1st Grade Academic Prep

Incoming Grade 1 students will participate in small, differentiated guided reading groups focused on increasing decoding, fluency, and comprehension skills. Students will practice reading aloud and listening to a variety of books, as well as building comprehension by making predictions, answering discussion questions, and examining text features. Students will develop their writing skills using the Lucy Calkins writing program. During Writer’s Workshop, students will study mentor texts to discover qualities and characteristics of good narrative writing. Students will build their independence as writers by learning how to plan and organize their writing across multiple pages, include interesting details, and use appropriate conventions such as punctuation.
During math students will engage in hands-on, differentiated math centers to reinforce and build upon their growing knowledge of math. Students will explore a variety of concepts at their individual level, including addition and subtraction, skip counting, and comparing numbers. These concepts will be reinforced through interactive games and manipulatives. Students will build their problem solving and critical thinking skills by explaining their thinking, learning a variety of strategies, and working collaboratively on more challenging mathematical tasks.