Curriculum Update

Our reading curriculum has changed directions in the past few weeks. In the beginning of the year, we were really working on sounds and reviewing spellings from Kindergarten. Then, we really worked on putting all those sounds together to decode words correctly. Now, we’re working on reading fluently for comprehension. There is a balance between the two. What we are aiming for are readers who can read with correct intonation and pacing while still comprehending what they are reading. Please don’t push your child to read higher-level books that are not right for their comprehension level. You can monitor this by asking questions throughout their reading and having them make inferences. Ask them about the story while using the academic terms that we use in class such as character, setting, main idea, etc.

Right now, the students are reading from a book called their “First Reader”. In that book are a few stories within the same theme. You’ve probably seen some of the comprehension questions from these stories come home. We are teaching the kids good study skills such as highlighting words in the question that we will use in the answer. Also, we teach the kids how to answer a question completely and correctly. There are a lot of skills that go into a simple read and question lesson! We will soon move into using a reading anthology. This is exciting for the kids and it’s a great way to practice those skills that they will need for second grade.

In math, you have probably seen that we have been drilling the timed tests every day. The kids are all so supportive of each other; it’s really nice to see. The way it works is that they start on addition with answers as high as 10, then it moves on to subtraction, harder addition, and so on. The students have 2 minutes to complete the whole test correctly. When they have done so 3 times, they move to the next test. This will continue in second grade as well, so the kids are really prepared after doing it in first grade.

In science, we are starting our unit on weather. So far, we have read stories, created hurricane flags, and completed one investigation on air. The kids are using the scientific method when completing these investigations. They are getting really good at using words like “hypothesis” and “observation”. Ask them about it!