First Grade Philosophy of Education

Education must be a hands-on learning experience that involves all of the multiple intelligences. There are many ways to transmit information to students and a good teacher is willing to adjust and modify their style based on the needs of their students. Standard Four 1.1 of the California Standards for the Teaching Profession addresses the topic of drawing on and valuing students’ background, interests, and developmental learning needs. I chose this Standard to focus on because in the First Grade classroom at Holy Family, I believe it is crucial in furthering my students’ development, and educational skills. In order to accomplish this goal in my classroom, it is imperative to teach to the different learning styles, and use real-life examples that are relatable to the age group I am teaching. Students learn and respond to material in various ways, some favoring visuals, music, the spoken word, bodily kinesthetics, and or logic. As a teacher, I make any effort to find different methods to assure the information and curriculum is being instilled and processed by the students. I utilize the teaching tools that I have acquired over the years, and positively interact with and inspire the children in my classroom.

First Grade Curriculum

Reading: Houghton Mifflin/ Harcourt –First Grade Reading

Develop strong readers with rich, authentic literature and content-area reading, student writing models, genre studies, and comprehensive test preparation.

Phonics: Pearson Modern Curriculum Press Phonics

Modern Curriculum Press “Plaid” Phonics celebrates over 50 years of successfully helping more than 55 million children learn to read. It’s proven scope and sequence, along with the abundance of practice, review, and application of skills, ensures comprehensive coverage and supports best practices in phonics instruction. MCP “Plaid” Phonics Level A helps students become fluent readers. Activities help students develop spelling (encoding), recognize words in context, and use phonics in word-building and personal writing. It provides a direct model for integrating phonics and reading through reading activities.

 Consonants

 Short Vowels

 Long Vowels

 Consonant Blends, Y as a Vowel

 Endings, Digraphs, Contractions

Handwriting-Zaner-Bloser Handwriting

 Getting Started: Writing positions, Basic Strokes

 Writing Numerals

 Writing Letter and Words

 Using what they have learned to write: Number words, Days of the Week, Months of the Year, a friendly letter, etc.

Small Reading Groups- Children will be pulled out in small groups during learning centers for additional small group reading practice once a week. We will be using supplemental First Grade Level Readers during this time. In addition, the children will be pulled out at different times of the week for Small Group Reading, and Phonics Instruction during Creative Writing time.

Mathematics– California Harcourt School Publishers

 Number Sense and Operations

 Addition and Subtraction Facts to 12

 Graphs and Numbers to 100

 Operations, Money and Time

 Geometry and Patterns

 Measurement and Operations

Religion-Be My Disciples

 We Believe-The Bible, God Loves Us, The Church,

 We Worship-We Follow Jesus, Signs of God’s Love, The Church Celebrates Jesus, We are Peacemakers, We Go to Mass

 We Live-The First Christians, We Love Others, We Live as a Community, Jesus and the Children, We are Children of God, Jesus Teaches about Love, The Our Father

Science- Houghton Mifflin Science-Discovery Works

 Kinds of Living Things-Theme: Systems

 Weather and Seasons-Theme: Constancy and Change

 Solids, Liquids, and Gases

 Keeping Fit and Healthy

Social Studies-Houghton Mifflin- History Social Science-School and Family

 People Everywhere-Family, Community, Leaders

 Where We Live-Our Earth, Our Land, Our Water, Weather and Seasons, City, Town, Suburb, Our Country, Our Country’s Neighbors

 World of Work-Needs and Wants, Goods and Services, All Kinds of Jobs, Getting Food to the Market.

 Everything Changes-Learning About the Past, The First Americans, Family Life, Going to School Long Ago, Moving People and Things

 Good Citizens- People Need Laws, Government and Leaders, Citizens, Heroes in Our Country, Symbols in our Country