, and performing, students will learn about: God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit, Jesus, the Son of God, who became one of us, the Church and its teachings, as well as different ways Catholics live their faith and celebrate God’s love. We will also be using the Promise series to add to our Religion curriculum.
Language Arts
The Language Arts curriculum combines reading, writing, listening, speaking, and spelling skills. Each child will be learning and participating in these skills on a daily basis. Our Language Arts program is based on the Four Blocks Model of Literacy, with implementation of the Houghton Mifflin reading program. Each child will be receiving small or whole group reading instruction, participating in independent reading, working with phonics and writing everyday. Seton Catholic School uses the Heggerty for Phonemic Awareness instruction as well as the Flyleaf Publishing Curriculum for small group instruction.
Writing
Our Writing curriculum provides students unlimited opportunities to express their thoughts and ideas through various forms of writing. We will be writing Newsbook letters on a weekly basis to supplement the curriculum. For Handwriting, we will be using the Handwriting Without Tears curriculum for our Handwriting program.
Math
The first grade Math program is based on the Everyday Mathematics curriculum. This curriculum was designed to capitalize on student interest and maximize student learning. First grade Everyday Mathematics content emphasizes the following content strands, skills, and concepts: numeration, operations and computation, data and chance, geometry, measurement and reference frames, patterns, function, and algebra. Within the content of Everyday Mathematics, emphasis is placed on a problem-solving approach based on everyday situations that develops critical thinking, frequent practice of basic skills through ongoing routines and mathematical games, an instructional approach that revisits topics regularly to ensure full concept development, and activities that explore a wide variety of mathematical content and offer opportunities for students to apply their basic facts skills.
Social Studies
The main concepts covered in first grade are: school/family/community, historical perspective, our country, maps/geography, dental health, fire safety, economics, past/present traditions/celebrations, and important people in history.
Science
Our Science program is based on the FOSS (Full Option Science System) Science program. This program is hands-on and provides students opportunities to learn while interacting with materials and other group members. Students will learn to use scientific tools such as: thermometer, scale, etc. These are the major concepts we will be covering in Science this year: living/nonliving, insects/arachnids, plants, weather/seasons, separating/classifying objects, plant/animal habitats, pebbles/sand/silt, recycling/Earth Day, solids/liquids/gases, simple machines, magnets, senses/humans/organisms, penguins, and the Scientific Process. To learn more about the FOSS curriculum you can visit www.fossweb.com.
