1st Grade Overview

SUSSEX FIRST GRADE READING: SAMPLE LESSONS

The goal is for each first grade student to spend at least half an hour a day engaged in “the reading zone.” This is the time when they have found a “just right” book and are sitting comfortably somewhere in the room reading quietly. Some are “whisper reading” and some are silently reading. They are unaware of their surroundings and are independently reading. During this time, the teacher checks in with students, offering support, asking questions, or simply taking notes on their progress as she listens to them read. The following lessons are skill-based activities that support the reading process:

•Daily Morning Message: Each day starts with a reading lesson in the form of a morning message. The message is written on a large chart pad and the students sit on the rug, taking turns reading sentences. The message consists of information about the day to come, interesting facts, questions, math problems, and just about anything of interest to the students. The sentences are missing words and letters; the students are asked to replace missing letters and missing punctuation and to generate lists of word family words. The sentences are color-coded based on level of difficulty. Each day, the message provides an opportunity for all students to practice sight words, develop phonemic awareness, practice word families, and even solve math equations. Morning message time is engaging, exciting, and challenging.

•Silly Sentences: The students are given large stacks of color-coded sentence parts. The sentences are divided into 3 parts including the subject (“A happy cow”); the action (“dances a jig”); and the predicate (“under the moon”). The students are asked to sort through several sentence part options and create Silly Sentences. Some fun sentences have included “My mom dances the jig with a purple horse” and “I like to eat mushy bananas under the moon.” This activity builds knowledge of sentence structure and grammar. Often, students enjoy illustrating their sentences. This reading activity also builds fluency, sight word knowledge, and decoding skills. Most importantly, Silly Sentences is so fun and creative that students forget they are reading!

•Sight Words: In September the first graders begin to build a word wall. This is literally a wall of alphabetized words that becomes a living and vital resource throughout the school year. The word wall words are made up of common sight words we use in our reading and writing. Many of these words are generated from the Dolch List: the 100 words most frequently seen in print. Each day at word work time, we practice these words in a variety of ways. The students add words to the wall during Reading and Writing Workshop time. At times, we use dry wipe boards, practicing the words in a guessing game fashion. At other times, we use flash cards or practice the words in writing activities. Each student is given the challenge to memorize the first 100 Dolch words before the end of the school year. The students take home packs of 25 flash card words and are tested on those words until they have them fully memorized. Memorization of sight words increases fluency and builds a great deal of reading confidence.

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SUSSEX FIRST GRADE WRITING: SAMPLE LESSONS

First grade students write every day. Most days, their writing takes place during Reading and Writing Workshop time, but writing extends into all areas of the curriculum.
•Word Work / Word Families: There is time for focused word study each day. During this time, we write in front of students at the dry wipe easel. Three days a week, we focus on a specific word family. As the teacher is writing, she pretends to stumble on the spelling of a new word. To solve the problem, the students are asked to help create a list of similar words. For example, if the sentence is “Last night, I had the funniest dream”, we would stop before writing the word “dream” and ask students to list all of the words they know like “dream”, such as team, beam, stream, etc. These student-generated lists are then posted in the classroom as a resource center during writing time. Lessons at Word Work time simultaneously support writing and reading.

•What Do I Do When I Think I’m Finished? In the first weeks of Reading and Writing Workshop, the students all wrestle with a similar problem: what do I do when I’m finished with my piece of writing? As students finish, they are asked to do three of the following things: re-read their piece to see that it makes sense, add more to their illustrations, add more words to their piece, or start a new piece. When their pieces are finished, they meet with the teacher to share their writing and to begin the editing process.

•Expanding the Repertoire: From the first day of school, first graders are encouraged to see themselves as writers and bookmakers. Blank books of various sizes are available for them to use each day. They are encouraged to experiment with poetry, fiction, and non-fiction. Every day, they are given more and more ideas to add to their repertoire of possibilities, a repertoire of things they know and can try when they write. Before Reading and Writing Workshop, we will read a picture book with a specific goal in mind: to highlight something cool the writer is doing and to communicate the message: you are a writer and you can try this too. We will read a picture book with an interesting pattern, an interesting use of poetic language, or a book with words woven into illustrations. The students begin to read books with a different focus. They see books through the lens of a writer and expand their repertoire each day.

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MATH

Sample Lesson Plans

The majority of the math we learn in kindergarten is “hands-on” and applied to “real-life” concepts and activities. This approach makes math fun and meaningful!

1) Number Search:

Objectives:
•Numeral recognition for the numbers 1-10
•Counting with one to one correspondence
•Matching the numeral to the correct number of objects
Children are given a list of items to find outside such as 10 blades of grass, 2 round things, 1 leaf, etc. They collect these items in a brown bag and then bring them back into the classroom to count the objects.

2) Story Problems:

Objectives:
•Understanding the concepts of more/less/equal
•Counting with one to one correspondence
•Understanding the concepts of addition, subtraction, division
•Understanding the concepts of size and color
•Following directions and problem solving
There are many pictures and manipulatives that can be used to teach these concepts. Here is an example of one. Children are given a picture of three trees: small, medium, and large. They are then asked to make manipulatives of different pieces of fruit, such as 6 apples, 5 oranges, or 8 pears. The teacher reads a story to the children so they can use their fruit to practice the skills/ objectives listed above. For example, how many pieces of fruit are there in all? If you pick 2 apples and 3 pears, how many pieces of fruit are left? Which tree contains the most fruit?

3) Combining Math and Literature:

Objectives:
•Relating stories to “real-life” mathematical concepts
•Counting by two
•Understanding the concept of doubling
•Practicing counting and addition
The teacher reads the book, Two of Everything by Lily Toy Hong, aloud to the children. It is a Chinese folktale about a magical pot that doubles everything. After reading the book we practice counting by two and pairing children in two and counting to get a total. The teacher demonstrates her own magical pot that doubles all the items put into the pot. We count the number of items and the total after everything is doubled. Children get to make their own magical pots with items of choice (using paper) and then share their pot with a friend or the group.

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THEMATIC UNITS

Kindergarten and First Grade combine once a day for our thematic units. These units vary in nature and theme depending on the time of year, interest of the children, and current events. The units include science, social studies, math, reading, and writing, often with a focus on developing an awareness and appreciation of the larger world. During this time children are given many opportunities to work as a group or in pairs. This enables children to develop their teamwork skills and learn to teach/assist one another.

Some themes in the past have been:

Giant Pandas
Fairy Tales
Creatures that Come from Eggs
Harvest
Seeds and What Plants Need to Grow

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WATER

Floating vs. Sinking: We make predictions about which objects sink or float and then test our predictions. After making boats out of aluminum foil, we predict/test how many pennies it will take to sink the boat.

How Does Water Alter Things? We make predictions, then test and record what happens when different substances, such as salt, ice, etc., are added to water.

Salt water vs. Fresh Water experiments
Local bodies of water exploration: We visit a local river and pond. We have “solo time” where children are given the chance to sit quietly and record/reflect their surroundings on paper with drawing and/or writing.

Creeks, rivers, ponds, lakes, oceans: We study specific details of bodies of water and discuss their similarities and differences.

Beavers: We learn about how beavers make their dams, and then work in groups to make our own mini-dams using mud, sticks, and leaves. We play a game to learn how beavers communicate through slapping their tails on the water.

Whales and dolphins: We use a measuring tape to see the actual length of several of these creatures, the largest being the blue whale of 85 feet. We learn that they are mammals who breathe air by playing a movement game where children have to “swim” around the room holding their breath and then come above the surface of the water (yarn tied across the furniture) to take a breath, just like these ocean mammals.

Ocean creatures that are armed and dangerous: We read about these creatures and then record the information with pictures and words. We also act out some of their movements/defenses.
The water cycle: We learn the definition of these tricky words—transpiration, evaporation, condensation, and precipitation - through reading, drawing, and a song. We make props and act out the water cycle.

Forms of water: We list the many forms of water: snow, tears, ice, waterfalls, etc.
Montana Natural History Center: We visited the Center to learn about local creatures that live on, in, or near the water.

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COMMUNITY SERVICE PROJECT:

This unit corresponded nicely with our local service project. We are working with The Clark Fork Coalition to help clean up our local river. On our first trip we picked up approximately 50 pounds of garbage. We are keeping a list of the different types of garbage we’ve found and have made graphs of some of the items we’ve picked up. We are also recording on a map the areas we have cleaned. Children created paintings and drawings of their interpretation of the fish after the Bonner Dam was removed; the art is on display at The Clark Fork Coalition.

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SPANISH

The Sussex Spanish program spans Kindergarten through 8th grade, and strives to teach children skills ranging from understanding isolated, concrete vocabulary to having conversations and completing detailed written projects. The hope is that all students will develop a love for and comfort with other languages and cultures, while taking the risks that are inherent in learning a second language and supporting each other new language practice. Most goals stated at each grade level are intended to carry over to subsequent grades.

Goals for K/1 Students are the following:

•To enjoy learning Spanish
•To feel comfortable hearing Spanish
•To recognize familiar words and some letter sounds
•To identify objects described in Spanish
•To follow simple commands
•To respond to greetings
•To be able to ask and answer a few rehearsed questions
•To name nouns, verbs, and adjectives practiced in Spanish class
•To develop native-like pronunciation habits

Kindergarten/1st Grade Units and Methods:

•Las manzanas: Every other year, the K/1 class begins the year with an apple unit, which fits in with the fall harvest time. We discuss different colors of apples and which ones are our favorites (after a taste test), and the class makes a graph of our preferences. We learn two songs about apples. The first, “Me gusta comer…,” allows us to practice the sounds of the vowels in Spanish. The second song is one written by Anne Graham, which reinforces the Spanish words for “orchard,” “apple tree,” and “worm.” In the apple books that we make, we paint an illustration on the cover page, fill out a page about our favorite apple, draw an apple orchard, and make an apple tree using tear art, after which we label the parts of the apple tree. Usually, the apple unit leads into a mini-unit about loose teeth.
•“De colores”: The well-known and loved folk song, “De colores”, makes a wonderful starting point for a unit about springtime and animals on the farm. In addition to learning and singing the song itself, we learn the words for animals and the sounds that they make in Spanish, as well as the colors of the rainbow. Animal name are practiced through Bingo, a board game, and by matching animal sounds with each animal in an interactive game. Students practice reading Spanish words by gluing cut-outs of animals onto a farm scene, according to where the word for each animal is printed. In order to practice colors, we make a large “arcoiris” (rainbow) on butcher paper and label the colors in Spanish. Each student illustrates the different lines of “De colores” with appropriate drawings in a small book.
•Los copos de nieve: This is a short unit on snowflakes, which allows us to focus on the beauty of snowflakes during a long, cold winter. The unit centers on a small play written for primary students in Spanish. Students discuss the characteristics of snowflakes and the possible shapes that they take on (star, flower, wheel, etc.), and then make their own snowflakes to place around the room. Through the play, students are exposed to the structures “soy” (I am) and “me parezco a” (I look like). At the end of the unit we perform the play either for an individual class or in Samling.
•Other K/1 units may include: Oso pardo, oso pardo, ¿Qué ves ahí? (Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What do You See?); Myself; Spain; Fruit Salad; Bread; My Pet; and Carnaval.

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MUSIC

Music Skills Explored in the K/1 Class Include:

•Pitch Identification: The teacher will help kids see the patterns of high/low pitches through voice and harmonica playing. Sound wave patterns and vibration will be explained through magic and song. The students will sing many songs, mostly related to the homeroom teachers' curriculum, in order to reinforce and accelerate learning. Students will learn songs from around the world and compare them to songs from the tradition of western music.
•Music Vocabulary: Students will be introduced to many musical words such as dynamics (piano and forte, crescendo and decrescendo), rhythm, tempo, pitch, and song form. They will learn to use musical language in the correct context.
•Introduction to Instruments: The class will use many small percussion instruments: hand drums, guiro, maracas, triangles, cabasa, and cowbell just to name a few. Students will start to recognize that each instrument has a different timbre and voice, just like they do!
•Movement: The teacher will incorporate body movement into almost every song in order to identify different parts of the song by introducing appropriate movement, depending on the song style. Movement really gives the kids a chance to be creative and “own” part of the music.
•Improvisation: The students have plenty of opportunities to help write sections of songs and rhythm pieces, which reinforce musical concepts.
•Singing with their “Bigs”: The K/1 class will have the opportunity to visit the music room in the Zap building and have one or two music classes with their “Bigs” to sing songs, perform, and enjoy music together.
•Performance: The K/1’s will be a part of two performances during the school year: The Holiday Concert and the Spring Community Meeting. The students will also have opportunities throughout the year to perform as a group or individually at Samling to get them feeling comfortable in front of an audience.

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PHYSICAL EDUCATION

General Goals for Students in Physical Education at Sussex School are the following:

•To be passionate about health enhancement
•To be aware of the importance of a healthy and active lifestyle
•To follow community agreements
•To be prepared for class
•To challenge themselves to work hard each time they have P.E.

We warm up for class by playing tag, running, and doing fitness activities. The younger students play more tag than the older students, who are often involved in running and more intense fitness activities. We learn and review basic psychomotor skills designed to enhance fitness and hand-eye coordination. We play small-sided games with the other students in class where we focus on positive interactions, and on learning how to win and lose with class. Above all, we attempt to expose the students to a variety of activities that will help them live an active and healthy life.

When introducing a new skill, we use the “whole-part-whole” method of demonstrating the skill. For example, if teaching them to throw a ball, we will first demonstrate the full method of throwing, then break it into smaller parts, and then show again the full method of throwing. Secondly, we use teaching cues to demonstrate many skills. For instance, when learning how to catch a Frisbee with two hands we tell the kids that their hands are the jaws of an alligator trying to eat a pancake.

Goals for K/1 Students are the following:
•To be prepared for class with clothes designed for active play. With the younger students this primarily means wearing proper shoes.
•To follow our community agreements
•To have fun while they are in class
•To be prepared for class
•To be respectful towards everyone in class
•To challenge themselves during class

The P.E. program consists of the following:

Tag games: The first activity we do in P.E. class is to play tag. Goals for tag games are that students learn to run, dodge others, and elude another runner who is coming after them. While games can be altered slightly, they fall into these two categories: Freeze tag: In this game there is one student who is the tagger. The tagger’s objective is to tag as many students as possible during a specified amount of time. When students are tagged, they must “freeze” or stay where they are on the playing field. The other students are encouraged to “free” frozen class members by crawling under their legs, giving them a jumping hi ten, or putting a hoop over their heads. After a minute or so, another student gets to be the tagger. We play until everyone has had a chance to be the tagger. Rainbow tag: This type of tag game starts with one tagger, with the rest of the class attempting to elude this person. When a student gets tagged, that student becomes a tagger as well, and the tagging group gets bigger. The game continues until everyone has been tagged. Traditionally, the last person tagged is the first person to be “it” for the next game.
Frisbee: With the K/1 grade, the goal for the Frisbee unit is that the students become comfortable throwing and catching a Frisbee. The students learn the cues for throwing the traditional backhand throw, as well as the side arm or fore hand throw. Students are taught how to catch with two hands like an “alligator eats a pancake”. After the children are comfortable throwing and catching the Frisbee, they play various non-competitive games that are designed to reinforce their skills as well as to be fun. “Hit the cone”: In this game, two students are paired up with one Frisbee and one cone. They put the cone somewhere on the field, taking turns throwing the Frisbee until they hit the cone with the Frisbee. “End to End”: In this game, two students are encouraged to throw and catch the Frisbee until they travel from one end of the gym or playing field to the other. They are not allowed to run with the Frisbee. If they do not catch a throw, they must return to the beginning end of the field. This is a particularly good activity because the students can choose to make a few longer throws or several short throws in trying to attain the goal.
Soccer: The main goals with the soccer unit are for the students to become familiar with the basic rules of the game and to learn how to dribble the ball comfortably with both feet. During our soccer unit, each student spends a lot of class time with a soccer ball. The warm up tag games are altered to include soccer skill work. While playing freeze tag, the students will dribble around a circle with a ball. When they are tagged, they must hold their ball over their head until someone dribbles another ball under their legs. Since the basic rule of soccer is that you have to use your feet to travel with the ball, we ask the students to travel around in a circle with a ball and lightly touch the ball with the inside of their right foot every time they take a step. We then repeat this with the outside of their foot, and then with the front of their foot. We do this with both the right and left feet. After doing this, we will play various games that are designed to reinforce these skills. If the class is proficient with these skills, we play small-sided games against each other.
Basic throwing and catching skills: The main goals here are to get the students comfortable catching an object that is thrown to them, as well as throwing the object overhand and underhand. For this unit we use beanbags and soft foam balls. We start by having the students drop a beanbag into a partner’s hand. Then students back up and see if they can complete an underhand toss. They can either clap their hands on the beanbag or trap it against their chests. After they are comfortable with this we introduce regular balls. We play various games to reinforce these skills. “4 and 2”: The children stand an arm’s length apart. They throw underhand to each other. When they make four complete catches they can take two steps backwards and continue the game. When they have gotten far enough apart, we introduce throwing overhand. “End to End”: This game is just like the game we played in our Frisbee unit except we use balls or beanbags instead of Frisbees.
Fitness Stations: For this unit, the main goals are to get the kids to understand that fitness is important to living a healthy lifestyle and that it’s fun. We set up different stations around the gym or playing area. The students perform a different activity for 30, 60, or 90 seconds. These activities include, but are not limited to: jumping up, touching the wall, and then touching the floor; running up and down a small flight of stairs; jumping on and off a fitness step; jumping rope; doing partner push-ups; doing sit ups with a ball; and balancing on a balance board. During this unit, we keep a very friendly and fun atmosphere in class. The goal is for the students to realize that fitness is fun.
Basketball: For the basketball unit, the primary goal is to teach the children to dribble a basketball comfortably with their dominant hand. We use small basketballs, letting the students pick which size ball they are most comfortable with. They learn how to dribble by using the tips of their fingers and by pushing down on the ball with their forearms. The students dribble around the gym freely and are encouraged to try to shoot the ball into the basket. We have one basket that can be lowered, and the students can shoot the ball any way possible in order to make a basket.
Floor Hockey: The main goals in our floor hockey unit are for the children to be comfortable with a stick and puck and to learn how to travel around the gym with a puck. As with our soccer unit, during floor hockey, each student spends a lot of time with a stick and puck. To begin with, they learn how to travel with the puck on their stick. They begin to walk and then run around the gym while controlling the puck with the blade of their stick. We progress towards moving around cones or trying to avoid obstacles. We then play games where four sets of goals are placed around the gym; the students are encouraged to see how many different goals they can shoot the puck through.
Volleyball: The main goals for our volleyball unit are to get the children comfortable throwing a ball over a net and then catching it and to understand the basic rules of the game. For this unit, we begin by having the kids throw a soft-touch volleyball underhand to a partner who catches the ball with palms facing up. Freeze tag games are altered so that, in order to be unfrozen, the students must throw the ball back and forth in this manner. We then introduce the net, encouraging the children to throw the ball over the net and have their partners catch it with palms facing up. If proficient enough, the students will then play modified versions of volleyball drills where they throw the ball over the net.
Tennis: The main goal for our tennis unit is for the kiddos to become comfortable hitting the ball over the net with either a forehand or backhand stroke. We begin by giving each children a racket and a ball. The students then learn to balance the ball on the racket. We progress to bouncing the ball on the racket. We then either bounce the ball on the ground, or in the air. They are then taught the basics of the forehand and backhand strokes. We progress to playing various teacher-led games that reinforce these skills. For this unit, the students use modified tennis rackets, nets, and balls that help make it easier for smaller children to become proficient in tennis. We also try to take a field trip to a local tennis court.
Ball and bat games: The main goals for this unit are to get the children comfortable hitting a ball that is tossed to them and to learn how to field a ball that is coming towards them on the ground. While baseball is not part of the curriculum, we do teach the basics of throwing, catching, hitting, and fielding. The children have already been exposed to throwing and catching. For learning how to field, we demonstrate how to properly stand in order to field a ground ball. The students learn how to hold a bat and how to swing it in order to hit a ball. We then play games where the students get many chances to hit a ball and then run across the field.

Shorter units: During the year, we oftentimes have guests come in and teach short units on stretching, yoga, and creative movement. We teach the children beginning skills in juggling. We jump rope and learn how to play fun playground games like “Four Square”.

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