The Abeka Bible curriculum continues into first grade in covering the major Bible stories, but focusing on engaging the students in how the concepts from the Biblical texts can be applied to daily Christian life. Students develop an understanding of what it means to live as a Christian by understanding the importance of the discipline of prayer, reading the Bible, living a life of holiness, and sharing the love of Jesus with others. During the course of the year the students will memorize a Bible verse each week as well as learn stories from both the Old and New Testament. Daily plans include prayers, doctrinal drills, Bible memorization, and Bible story flash card visuals.

The first grade year is grounded in refinement—after a strong kindergarten year working through the foundations, first grade language curriculum seeks to develop greater mastery of reading and writing skills. The phonics-based approach to early reading instruction assures that students acquire the skills needed to decode unfamiliar words. Oral reading skills are emphasized as the students master fluency and inflection to become effective storytellers. Spelling, grammar, penmanship, and writing skills are integrated to ensure that students become effective in reading as well as creative writing. Students will have weekly spelling words and tests to assess as they move towards memorization.

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Awareness of proper grammar and sentence structure is an essential part of developing a strong first grade writer. Throughout the year, students will grow in writing complete and complex sentences, using proper capitalization, punctuation, recognizing prefixes and suffixes, and alphabetizing words. Students will learn to identify parts of speech such as nouns, verbs, adjectives, pronouns, and adverbs. Through journal writing, prompts, and reading responses, the students advance in articulating their thoughts and opinions through their writing.

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​First Grade Reading instruction incorporates group reading in groups that are arranged according to reading abilities and class reading in which the entire class reads together.  Grouping is designed to help each student progress according to his/her own ability and needs.

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Reading Texts:  All Readers are published by A-Beka Books
Phonics Book – Letters and Sounds
Language Book – Language
Penmanship – Writing With Phonics
Spelling Book – Spelling 1 and Poetry

 

Reading and Phonics

Text: A Beka Curriculum

Students in first grade will be continuing to master phonics and begin to identify new vowel patterns, unconventional spelling and sounds, and build greater reading fluency. As students gain more confidence in reading, they will work more with reading. comprehension and reading non-fiction texts. Delving deeper into the literature, students will gain more analytical and critical thinking skills to begin to develop their own opinions and ideas that will be translated in their writing. 

Course Content 

The student will be able to:

·     read basic sentences with various vowel patterns and blends

·     identify punctuation and grammar in sentences

·     have an introduction to parts of speech

·     read more complex sentence patterns

·     analyze texts and develop ideas and opinions

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The student will receive instruction and review in these areas during the school day. He/she will have various seatwork papers that will be completed some as a class and (most) individually to reinforce these concepts. The student will be tested periodically on paper as well as orally. These will be used to help form the phonics-related grades on the report card.

Writing/Spelling

The first grade writer has neat penmanship in the lines, and demonstrates control of the pencil. The student will be comfortable with writing for longer periods of time. Throughout the year, students will transition from inventive spelling to correct spelling as they begin to memorize sight words and correct spelling. Spelling lists will be sent home weekly for the students to practice each week and be tested on. Students will also be exposed to various writing styles and will practice different styles of writing. Book reports will be expected for students to describe facts learned from reading non-fiction texts.
 

Singapore Math

As our students learn basic mathematics skills, they will take this in to the real world to use in everyday situations. Students will learn to tell time, count money, add, figure out patterns, learn shapes, and subtraction. We use hands-on manipulatives so the students can easily touch and learn that there is value associated with an object.

Course Content

The students will learn various math concepts such as:

·     recognizing numbers up to 120

·     identification of place value (ones, tens, hundreds)

·     skip counting

·     telling time

·     memorization of addition facts up to 10

·     2 digit addition and subtraction

·     introduction to fractions

This will be accomplished through classroom instruction, and various seat work papers, manipulatives and learning games on a daily basis. Extra review at home, especially of the money skills, tends to be very beneficial to the student.

As the students begin to move to more abstract math concepts, they will be expected to manipulate numbers in various operations on tests. As the year progresses, if the students do not form their numbers correctly, the result could be points off on their tests.

Text: A Beka Curriculum – My America/My World

We use the Abeka My America/My World to help our students learn about our country, and also introduce the students to other nations of the world. Your child will gain a greater interest in, and love for America as he learns about its symbols, history, and places of interest. Topics of study include learn how the United States was founded and its principles of freedom, as well as studies of famous American patriots. Major countries and U.S. territories are also introduced. By sharing about other cultures and learning more about the world, the students gain greater appreciation and respect for others.

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Text: A Beka Curriculum – God's World

The science curriculum delves deeper into forming a scientific mind as students observe, analyze, and admire all that God created in the world around them. Carefully explained hands-on activities and demonstrations will help your child become more interested in science and better understand basic science concepts. The study of plants, animals, insects, energy, health, the seasons, and the five senses provide an excellent introduction to science, with emphasis on building interest, furthering reading skills, and developing your child’s vocabulary. 

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The students attend Specials Classes throughout the week.

Art - once a week

Computer - once a week

Foreign Language – Arabic, Korean or Spanish - twice a week

Music - once a week

Physical Education - once a week

Library - librarian classroom visits