In first grade at Saint Joan of Arc School, our primary goal is to see each child the way Jesus does, as a unique and precious gift from God.  We set a priority on learning about our Catholic Faith.  Secondly, we work toward building a strong relationship with parents and caregivers to understand each child’s needs, so that we can help meet the child’s short term spiritual, academic, physical and social goals.  We focus on developing strong, foundational Language Arts and Math skills that will serve the child throughout their educational years and beyond. First-graders write for many purposes and about different subjects by composing songs, stories, lists and poems. Your child learns the mechanics of writing, such as penmanship, spelling and sentence structure.  They develop their math skills in a number of ways as they learn about computation, measurement, patterns, shapes, time and money.

We enrich our curriculum with interesting and thought provoking science lessons that leave children curious and interested in the world in which they live.  Students learn how to use their five senses and conduct simple experiments.

Finally, we learn to appreciate artists and explore art materials to express our ideas.  All of these concepts are reinforced through the use of technology, both, in the room and in the Technology Lab. Finally, the year passes all too quickly as we celebrate together many momentous events, such as, the portrayal of our favorite saint in the All Saints Day Liturgy, being Star of the Week, our birthdays, losing a tooth, and seasonal holidays!

Students learn their basic prayers as follows

1st Quarter  Sign of the Cross, 2nd Quarter Glory Be,

3rd Quarter Hail Mary, 4th Quarter Our Father.

Call to Faith, by Harcourt Publishing is our religion book, we also use Family Life by Benziger Publishers Jesus in our lives, Liturgical Events, and Prayer. For reading we use a series by McGraw Hill which consists of Anthology books and leveled readers. Leveled Readers and Anthologies will come home as a “Book in a Bag”. Spelling tests are coordinated with the weekly stories, using phonics and vocabulary that we are concentrating on for the week.  Our Math Series is by Houghton Mifflin and combines, conventional math facts, word problems, and problem solving strategies and provides opportunities for students to explain, discuss, and write about math. We use many math manipulatives      to demonstrate a new math skill. We have a new Science text this year by McGraw Hill.  It is in three Units, Life Science, Earth Science and Physical Science. The  Social Studies  text is by  Houghton Mifflin and includes include citizenship, basic economics, (wants, needs and careers) reading and creating maps, and history through lives of historical figures.

Mass

Mass is a very big part of your child's spiritual education. We attend Mass as a school family every Friday and we hope that you attend as a family on Sunday. All Saints Day Celebration is a most important memory in the making. Many of our alumni can still recite their saint speech and hold the experience dear. This fantastic Para-liturgy service is on or near All Saints Day each year. The children dress as their patron/favorite saint and memorize a short biography which they recite in front of the congregation.

Language  Arts

Reading Consists of Anthology books and leveled readers.  We are using the reading series from the McGraw Hill Publishing Company. Leveled Readers and Anthologies will come home as a “Book in a Bag” Please have your child read the story to you and sign the sheet in the Bag.

Spelling

The weekly spelling words will not be the same for every first grader, so please check the SJA Blog at sjalisle.net or spellcity.com at the beginning of the week for a list of these words. (Most groups will be given a dictated sentence that will have to be written correctly on the spelling test, as well.) Pretest is on Wednesday, Final Test is on Friday.

Vocabulary

You will receive a list of all of the required first grade vocabulary words for the year.  Although we work on them during class, it is recommended that you make flash cards for these words and nightly review them with your child.  A vocabulary test will be given periodically to see how well each child has learned the required vocabulary words.

Phonics

Each week we concentrate on a new sound and make word families from the sound that we are working on, please practice word families at home. (Example: short a, an, man, can; ad, had, sad, bad; at, cat, sat, mat, rat, fat)

Enrichment

On Monday, and on Thursday, reading classes will spend a period in enrichment reading working on writing and reading skills in conjunction with technology.

Handwriting

Students need lots of practice in this area.  Please practice at home on lined paper and concentrate on form, spacing, slant, and legibility.

Be patient with reversals, most of these will be corrected by the end of first grade. Try to reinforce uppercase letters at the beginning of sentences.

Math

The main topics covered are addition, subtraction to 12 then to 20 then to 100, graphing, telling time, money, measuring, geometry, and beginning algebraic concepts. We also work on basic addition facts. Each quarter the facts increase in difficulty.

Homework

Each week your child will receive homework.  The homework can be turned in early, but is due by the next Monday. Please study math facts at home.  Each quarter we will be giving timed tests according to the schedule on the attached page.

Science

Tests will be given in Science.  At home projects will be given.  All tests will be read aloud. Science Parents will come in the classroom once a quarter to perform hands-on Science experiments.

Social Studies

Some topics taught include citizenship, basic economics, (wants, needs and careers) reading and creating maps, and history through lives of historical figures. Most social studies learning is accomplished through projects.

Book Orders

Book order forms will come home periodically. Your decision to order is purely optional.  If you do order, please make your checks out to Scholastic Books.

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Teacher Contact

To contact the teacher you can use e-mail, leave a message, or write a note.  For anything concerning changes for that same day, you must send a note to school with your child or leave an urgent message with the office. We do not often have time during the day to check e-mail or voice mail messages.

Updated 4/2011