Current Students - First Grade

What We're Working On:
(As reported in the latest Baraga Buzz.)

First Grade Authors
By. Dustin Reiter

First graders wanted to share their Halloween story with you. Each student added a sentence to the story starter (with a little help from Mrs. Miller). Here is our finished product. Enjoy –

It was a dark and stormy night. There were goblins outside. There were witches out, too. Lightning and thunder were crashing through the trees. A vampire was flying in the night. He crashed! “Ow, I cut my head !” he cried. Kerplonk, an apple fell on his head from the tree. He decided to make apple pie. And then, he ate the whole thing. Drat! He got a tummy ache. The vampire went to Dr. Ghost and got a shot. The vampire was so good. The doctor gave him a
sucker. He wasn’t sick anymore, so he had a party with the witches and goblins. They danced “The Shake” and partied all night long. The vampire flew off to go home � oh no! Watch out for the tree! This story was written by all the first graders (With some help from Mrs. Miller).

Each student took a turn at a sentence. However, we sometimes combined two students’ ideas into one sentence .

Class Curriculum:
First grade is a tremendous growth year in terms of learning. We work with many hands-on activities and manipulatives to help teach the skill areas listed below. We also work with the students in preparation for written skills needed for second grade.

Religion - Our book is based on Christ, Our Life. We emphasize building our faith through Old and New Testament stories, seasons of the Church, Baptism, Holy Days and stories of the Saints.

Math - We work on concepts in the following areas: Recognition, counting and proper writing of numbers up to 100; counting by 2s, 5s and 10s; recognizing even/odd numbers; identifying greater and lesser numbers; basic addition and subtraction; telling time; counting money; problem solving; geometry; graphing; and fractions.

Language Arts - Our new reading series is a comprehensive reading, phonics, spelling, grammar and writing program. Reading consists of whole and small group classes. Emphasis is on skills to help sound out words, learn basic sight words and develop writing techniques.

Social Studies - Our units include community, citizenship, geography, history and jobs (goods and services). We include enrichment programs and activities to enhance the awareness of the world around us.

Science - Our experiment-based curriculum includes the study of plants, animals, sound, light, heat, movement, machines, earth, weather, space, senses, health and physical growth.

Handwriting - We practice letter formation and proper size of upper and lower manuscript letters on a daily basis.

We also offer computers, gym, art, Spanish and music on a weekly basis. In addition, curriculum-related field trips are taken and special presentations are offered on site.