First Grade
First grade with Mr. Stevenson is a transformative experience, as kids will be challenged to become more independent in all aspects of the school day. He is well known for giving age-appropriate tough love to help bring students out of their comfort zones. Mr. Stevenson comes to school each day trying to exceed all expectations. His students may claim that he is “funny,” but he always replies with “you mean funny looking.”
Learning in First Grade
We work on decoding and encoding sounds into words. We start with consonant vowel consonant single syllable words and progress to multisyllable words which could contain short or long vowels, digraphs, and consonant blends. We read lots of nonfiction, fiction, and poetry while learning about what features go into these types of books. We spend time learning about a collection of books from various authors. We write in a variety of formats and the transformation that occurs from the beginning of first grade to the end of first grade is substantial.
In Grade 1, math instructional time is focused on four critical areas:
- developing understanding of addition, subtraction, and strategies for addition and subtraction within 20;
- developing understanding of whole number relationships and place value, including grouping in tens and ones;
- developing understanding of linear measurement and measuring lengths as iterating length units;
- reasoning about attributes of, and composing and decomposing geometric shapes.
In first grade, we cover what is a scientist, what is in the human body, animals in winter, light/shadows, and the engineering/design process.
In first grade, we learn what it means to be a member of different communities. We discuss classroom communities, school communities, and local communities. We discuss the different names and location of oceans and continents.