Lower Elementary (1st and 2nd grade)

Welcome to the Lower Elementary (1st - 2nd Grade) Classroom

In the first and second grade classroom we start our day with a morning gathering. We have a snack, do calendar and weather, discuss what we will do during the day, and read books or play games. We then move on to our work for the day. We start our day with small group time working on language, writing, reading, and math. As we finish this, they will move on to the shelves where they are free to choose the work they would like to do. There are many options for them to choose from when working on the shelves. We have language, math, science, humanities, and geography shelves. All of these shelves have works on them for the students to take back to their space to work on. We have recess after our lunch and come back inside to work on the shelves exclusively in the afternoon. Students are able to work with hands-on materials to help them excel in areas where they may be struggling or challenge themselves to work on new and exciting skills. We also have specials each day. We have Music, Sign Language, P.E., and Spanish that we work on throughout the week. Fridays are our Friday Fun Days. Students may bring in an item to share during our gathering. We also work on science and social studies, as well as arts and crafts.

Language/Reading:

Students work on writing journals each day, practice sounding out words and reading, as well as spelling. They work on learning cursive. There are works on comprehension to help retain what they are reading. They work on learning parts of speech. Students will learn correct sentence structure and using correct punctuations. They will learn about antonyms and synonyms, as well as contractions.

Math:

In math students are learning addition and subtraction using multiple numbers at a time, as well as regrouping. They will work on money, time, and fractions. They also begin working on multiplication and division.

Science:

In science students will learn about the human body, animals, plants, insects, and space. Students will have journals that will follow along with the subject we are studying in science. They will also have access to many beautiful works that help them learn about these subjects as well.

Geography/Humanities:

In geography students learn about different cultures and countries. We have works representing different flags, musical instruments, foods, and plants from different regions around the world. In humanities, there are works on artists such as Picasso, Degas, Salvador Dali, etc. There are also sign language and Spanish on the shelves.