First Grade

By Lesley Sugg

November 27, 2006

First Grade News

First grade recently held our annual Colonial Days. This is a tribute to how people lived long ago. Please view the following pictures of our adventures.

First Grade Overview

The development of strong literacy skills is a major focus of instruction for students in first grade. Literacy instruction is divided into four blocks designed to provide support for the strengths and weaknesses of readers at different levels. These four blocks include guided reading, self-selected reading, working with words, and writer’s workshop. The guided reading block focuses on teaching students reading strategies and comprehension skills in a small group setting at each student’s instructional reading level. During the self-selected reading block, students are given the opportunity to practice the literacy skills they are learning by reading books independently, participating in reading conferences with the teacher, and sharing what has been read with other students. Decoding and word recognition skills are taught during the working with words block. Students explore words and word families, learn to blend sounds to read unknown words, and memorize high-frequency words for reading and spelling. Students also practice what they have learned about phonics during the writing block, when they use sound spelling to write unknown words. In addition to applying phonics skills, students also use the steps of the writing process and learn the mechanics of good writing while participating in writer’s workshop. The strong focus on literacy skills at the first grade level helps to build the solid foundation students need to become life-long learners.

First Grade Teachers (click on their name to view their class webpage):

Amanda Rich