LANGUAGE SKILLS

(Ms. Scott)

READING

The central focus of the grade one reading program is to develop reading comprehension, fluency and confidence. Students will progress from guided and shared reading activities to independent reading pursuits involving a wide range of texts that challenge them to reflect on reading purpose, structure and point of view. Students will develop greater fluency in their knowledge of words and cueing systems to recognize text forms and construct meaning in a variety of ways.  SRA and structured reading assignments encourage students to develop comprehension strategies, demonstrate their understanding, make inferences and extend their knowledge into analysis and response activities. 

READERS WORKSHOP

Students will have the opportunity to encounter and analyze a wide variety of texts and relate them to personal experiences, opinions and knowledge. The focus of the reader’s workshop is to encourage mutual collaboration, discussion and investigation through prompts and activities that develop comprehension, evaluation, and appreciation of text forms. Working independently and in small or large groups, students will learn important text features, patterns and elements of style while reading fluently. 

PHONICS & SPELLING

The development of phonics and spelling skills are a daily focus of the reading program. Students will encounter text forms and structured exercises that enable them to understand written English as a code system that can be accessed with the use of specific tools and strategies. Students will learn about the mechanics of spelling through its representation in blending and sound formations. They will read appropriately levelled materials that reinforce these understandings both within the classroom and at home. 

Students will be given spelling sheets which contain the spelling words and go directly into their spelling binder. This binder will go home every Monday for the week as homework, and be returned on Friday, to practice spelling words to prepare for the spelling test they will have each Friday.

PRINTING

Students will focus on the central elements of the printing process including writing posture, letter formation, letter size, following directions and prior knowledge. Students will learn to recognize spatial relationships between words and letters, and develop fine motor skills to improve left to right progression in printing. 

WRITING

Reading and writing are interwoven processes, and each help build and strengthen the other.  Students will generate, gather, and organize ideas and information for a specific purpose and audience in a variety of writing prompts and activities. The students will learn to draft and revise their writing using basic proofreading and publishing strategies in report, biography, persuasive and letter writing activities. Students will begin to establish their writing voice in daily journal writing. 

JOURNALS‐ Three times a week, students will complete a journal entry. Each day the students will have a different writing prompt to encourage them to be creative in their writing and to help encourage expression.

Literacy Centres:

 Students will work with a curriculum frame that is a structure that will help students develop daily habits of reading, writing and working with peers that will lead to a lifetime of independent literacy. Throughout our literacy block, students will work on “Read to self,” “Read to Someone,” “Work on Writing,” “Listen to Reading,” and “Spelling and Word Work.” 

Daily Editing – Each day children will learn new grammar skills and practice through exercises in their “Correct the Sentence” book. This promotes an understanding of grammar, punctuation, spelling and conventions.

POETRY

Poetry is a creative way to develop reading and writing fluency among young learners. The students will be introduced to poems that they will discuss and dissect on a regular basis. Students will use their analytical and imaginative skills to interpret poetry in unique ways that they can share with their family. Students will also practice their oral presentation skills in memorizing and presenting a selected poem in front of the class.

MATHEMATICS

(Ms. Scott)

The Saxon Math Program includes five different components, the components include:  The Meeting, The Lesson, Guided Class Practice and Homework, Number Facts Practice and Assessments.

Highlights to be covered include: writing numbers, ordering numbers, graphing, identifying shapes, most/fewest, right/left, first/second/third, first/last/between/middle, some/some more, some/some went away stories, sorting, inside/outside, currency, identifying a number between two numbers, dividing a solid in half/fractions, addition facts beginning with doubles to 10, doubles to 18, adding one to a number, adding 0 to a number and adding 2 to a number, subtracting 0 , and subtracting a number from itself, following a recipe, and telling time to the half hour and hour.

Guided Class Practice and Homework: Students will engage in guided practice to reinforce their understandings of each math lesson. Assigned homework reflects the strategies and tools taught in the lesson so that students may complete work independently.

Number Facts and Practice: Students will learn mathematical facts through pattern recognition. Facts are practiced orally, through manipulatives, Smartboard activities, fact cards and fact sheets.

Word Problems: Students will complete daily word problems that help build reading fluency, numerical problem solving and an understanding of multistep problem solving.

Assessments: Students will have written assessments approximately every other week, and fact assessments every week. 

SOCIAL STUDIES 

(Ms. Scott)

People and their environments: Their Local Community

Students will identify and describe some aspects of the interrelationship between people and the natural and built features of their community, with a focus on how the features of and services in the community meets people’s needs. 

Students will examine the wide variety of cultures and traditions that co-exist in Canada, making Canada a beautiful mosaic. They will use a variety of resources to gather information about the similarities and differences among family traditions and celebrations. We will discuss how various cultures contribute to our community.

SCIENCE

(Ms.Scott)

Daily and Seasonal Changes

In this unit, students will assess the impact of daily and seasonal changes on living things, including humans. Students will demonstrate an understanding of what daily and seasonal changes are and of how these changes can affect living things.

Understanding Matter and Energy‐ Energy in Our Lives 

In this unit, the students will assess uses of energy at home, at school and in the community and suggest ways to use less energy. Students will explore and identify different ways in which energy is used everyday, especially by living things as a means of survival. Students will also develop an understanding that they have a variety of choices when using energy. 

VISUAL ART

(Ms. James) 

Visual Arts in the primary grades will focus on exploration of the self, family, personal experiences, and the world. Through exploration, students will begin to develop and build on their creative and critical thinking processes.This term will focus on: 

• Pop Art - Andy Warhol. Focus on contour lines, variations of colour and use of mixed media.

• Pointillism - George Seurat. Students will be assessed  on technique and proper use of media. 

MUSIC

(Mr. Poaps)

Students will learn how to identify notes on the treble clef staff and their relationships. Students will identify where music notes are and the sound on glockenspiels. Students will then learn to identify notes followed by playing the notes on their instruments; they will work to create a classroom ensemble and share music with others. Students will also prepare for the winter concert. 

GYM

(Coach Fretz)

In term one physical education, students will focus on activities and games to promote and develop movement skills and concepts as well as encourage independence and group teamwork. 

The fundamental movement skills will relate to stability, locomotion, and manipulation.  Students will take part in organized games and sports to develop and increase their body awareness, spatial awareness, movement direction(e.g., forward, backwards, sideways, diagonal, up, down, left, right), level (e.g., high, medium, low), pathway (e.g., zigzag, straight, curved, wavy), plane (e.g., frontal, horizontal, vertical, sagittal) and extensions (e.g., near, far).  

In term one, students will participate in active games and activities to promote the fundamental movement skills.  Students will also be introduced to basic rules and concepts in soccer, handball and sport running. 

HEALTH & PEOPLE SKILLS

(Coach Fretz) 

Healthy Eating: Students will learn about healthy living, eating and growth. They will learn why healthy eating is important for physical development and how eating healthy can improve our life spans, physical activities and school performance. Students will become familiar with Canada’s Food Guide as a basis for developing healthy eating habits. Topics include: identifying food groups, food guide review, what is a balanced diet, what does healthy mean, and what we do to stay healthy.

Grow up with Safety: Students will learn safety rules that apply to their schools, communities and homes. They will learn to recognize unsafe activities and apply this knowledge in their own play based activities. Students will describe and distinguish between physical and verbal forms of violence. Topics include: safety rules and practices, identification of rules, dealing with different forms of violence, importance of saying ‘NO’, and how to seek help.

FRENCH

(Mme Grovum)

IThe Grade 1 program will focus on the aural and oral development in the French language with increased exposure to guided reading.  Students will build on sight words from Kindergarten and will be introduced to new blends. Students will be introduced to theme vocabulary: Halloween, Thanksgiving, Christmas as well as the French names the numbers 1-50, months of the year and sports.   Students will learn through song, poetry, guided group reading and learning centres.

COMPUTERS

(Ms.Togneri)

Term I

Unit 1:  Internet Safety and Computer Lab Procedures

• navigating safely on the internet

• keyboarding skills (this will continue throughout the entire year)

Unit 2:  Google Suite

• composing, opening and saving documents

Media Arts

(Mrs. Becke)

In Term I, Grade 1 students will focus on the following concepts in Media Arts:

• Review: Media Arts Centre (MAC) rules and routines, and how to use the Destiny programme.

• Review: Parts of a book.

• The similarities and differences between fiction and non-fiction, and how to retell stories and information found in both of these genres.

What the word genre means in terms of literature, and how we can divide our favourite books into genres.

DRAMA

(Mr.Poaps)  

This term students will learn how to express their feelings through facial expressions and movement. Students will learn the elements of pantomime and how to use mime to narrate a short story. They will then use the skills they have learned to help them build a tableau to retell popular nursery rhymes.