Overview
The K/1 classroom, known as the Red Squirrels, explore the world around them through investigations into earth, trees, and animals that live on the land and the people who braved this land before us. We discuss how these outside influences shape who we are today and how we can add to the beauty and consciousness of our community. We conduct these discussions, investigations, and explorations with a keen eye to relationship to self. Interwoven through these studies is a focus on phonemic awareness and beginning phonics reading skills as well as cultivating solid math concepts. Throughout the entire curriculum, play and imagination hold a strong importance to learning and growing.
Life/Community Skills
Community and life skills are an essential part of the safe and caring environment at Mountain Road School. We weave these essential skills into our daily routine through class discussion, writing, one-on-one interaction, sports, Flying Deer, art, and role playing activities. We have been working on noticing the good in everyone and pointing out the special aspects each person brings to our community. Some of the components of the life/community skills are as follows:
- Controls impulses
- Exhibits empathy
- Exhibits compassion
- Manages emotions
- Solves problems
- Resolves conflicts peacefully
- Shares
- Cooperates
- Collaborates
- Compromises
- Strong sense of self
- Follows complex directions
- Listens
Physical Development
Fine and gross motor skills are important physical aspects in a child’s development. These skills are practiced on a daily basis during learning activities in the classroom, during our extended outside time, and through formal physical education blocks. The list below defines some of the specific areas in which children grow during their Kindergarten/First grade years.
Fine Motor Skills
- Printing
- Cutting/Gluing/Drawing
- Illustrating
- Holding a pencil
- Building blocks
Gross Motor Skills:
- Jumping
- Running
- Skipping
- Hopping
- Throwing
- Climbing trees/playground structure
Language Arts
The language arts program has many facets, including writing, reading, and verbal communication. The First grade students have been working on short vowel words as well as a few consonant digraphs, and sound identification to enhance their level of decoding. The Kindergarten students work on strengthening their knowledge of phonemic awareness as well as solidify the letter to sound correspondence for each letter in the alphabet. All students practice listening and comprehension skills as well through read-alouds, one-on-one reading sessions with the teacher, and role playing. Following are some specific areas that the children should show aptitude in by the end of their first grade year.
- Uses knowledge of phonics to decode
- Reads aloud with fluency
- Identifies upper case letters out of order
- Identifies lower case letters out of order
- Identifies pre-primer, primer and first grade dolche sight words
- Predicts the main idea of a story using pictures as clues
- Predicts what might happen during a critical episode in a story Identifies main characters in a story.
- Recites pieces of writing (stories, poetry) with a group
- Incorporates prior knowledge into comprehension skills
- Remains on topic when answering/asking questions
- Contributes pertinent knowledge to class discussion
- Retells stories with accuracy and detail
- Identifies and sorts common words into conceptual categories.
- Identifies base words and their inflectional forms
- Identifies the relevant meaning for a word with multiple meanings using its context
- Identifies common antonyms and synonyms
- Demonstrates an understanding of phonemes, that they can be manipulated and changed (on-set and rhyme).
- Knows the order of the letters in the alphabet
- Creates upper case letters consistent with the Handwriting Without Tears curriculum
- Creates lower case letters consistent with the Handwriting Without Tears curriculum
- Uses resources to assist with letter formation
Handwriting
All students work on their handwriting skills through explicit handwriting books (Handwriting Without Tears), free hand journaling, and manipulating clay, air, sand, and chalk on chalkboard. All students are expected to be on their way to mastering the following handwriting skills:
Spelling
With an emphasis on invented and conventional/standard spelling, every student has opportunities to develop at his/her own pace. With 5-10 words added to our Word Wall each week, the First grade students are able to learn high-frequency words, as well as common words relating to a project or theme. All students, by their first grade year, learn to utilize a dictionary to practice high-frequency words and complete activities related to specific spelling combinations, word meanings, vowel relationships, and consonant blends. Additionally, all students are encouraged to work on their invented spelling techniques as this is a great phonics learning tool as well. Following are the expectations for a First grader student by the end of their time as a Red Squirrel.
- Uses invented spelling
- Incorporates standard spelling for frequently-used words in writing activities
- Uses resources to assist with spelling
- Writes name on work that is given to teacher
- Writes date on work that is given to teacher
- Understands how to navigate through a beginning dictionary
The Writing/ Creative Process
All the children work on the creative process of writing through what is called The Beautiful Writing Program. With this program, students dictate their stories to an adult. This allows the child who might not posses the fine motor skills or the knowledge of phonics to still feel empowered as an author and illustrator. The First grade students have begun putting their thoughts on paper as well. They work on the entire writing process; from brainstorming, to proper grammar, the students are mini authors.
- Choose a topic
- Brainstorm/Prewrite
- Organize ideas
- Read own writing and/or shares with peers
- Accurately illustrate writing piece
- Prints letters and numbers correctly
- Writes/dictates stories with a beginning, middle, and end
- Uses capitals to begin sentences
- Uses spaces between words
- Uses ending punctuation (. ? !)
- Identifies complete and incomplete sentences
Math
The Math curriculum is designed to not only teach children basic algorithms, but to also teach to their interest and practicality. As such, we have been working very closely with the calendar and the concept of time. Additionally, sorting and categorizing has been a popular use of math in our classroom. We have touched on graphing skills and the concept of more than and less than. Along with these handy math tools, the basic principles of addition and subtraction and number sense have been explored as well.
Patterns/Sorting/Graphing/Algebra
- ·Categorizes objects by distinguishing characteristics
- Interprets a given representation created by the class (models, tally charts, pictographs and tables) to answer questions related to the data and to formulate conclusions
- Use interviews, surveys, and observations to gather data about themselves and their surroundings
- Organize, classify, represent, and interpret data using tallies, charts, table, bar graphs, pictographs, and Venn diagrams
- Identifies largest amount and smallest amount using graphed data as a tool
- Identifies and extends specific patterns subtraction and addition patterns (repeating and growing, extending, finding missing elements)
- Write number sentences using +, <,>, =
Calendar/ Sense of Time/ Measurement
- Identifies date using day of week, month, date, and year
- Describes activities done yesterday
- Predicts activities that will happen “tomorrow”
- Names all the days of the week
- Identifies parts of the day
Number Sense/ Place Value
- Counts to 100
- Writes numbers up to 10 consistent with the Writing Without Tears curriculum
- Uses different ways to show numbers
- Distinguishes between cardinal and ordinal numbers
- Adds and subtracts numbers from 0 to 30 by joining, separating, part-part whole relationships, comparison situations
- Understand and use the inverse relationship between addition and subtraction
- Mentally add up to 10
- Mentally subtract up to 10
Social Studies
Students experience a lively curriculum integrating the study of societies, current events, beliefs, histories and values with our daily activities. Each week, we learn a new greeting from around the world and work on this greeting during circle time. We also study weave in the study of the peoples who came before us through song, games, discussion, and ritual.
Science
Our science curriculum includes the study of not only the environment around us and how we perceive it, but also the child’s individual interest. During frequent outdoor time, the students have observed, recorded, discussed and questioned what exists around us. Documentation and exploration have also been a large part of the science component. We have adopted a school wide earth curriculum this year that has been woven into other explorations. Most specifically this year’s fall study focused on leaves and trees. The children created a mini field guide about the trees in our playground and share that with the entire school wide community. Following are some specific points that are learned through our science explorations.
- Shares prior knowledge and formulates questions about science topics of study
- Documents (measures, illustrates, and describes) object for scientific study
- Understands different points of view as they may relate to science and nature
- Engages in hands-on exploration of objects, organisms, and science phenomena to be investigated
- Uses multiple senses to make observations about the science unit of study
- Exhibits curiosity and interest in science
- Asks mindful questions related to topic
- Explores and clarifies ideas related to topics of discussion
- Discusses and applies new ideas in new situations
- Actively participates in creating class and individual KWL charts
