The first grade at Sacred Heart School is a special – even magical – place! Having encountered the beginning of formal instruction during Pre-K and Kindergarten, our children proceed enthusiastically toward the discovery of words, ideas, and numbers, and begin to realize how they relate to their everyday experiences.
Great emphasis is place on Reading, Language Arts, Math and Religion; however, our cross curriculum instruction allows for fluency in all subjects.
The curriculum consists of:
- Religion: First graders understand the importance of God’s calling. They learn that each is a steward of the Earth. They embrace a loving relationship with God the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit. Our children show their love of our Creator by following the Golden Rule. They learn the prayers and the behavior necessary to have a deeper, personal relationship with Jesus Christ.
- Reading/Language Arts: Our children participate in a regular and accelerated Reading/Language Arts Program on Fridays. This program focuses on each child’s learning style and ability.
Daily instruction includes a morning literacy block. Our children continue to learn phonemic awareness, letter-sound relationships, phonics, decoding, word recognition, vocabulary, and spelling.
During Reading, the children are immersed daily in a wide range of children’s literature through a read aloud, large group instruction, shared and independent reading, or guided reading. The focus is fluency and reading comprehension. We use a variety of comprehension skills and strategies to help our students make text-to-text, text-to-self-, and text-to world connections.
Writing is a challenging and rewarding process. In Writer’s Workshop, the children find their voices as they creatively travel through the steps from prewriting and drafting, to editing and publishing, with the ultimate goal of presenting in front of an audience.
Throughout the above, artistic expression and technology enhance our literacy block!
- Math: Our children participate in a regular and accelerated Math Program on Fridays. This program focuses on each child’s learning style and ability.
Our first graders are introduced to many strategies for solving problems so that they can choose and apply the ones that make them succeed. Our program promotes critical thinking skills and builds upon their mental math abilities.
The curriculum is based on The Archdiocese of Newark’s Mathematics Curriculum Map which identifies the content to be taught and student skills to be mastered at each grade level. The 1st grade map includes:
- Numerals and Number Words
- Ordinals
- Sequencing
- Number Sense
- Basic Addition and Subtraction Facts
- Addition and Subtraction
- Problem Solving
- Math Vocabulary
- Calendar Skills
- Data and Graphing
- Place Value
- Counting and Skip Counting
- Number Patterns
- Money
- Time to the Hour and Half Hour
- Number Order
- Geometric Shapes and Attributes
- Measurement
- Fractional Parts
- Graphing and Data
- Symmetry and Congruence
- Geometric Transformations
- Science: Our first graders learn more about the world around them. They discover the relationship between humans and living and non-living things. Since we are all connected, the children learn the importance of thinking globally and comprehend how important it is to reside on a healthy planet. The Science curriculumincludes Earth, Physical and Life Science. The curriculum incorporates S.T.E.M – an acronym that stands for Science, Technology, Engineering and Math. STEM Education attempts to transform the typical teacher-centered classroom by encouraging a curriculum that is driven by problem-solving, discovery, and exploratory learning. It requires students to actively engage in the situation in order to find its solution.
- Social Studies: First graders are encouraged to be good citizens and gain knowledge about the multicultural society in which we live. The topics covered include maps, landforms, and the environment, as well as celebrations and some historical information about our great land and the world.
- Music
- Computers
- Physical Education
- Art
- Library
- Health
- Introduction to World Language (Spanish)
