Our goal is to help your child have a successful year in first grade. Please feel free to email or call us with any questions you may have about 1st grade.
Katy Chadwick | Spanish Immersion | Email 538-9710, ext. 210
Kris Ponstine |Email | 538-9710 ext. 209
Jane Schut | Email | 538-9710 ext. 212
First grade marks an important milestone for children, where they begin to learn to read and their experiences are stretched with new information.
First grade is so exciting!
We start out the year by meeting many new friends who were in different kindergarten classes. Many of us are going to school all day and eating lunch at school for the first time.
We all learn to read. We begin by reading books with only one sentence on a page. By the end of the year we are reading longer books that have full pages of writing! Phonics is important for reading, but our teachers also teach us many other strategies to help us figure out new words and become independent readers!
When we look at the writing we do in September and what we can do in May, it’s hard to believe the same person wrote both stories! We learn so many new words, and we learn how to add details to our stories to make them much longer!
In math, we build on what we started learning in kindergarten. We also begin memorizing addition and subtraction math facts and practice telling time and counting money. We see so many patterns that God put into math and numbers.
We love to hear Bible stories with our Bible curriculum theme, Walking With God. We talk a lot about how we can walk with God too and let His light shine in us. We have prayer request boards in our room and grow in our ability to pray for each other. We also look for God’s answers to our prayers. We learn Bible verses that will hopefully be in our heads and hearts for the rest of our lives. Some of the longer ones are Psalm 100, Luke 2:7-12, and Matthew 28:1-6.
We do fun science and social studies units. We learn about apples and visit an apple orchard. We learn the history of the first Thanksgiving and have a feast in the gym where we dress as pilgrims or Native Americans. We learn about the sun, earth, and moon. We learn about American symbols. We do a unit on birds. We learn about another country, the Netherlands. After that unit, we ride on the Amtrak train to Holland and visit Dutch Village. We also make a trip to Grandville Public Library where we have a chance to get our own library card.
We are so thankful for GCS where we learn more about God and the world He made. GCS is a great place to practice putting God first in our lives and treating others with the same love that God shows to us.
