Grade 1
Our Coventry Grammar School Curriculum Guides provide an overview of our comprehensive academic program for our students in Kindergarten, Grade 1 and Grade 2. Our curriculum is standards based, aligning with the Connecticut Core Standards which indicate what a student should know and be able to do at each grade level, and state and national standards in the content area. Taken together, the standards, our high quality curriculum, and outstanding instruction will prepare every student for life, learning, and work in the 21st century and allow us to develop empowered learners who have the knowledge, skills, and habits of mind to thrive as members of a complex society.
- Language Arts
- Mathematics
- Science
- Social Studies
- Engineering Program
- Art Program
- Music Program
- Physical Education Program
- Health Program
- Library Media Center Program
- Social Emotional Learning
Language Arts
First graders will engage in a variety of learning opportunities to promote their foundational skills as well as their reading, writing, speaking, and listening skills. In Grade 1 Students read widely from a broad range of high-quality increasingly challenging literary and informational texts including texts in social studies, science, and other disciplines. Teachers use a variety of research based instructional strategies to promote student practice and mastery of skills embedded in the curriculum.
Reading
Print Concepts:
- Demonstrate understanding of the basic features of print:
- Recognize the distinguishing features of a sentence (e.g., firstword, capitalization, ending punctuation).
Phonological Awareness:
- Demonstrate understanding of spoken words, syllables, and sounds (phonemes):
- Distinguish long from short vowel sounds in spoken single-syllable words.
- Orally produce single-syllable words by blending sounds including consonant blends.
- Isolate and pronounce initial, medial vowel, and final sounds in spoken single–syllable words.
- Segment spoken single-syllable words into their individual sounds.
Phonics & Word Recognition Skills:
- Know and apply grade level phonics and word analysis skills in decoding words.
- Know spelling sound correspondences for common consonant digraphs.
- Decode regularly spelled one syllable words.
- Know final -e and common vowel team conventions for representing long vowel sounds.
- Use knowledge that every syllable must have a vowel sound to determine the number of syllables in a printed word.
- Decode two-syllable words following basic patterns by breaking the words into syllables.
- Read words with inflectional endings.
Fluency:
- Read with sufficient accuracy and fluency to support comprehension.
- Read grade-level text with purpose and understanding.
- Read grade-level text orally with accuracy, appropriate rate, and expression on successive readings.
- Use context to confirm or self-correct word recognition and understanding, rereading as necessary.
Key Ideas & Details:
- Ask and answer questions about key details in a text.
- Retell stories, including key details, and demonstrate understanding of the central message or lesson.
- Describe characters, settings, and major events using key details.
- Identify the main topic and retell key details in an informational text.
- Describe the connection between two individuals, events, ideas, or pieces of information in a text.
Craft & Structure:
- Identify words and phrases in stories or poems that suggest feelings or appeal to the senses.
- Explain major differences between books that tell stories and books that give information.
- Identify who is telling the story at various points in a text.
- Ask and answer questions to clarify the meaning of words in informational text.
- Know and use various text features (e.g., headings, tables of contents, glossaries, electronic menus, icons)to locate key factor information in a text.
- Distinguish between information provided by pictures and information provided by the words in a text.
Integration Of Knowledge & Ideas:
- Use illustrations and details in a story to describe its characters, setting, or events.
- Compare and contrast the experiences of characters in stories.
- Use illustrations and details in a text to describe its key ideas.
- Identify the reasons an author gives to support points in a text.
- Identify basic similarities in and differences between two texts on the same topic (e.g., in illustrations, descriptions, or procedures).
Range Of Reading & Level Of Text Complexity:
- With prompting and support read prose and poetry appropriately complex for Grade 1.
Language
Conventions of Standard English:
- Print all upper and lower case letters.
- Use common, proper, and possessive nouns.
- Use singular and plural nouns with matching verbs in basic sentences ( e.g., He hops; We hop.).
- Use personal, possessive, and indefinite pronouns (e.g., I, me, my; they, them, their, anyone, everything).
- Use verbs to convey a sense of past, present, and future (e.g., Yesterday I walked home; Today I walk home; Tomorrow I will walk home).
- Use frequently occurring adjectives.
- Use frequently occurring conjunctions (e.g., and, but, or, so, because).
- Use determiners (e.g., articles, demonstratives).
- Use frequently occurring prepositions (e.g., during, beyond, toward).
- Produce and expand complete simple and compound declarative, interrogative, imperative, and exclamatory sentences in response to prompts.
- Demonstrate command of the conventions of standard English capitalization, punctuation, and spelling when writing.
- Capitalize dates and names of people.
- Use end punctuation for sentences.
- Use commas in dates and to separate single words in a series.
- Use conventional spelling for words with common spelling patterns and for frequently occurring irregular words.
- Spell untaught words phonetically, drawing on phonemic awareness and spelling conventions.
Vocabulary Acquisition & Use:
- Determine and clarify the meaning of unknown and multiple-meaning words and phrases based on Grade 1 reading and content, choosing flexibly from an array of strategies.
- Use sentence-level context as a clue to the meaning of a word or phrase.
- Use frequently occurring affixes as a clue to the meaning of a word.
- Identify frequently occurring root words (e.g., look) and their inflectional forms (e.g., looks, looked, looking).
- With guidance and support from adults, demonstrate understanding of word relationships and nuances in word meanings.
- Sort words into categories (e.g., colors, clothing) to gain a sense of the concepts the categories represent.
- Define words by category and by one or more key attributes (e.g., a duck is a bird that swims; a tiger is a large cat with stripes).
- Identify real-life connections between words and their use (e.g., note places at home that are cozy).
- Distinguish shades of meaning among verbs differing in manner (e.g., look, peek, glance, stare, glare, scowl) and adjectives differing in intensity (e.g., large, gigantic) by defining or choosing them or by acting out the meanings.
- Use words and phrases acquired through conversations, reading and being read to, and responding to texts, including using frequently occurring conjunctions to signal simple relationships (e.g., because).
Writing
Text Types and Purposes:
- Write opinion pieces in which they introduce the topic or name the book they are writing about, state an opinion, supply a reason for the opinion, and provide some sense of closure.
- Write informative/explanatory texts in which they name a topic, supply some facts about the topic, and provide some sense of closure.
- Write narratives in which they recount two or more appropriately sequenced events, include some details regarding what happened, use temporal words to signal event order, and provide some sense of closure.
Production and Distribution of Writing:
- With guidance and support from adults, focus on a topic, respond to questions and suggestions from peers, and add details to strengthen writing as needed.
- With guidance and support from adults, use a variety of digital tools to produce and publish writing, including in collaboration with peers.
Research to Build and Present Knowledge:
- Participate in shared research and writing projects (e.g., explore a number of "how-to" books on a given topic and use them to write a sequence of instructions).
- With guidance and support from adults, recall information from experiences or gather information from provided sources to answer a question.
Speaking and Listening
Comprehension and Collaboration:
- Participate in collaborative conversations with diverse partners about grade 1 topics and texts with peers and adults in small and larger groups.
- Follow agreed-upon rules for discussions (e.g., listening to others with care, speaking one at a time about the topics and texts under discussion).
- Build on others' talk in conversations by responding to the comments of others through multiple exchanges.
- Ask questions to clear up any confusion about the topics and texts under discussion.
- Ask and answer questions about key details in a text read aloud or information presented orally or through other media.
- Ask and answer questions about what a speaker says in order to gather additional information or clarify something that is not understood.
Presentation of Knowledge and Ideas:
- Describe people, places, things, and events with relevant details, expressing ideas and feelings clearly.
- Add drawings or other visual displays to descriptions when appropriate to clarify ideas, thoughts, and feelings.
- Produce complete sentences when appropriate to task and situation.
Mathematics
In Grade 1, instructional time focuses on four critical areas: (1) developing understanding of addition, subtraction, and strategies for addition and subtraction within 20; (2) developing understanding of whole number relationships and place value, including grouping in tens and ones; (3) developing understanding of linear measurement and measuring lengths as iterating length units; and (4) reasoning about attributes of, and composing and decomposing geometric shapes.
STANDARDS FOR MATHEMATICAL PRACTICE
The Standards for Mathematical Practice describe ways in which developing student practitioners of the discipline of mathematics increasingly ought to engage with the subject matter as they grow in mathematical maturity and expertise. Teachers attend to the need to connect the eight mathematical practices to mathematical content in mathematics instruction.
- Make sense of problems and persevere in solving them.
- Reason abstractly and quantitatively.
- Construct viable arguments and critique the reasoning of others.
- Model with mathematics.
- Use appropriate tools strategically.
- Attend to precision.
- Look for and make use of structure.
- Look for and express regularity in repeated reasoning.
Operations and Algebraic Thinking
Represent and Solve Problems Involving Addition and Subtraction:
- Use addition and subtraction within 20 to solve word problems involving situations of adding to, taking from, putting together, taking apart, and comparing, with unknowns in all positions, e.g., by using objects, drawings, and equations with a symbol for the unknown number to represent the problem.
- Solve word problems that call for addition of three whole numbers whose sum is less than or equal to 20, e.g., by using objects, drawings, and equations with a symbol for the unknown number to represent the problem.
Understand and Apply Properties of Operations and the Relationship Between Addition and Subtraction:
- Apply properties of operations as strategies to add and subtract.2 Examples: If 8 + 3 = 11 is known, then 3 + 8 = 11 is also known. (Commutative property of addition.) To add 2 + 6 + 4, the second two numbers can be added to make a ten, so 2 + 6 + 4 = 2 + 10 = 12. (Associative property of addition).
- Understand subtraction as an unknown-addend problem. For example, subtract 10 - 8 by finding the number that makes 10 when added to 8.
Add and Subtract Within 20:
- Relate counting to addition and subtraction (e.g., by counting on 2 to add 2).
- Add and subtract within 20, demonstrating fluency for addition and subtraction within 10. Use strategies such as counting on; making ten (e.g., 8 + 6 = 8 + 2 + 4 = 10 + 4 = 14); decomposing a number leading to a ten (e.g., 13 - 4 = 13 - 3 - 1 = 10 - 1 = 9); using the relationship between addition and subtraction (e.g., knowing that 8 + 4 = 12, one knows 12 - 8 = 4); and creating equivalent but easier or known sums (e.g., adding 6 + 7 by creating the known equivalent 6 + 6 + 1 = 12 + 1 = 13).
Work With Addition and Subtraction Equations:
- Understand the meaning of the equal sign, and determine if equations involving addition and subtraction are true or false. For example, which of the following equations are true and which are false? 6 = 6, 7 = 8 - 1, 5 + 2 = 2 + 5, 4 + 1 = 5 + 2.
- Determine the unknown whole number in an addition or subtraction equation relating three whole numbers. For example, determine the unknown number that makes the equation true in each of the equations 8 + ? = 11, 5 = _ - 3, 6 + 6 = _.
Numbers and Operations Base Ten
Extend the Counting Sequence:
- Count to 120, starting at any number less than 120. In this range, read and write numerals and represent a number of objects with a written numeral.
Understand Place Value:
- Understand that the two digits of a two-digit number represent amounts of tens and ones. Understand the following as special cases:
- 10 can be thought of as a bundle of ten ones — called a "ten."
- The numbers from 11 to 19 are composed of a ten and one, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, or nine ones.
- The numbers 10, 20, 30, 40, 50, 60, 70, 80, 90 refer to one, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, or nine tens (and 0 ones).
- Compare two two-digit numbers based on meanings of the tens and ones digits, recording the results of comparisons with the symbols >, =, and <.
Use Place Value Understanding and Properties of Operations to Add and Subtract:
- Add within 100, including adding a two-digit number and a one-digit number, and adding a two-digit number and a multiple of 10, using concrete models or drawings and strategies based on place value, properties of operations, and/or the relationship between addition and subtraction; relate the strategy to a written method and explain the reasoning used.
- Understand that in adding two-digit numbers, one adds tens and tens, ones and ones; and sometimes it is necessary to compose a ten.
- Given a two-digit number, mentally find 10 more or 10 less than the number, without having to count; explain the reasoning used.
- Subtract multiples of 10 in the range 10-90 from multiples of 10 in the range 10-90 (positive or zero differences), using concrete models or drawings and strategies based on place value, properties of operations, and/or the relationship between addition and subtraction; relate the strategy to a written method and explain the reasoning used.
Measurement and Data
Measure Lengths Indirectly and by Iterating Length Units:
- Order three objects by length; compare the lengths of two objects indirectly by using a third object.
- Express the length of an object as a whole number of length units, by laying multiple copies of a shorter object (the length unit) end to end.
- Understand that the length measurement of an object is the number of same-size length units that span it with no gaps or overlaps. Limit to contexts where the object being measured is spanned by a whole number of length units with no gaps or overlaps.
Tell and Write Time:
- Tell and write time in hours and half-hours using analog and digital clocks.
Represent and Interpret Data:
- Organize, represent, and interpret data with up to three categories; ask and answer questions about the total number of data points, how many in each category, and how many more or less are in one category than in another.
Geometry
Reason With Shapes and Their Attributes:
- Distinguish between defining attributes (e.g., triangles are closed and three-sided) versus non-defining attributes (e.g., color, orientation, overall size); build and draw shapes to possess defining attributes.
- Compose two-dimensional shapes (rectangles, squares, trapezoids, triangles, half-circles, and quarter-circles) or three-dimensional shapes (cubes, right rectangular prisms, right circular cones, and right circular cylinders) to create a composite shape, and compose new shapes from the composite shape.
- Partition circles and rectangles into two and four equal shares, describe the shares using the words halves, fourths, and quarters, and use the phrases half of, fourth of, and quarter of. Describe the whole as two of, or four of the shares. Understand for these examples that decomposing into more equal shares creates smaller shares.
Science
In Grade 1, science programming focuses on three standards, the three dimensions of science: science and engineering practices, cross cutting concepts, and disciplinary core ideas. Each dimension works with the other two to help students build a cohesive understanding of science over time. Science and Engineering Practices describe what scientists do to investigate the natural world and what engineers do to design and build systems. These practices better explain and extend what is meant by “inquiry” in science. Crosscutting Concepts help students explore connections across the topics in science. When these concepts, such as “cause and effect”, are made explicit for students, they can help students develop a coherent and scientifically-based view of the world around them. Disciplinary Core Ideas are the key ideas in science which build on each other as students progress through grade levels and are grouped into the following four domains: Physical Science, Life Science, Earth and Space Science, and Engineering.
Science and Engineering Practices
Asking and Answering Questions:
- Asking questions and defining problems in K–2 builds on prior experiences and progresses to simple descriptive questions that can be tested.
- Ask questions based on observations to find more information about the natural and/or designed world(s).
- Ask and/or identify questions that can be answered by an investigation.
- Define a simple problem that can be solved through the development of a new or improved object or tool.
Developing and Using Models:
- Modeling in K–2 builds on prior experiences and progresses to include using and developing models (i.e., diagram, drawing, physical replica, diorama, dramatization, or storyboard) that represent concrete events or design solutions.
- Distinguish between a model and the actual object, process, and/or events the model represents.
- Compare models to identify common features and differences.
- Develop and/or use a model to represent amounts, relationships, relative scales (bigger, smaller), and/or patterns in the natural and designed world(s).
- Develop a simple model based on evidence to represent a proposed object or tool.
Planning and Carrying Out Investigations:
- Planning and carrying out investigations to answer questions or test solutions to problems in K–2 builds on prior experiences and progresses to simple investigations, based on fair tests, which provide data to support explanations or design solutions.
- With guidance, plan and conduct an investigation in collaboration with peers (for K).
- Plan and conduct an investigation collaboratively to produce data to serve as the basis for evidence to answer a question.
- Evaluate different ways of observing and/or measuring a phenomenon to determine which way can answer a question.
- Make observations (firsthand or from media) and/or measurements to collect data that can be used to make comparisons.
- Make observations (firsthand or from media) and/or measurements of a proposed object or tool or solution to determine if it solves a problem or meets a goal.
- Make predictions based on prior experiences.
Analyzing and Interpreting Data:
- Analyzing data in K–2 builds on prior experiences and progresses to collecting, recording, and sharing observations.
- Record information (observations, thoughts, and ideas).
- Use and share pictures, drawings, and/or writings of observations.
- Use observations (firsthand or from media) to describe patterns and/or relationships in the natural and designed world(s) in order to answer scientific questions and solve problems.
- Compare predictions (based on prior experiences) to what occurred (observable events).
- Analyze data from tests of an object or tool to determine if it works as intended.
Using Mathematics and Computational Thinking:
- Mathematical and computational thinking in K–2 builds on prior experience and progresses to recognizing that mathematics can be used to describe the natural and designed world(s).
- Decide when to use qualitative vs. quantitative data.
- Use counting and numbers to identify and describe patterns in the natural and designed world(s).
- Describe, measure, and/or compare quantitative attributes of different objects and display the data using simple graphs.
- Use quantitative data to compare two alternative solutions to a problem.
Construction Explanations and Designing Solutions:
- Constructing explanations and designing solutions in K–2 builds on prior experiences and progresses to the use of evidence and ideas in constructing evidence based accounts of natural phenomena and designing solutions.
- Make observations (firsthand or from media) to construct an evidence-based account for natural phenomena.
- Use tools and/or materials to design and/or build a device that solves a specific problem or a solution to a specific problem.
- Generate and/or compare multiple solutions to a problem.
Engaging in Argument from Evidence:
- Engaging in argument from evidence in K–2 builds on prior experiences and progresses to comparing ideas and representations about the natural and designed world(s).
- Identify arguments that are supported by evidence.
- Distinguish between explanations that account for all gathered evidence and those that do not.
- Analyze why some evidence is relevant to a scientific question and some is not.
- Distinguish between opinions and evidence in one’s own explanations.
- Listen actively to arguments to indicate agreement or disagreement based on evidence, and/or to retell the main points of the argument.
- Construct an argument with evidence to support a claim.
- Make a claim about the effectiveness of an object, tool, or solution that is supported by relevant evidence.
Obtaining, Evaluating, and Communicating Information:
- Obtaining, evaluating, and communicating information in K–2 builds on prior experiences and uses observations and texts to communicate new information.
- Read grade-appropriate texts and/or use media to obtain scientific and/or technical information to determine patterns in and/or evidence about the natural and designed world(s).
- Describe how specific images (e.g., a diagram showing how a machine works) support a scientific or engineering idea.
- Obtain information using various texts, text features (e.g., headings, tables of contents, glossaries, electronic menus, icons), and other media that will be useful in answering a scientific question and/or supporting a scientific claim.
- Communicate information or design ideas and/or solutions with others in oral and/or written forms using models, drawings, writing, or numbers that provide detail about scientific ideas, practices, and/or design ideas.
Cross Cutting Concepts
Patterns:
- Children recognize that patterns in the natural and human designed world can be observed, used to describe phenomena, and used as evidence.
Cause and Effect:
- Students learn that events have causes that generate observable patterns.
- They design simple tests to gather evidence to support or refute their own ideas about causes.
Scale Proportion and Quantity:
- Students use relative scales (e.g., bigger and smaller; hotter and colder; faster and slower) to describe objects.
- They use standard units to measure length.
System and System Models:
- Students understand objects and organisms can be described in terms of their parts; and systems in the natural and designed world have parts that work together.
Energy and Matter:
- Students observe objects may break into smaller pieces, be put together into larger pieces, or change shapes.
Structure and Function:
- Students observe the shape and stability of structures of natural and designed objects related to their function(s).
Stability and Change:
- Students observe some things stay the same while other things change, and things may change slowly or rapidly.
Disciplinary Core Ideas:
- The performance expectations in first grade help students formulate answers to questions such as:
- What happens when materials vibrate?
- What happens when there is no light?
- What are some ways plants and animals meet their needs so that they can survive and grow?
- How are parents and their children similar and different?
- What objects are in the sky and how do they seem to move?
Social Studies
In first grade, students explore their place in the world around them building on their work in kindergarten and expanding perspective beyond themselves. Through comparison of family, school, and community, students will explore multiple perspectives from the past and today. The study of how students fit into society requires that students generate and research compelling questions such as the following:
- What is the relationship between me, my family, my school, and my community?
- How do my family, school, and community influence each other?
- How do people and events from the past affect my community?
History
- Compare life in the past to life in the present.
- Generate questions about individuals and groups who have shaped a significant historical change.
- Compare perspectives of people in the past to those in the present.
- Identify different kinds of historical sources.
- Explain how historical sources can be used to study the past.
- Identify the maker, date, and place of origin for a historical source from information within the source itself.
- Generate questions about a particular historical source as it relates to a particular historical event or development.
- Generate possible reasons for an event or development in the past.
Civics
- Describe roles and responsibilities of people in authority. (local/state/national e.g., judge, mayor, governor, police).
- Explain how all people, not just official leaders, play an important role in a community.
- Describe how communities work to accomplish common tasks, establish responsibilities, and fulfill roles of authority.
- Apply civic virtues when participating in school settings.
- Follow agreed upon rules for discussions while responding attentively to others when addressing ideas and making decisions as a group.
- Explain the need for and purposes of rules in various settings inside and outside of school.
- Explain how people can work together to make decisions in the classroom.
- Identify and explain how rules function in public.
- Describe how people have tried to improve their communities over time.
Economics
Geography
- Construct maps, graphs and other representations of familiar places.
- Use maps, graphs, photographs and other representations to describe places and the relationships and interactions that shape them.
- Use maps, globes, and other simple geographic models to identify cultural and environmental characteristics of places.
- Explain how weather, climate, and other environmental characteristics affect people’s lives in places or regions.
Engineering Program
In first grade through a unit study students are introduced to how to use engineering and design processes to solve real world problems. Students’ curiosity is engaged as they learn how to describe problems or situations that people wish to change, learn how to generate possible solutions and build and test prototypes.
In this unit, focused on flying technologies, students will engage in learning tasks aligned with the following Next Generation Science Standards:
- Plan and conduct an investigation to provide evidence of the effects of balanced and unbalanced forces on the motion of an object.
- Make a claim about the merit of a design solution that reduces the impacts of a weather-related hazard.
- Analyze and interpret data from maps to describe patterns of Earth’s features.
- Support an argument that the gravitational force exerted by Earth on objects is directed down.
- Define a simple design problem reflecting a need or a want that includes specified criteria for success and constraints on materials, time, or cost.
- Generate and compare multiple possible solutions to a problem based on how well each is likely to meet the criteria and constraints of the problem.
- Plan and carry out fair tests in which variables are controlled and failure points are considered to identify aspects of a model or prototype that can be improved.
Art Program
In Grade 1, using a variety of media, students will work individually and collaboratively to conceive and develop new artistic ideas and work. They will continue to learn how the arts convey meaning and will relate knowledge and personal experiences to make art.
Students will understand, select and apply media, techniques, and processes:
- Differentiate between a variety of media, techniques, and processes.
- Describe how different media, techniques, and process cause different effects and personal responses.
- Use different media, techniques, and processes to communicate ideas, feelings, experiences, and stories, ect.
- Use art media and tools in a safe and responsible manner.
Students will understand and apply elements and organizational principles of art:
- Identify the different ways visual characteristics are used to convey ideas.
- Describe how different expressive features, and ways of organizing them, cause different responses.
- Use the elements of art and principles of design to communicate ideas.
Students will consider, select and apply a range of subject matter, symbols and ideas:
- Discuss a variety of sources for art content.
- Select and use subject matter, symbols and ideas to communicate meaning.
Students will reflect upon, describe, analyze, interpret and evaluate their own and others' work:
- Identify various purposes for creating works of art.
- Describe visual characteristics of works of art using visual art terminology.
- Recognize that there are different responses to specific works of art.
- Identify connections between the visual arts and other disciplines in the curriculum.
- Describe how the visual arts are combined with other arts in multimedia work.
- Demonstrate understanding of how the visual arts are used in the world around us.
- Recognize that works of visual art are produced by artisans and artists working in different cultures, times and places.
Music Program
Students in Grade 1 will create music, communicate effectively by performing diverse works of quality music, critically think and respond with social and emotional awareness to diverse musical genres and connect their learning and personal experience to music. Students will use mallet instruments, world percussion, and other learning tools to reach the Coventry Public Schools Music Department Program Goals.
Generate musical ideas for various purposes and contexts:
- With limited guidance, create musical ideas (such as answering a musical question) for a specific purpose.
- With limited guidance, generate musical ideas in multiple tonalities (such as major and minor) and meters (such as duple and triple).
Select and develop musical ideas for defined purposes and contexts:
- With limited guidance, demonstrate and discuss personal reasons for selecting musical ideas that represent expressive intent.
- With limited guidance, use iconic or standard notation and/or recording technology to document and organize personal musical ideas.
Evaluate and refine selected musical ideas to create musical work(s) that meet appropriate criteria:
- With limited guidance, discuss and apply personal, peer, and teacher feedback to refine personal musical ideas.
Share creative musical work that conveys intent, demonstrates craftsmanship, and exhibits originality:
- With limited guidance, convey expressive intent for a specific purpose by presenting a final version of personal musical ideas to peers or informal audiences.
Select varied musical works to present based on interest, knowledge, technical skill, and context:
- With limited guidance, demonstrate and discuss personal reasons for selecting musical ideas that represent expressive intent.
Analyze the structure and context of varied musical works and their implications for performance:
- With limited guidance, demonstrate knowledge of music concepts (such as beat and melodic contour) in music from a variety of cultures selected for performance.
- When analyzing selected music, read and perform rhythmic patterns using iconic or standard notation.
Develop personal interpretations that consider creators’ intent:
- Demonstrate and describe music’s expressive qualities (such as dynamics and tempo).
Evaluate and refine personal and ensemble performances, individually or in collaboration with others:
- With limited guidance, apply personal, teacher, and peer feedback to refine performances.
- With limited guidance, use suggested strategies in rehearsal to address interpretive challenges of music.
Perform expressively, with appropriate interpretation and technical accuracy, and in a manner appropriate to the audience and context:
- With limited guidance, perform music for a specific purpose with expression.
- Perform appropriately for the audience and purpose.
Choose music appropriate for a specific purpose or context:
- With limited guidance, identify and demonstrate how personal interests and experiences influence musical selection for specific purposes.
Analyze how the structure and context of varied musical works inform the response:
- With limited guidance, demonstrate and identify how specific music concepts (such as beat or pitch) are used in various styles of music for a purpose.
Support interpretations of musical works that reflect creators’/performers’ expressive intent:
- With limited guidance, demonstrate and identify expressive qualities (such as dynamics and tempo) that reflect creators’/performers' expressive intent.
Support evaluations of musical works and performances based on analysis, interpretation, and established criteria:
- With limited guidance, apply personal and expressive preferences in the evaluation of music for specific purposes.
Synthesize and relate knowledge and personal experiences to make music:
- Demonstrate how interests, knowledge, and skills relate to personal choices and intent when creating, performing, and responding to music.
Physical Education Program
Our Physical Education Program helps our children obtain the knowledge and skills they need to become physically educated. Our Grade 1 programming focuses on motor skills, concepts and strategies related to physical activity, physical fitness, respectful social behavior during physical activity, and promoting the understanding of the benefits of physical activity.
Motor Skill Performance:
- Students will demonstrate competency in motor skills and movement patterns needed to perform a variety of physical activities.
- Demonstrate the ability to stop and start on a signal; combine sequences of several motor skills in an organized way; and move through an environment with body control.
Applying Concepts and Strategies:
- Demonstrate an understanding of body awareness concepts by identifying large and small body parts; show understanding of quality of movement concepts and apply them to psychomotor skills (e.g., demonstrating momentary stillness in balance activities, distinguishing when to kick a ball softly or with force); and show understanding of space concepts by identifying and demonstrating personal and general space.
- Follow safety and age-appropriate classroom and playground rules and procedures.
Engaging in Physical Activity:
- Engage in physical activities when presented with opportunities and with teacher encouragement. Engage in a wide variety of gross-motor activities that are child-selected and teacher-initiated.
- Participate in healthy physical activity, and demonstrate understanding that physical activity is beneficial to good health.
- Demonstrate understanding that different movements are performed by different body parts, singly and in combination (e.g., kicking with foot, throwing with hand).
Physical Fitness:
- Demonstrate understanding that different physical activities have different effects on the body (e.g., running, walking and sitting cause heartbeat and breathing to be faster, not as fast, and slow, respectively).
Responsible Behavior:
- Demonstrate safe behavior for self and toward others by following established class rules, procedures and safe practices with teacher guidance and reinforcement.
- Interact appropriately with peers and familiar adults (e.g., sharing, taking turns, following rules) with teacher guidance and reinforcement; stay on task for short periods with teacher supervision; listen quietly without interruption for short periods with teacher reinforcement; and exhibit self-control in group situations.
- Demonstrate willingness to play with any child in the class; and recognize similarities and appreciate differences in people.
Benefits of Physical Activity:
- Participate in creative movement and dance; identify several activities that are personally enjoyable; and use a variety of means for self-expression.
- Demonstrate recognition that physical activity is beneficial to good health.
Health Program
Our Health Program prepares students by providing them with learning experiences to support their abilities to access health information and services to maintain or improve their own health and the health of others; in addition students will acquire skills and knowledge that encourage lifetime healthy behaviors.
Alcohol, Nicotine, and Other Drugs:
- Identify dangerous household products that are harmful if intentionally, swallowed, inhaled or absorbed.
- Explain that medicines are drugs that are helpful when needed and used correctly.
- Identify family and school rules about medicine use.
- Identify that using medicines requires adult supervision and identifying those adults (e.g. parents, school nurse, doctor, etc.).
- Physical avoidance and reporting of dangerous drugs and paraphernalia (e.g. needles, candy like substances, vape pens, etc.).
Healthy Relationships:
- Describe different types of families (e.g., nuclear, single parent, blended, intergenerational, adoptive, foster, mixed-race).
- Identify the benefits of healthy family and peer relationships.
- Identify qualities that make a good friend.
- Demonstrate ways to treat all people with dignity and respect (e.g., race, ethnicity, socio-economic status, differing abilities, immigration status, family configuration)
- Define consent (e.g. personal space and boundaries).
Violence Prevention:
- Describe the difference between bullying, teasing, and mean spirited behavior.
- Explain why it is wrong to tease or bully others.
- Explain what to do if someone is being bullied.
Healthy Eating and Physical Activity:
- Explain the importance of trying new foods.
- Explain the importance of choosing healthy foods and beverages and daily physical activity.
- Identify a variety of healthy snacks.
- Describe body signals that tell a person when they are hungry and when they are full.
- Identify healthy eating patterns that provide energy and help the body grow and develop.
Sexual Health:
- Identify and describe functions of body parts (e.g. stomach, feet, hands, ears, eyes, mouth).
- Identify those parts of the body that are considered private.
Optimal Wellness and Disease Prevention:
- Identify different ways that disease-causing germs are transmitted (i.e. skin, mucus membranes, coughing, and contact with bodily fluids).
- Identify ways to prevent the spread of germs that cause common communicable diseases (e.g. cover wounds, cover mouth when sneezing/coughing, wash hands, and do not touch other bodily fluids).
Sexual Assault and Abuse Prevention:
- Identify “appropriate” and “inappropriate” or “safe” and “unsafe” touches.
- Explain why inappropriate touches should be reported to a trusted adult.
- Explain that a child is not at fault if someone touches him or her in an inappropriate way.
- Explain why everyone has the right to tell others not to touch his or her body.
- Explain the importance of respecting the personal space and boundaries of others.
Mental and Emotional Health
- Identify a variety of feelings that people experience.
- Explain the relationship between feelings and behavior.
- Explain the importance of talking with parents and other trusted adults about feeling.
Safety and Injury Prevention:
- State the benefits of riding in the back seat when a passenger in a motor vehicle.
- Describe the importance of using safety belts, child safety restraints, and motor vehicle booster seats.
- Identify safe behaviors when getting on and off and while riding on a bus.
- Identify safety rules for playing on a playground, swimming, and playing sports.
- Describe how injuries can be prevented.
- Identify safety rules for being around fire.
- Describe how to be a safe pedestrian.
- Identify safety hazards in the home.
- Identify how household products are harmful if ingested or inhaled.
- Identify safety hazards in the community.
- Identify people who can help when someone is injured or suddenly ill.
Once every three years we provide a presentation to Kindergarten-Grade 2 students on firearm safety. Parents may choose to exempt their students from these presentations. Using developmentally age-appropriate instructional materials, our presentation focuses on the following key points:
- If you see an unattended firearm, leave it alone, do not touch it, and get an adult to put it away.
- Treat every firearm as if it is loaded.
- Never point a firearm at another person
- Firearms are not toys-never play with a firearm.
- Some professions require having firearms; police carry firearms to protect us.
Library Media Center Program
The CGS school library environment provides students access to information and technology, connecting learning to real-world events. In the library, learners engage with relevant information resources and digital learning opportunities. The Library Media Center promotes a culture of reading providing access to high-quality print and digital reading materials that encourage students to become lifelong learners and readers.
Curate:
- Learners act on an information need by:
- Determining the need to gather information.
- Identifying possible sources of information.
Explore:
- Learners develop and satisfy personal curiosity by:
- Reading widely and deeply in multiple formats and write and create for a variety of purposes.
Engage:
- Learners follow ethical and legal guidelines for gathering and using information by:
- Responsibly applying information, technology, and media to learning.
- Understanding the ethical use of information, technology, and media.
Share:
- Learners responsibly, ethically, and legally share new information with a global community by:
- Disseminating new knowledge through means appropriate for the intended audience.
Information Strategies:
- With assistance, identify and begin using age-appropriate search engines and directories, students will:
- Understand and demonstrate a command of information skills and strategies to locate and effectively use print, non-print resources to solve problems and conduct research.
- Use the online catalog (or card catalog) to identify materials by author, title or subject, including cross references and locate resources in appropriate areas of the library media center (e.g., easy section or reference),
- Locate and use table of contents and index in nonfiction materials,
- Identify print and non-print characteristics, organizing features (e.g., table of contents, index), and purposes.
Social Emotional Learning
Second Step is a universal, classroom-based, social-emotional learning curriculum for Kindergarten–Grade 5 that nurtures children’s social-emotional competence and foundational learning skills.
Unit 1
Skills for Learning
- Learning to Listen
- Focusing Attention
- Following Directions
- Self-Talk for Staying on Task
- Being Assertive
Unit 2
Empathy
- Identifying Feelings
- Looking for More Clues
- Similarities and Differences
- Feelings Change
- Accidents
- Showing Care and Concern
Unit 3
Emotion Management
- Identifying Our Own Feelings
- Strong Feelings
- Calming Down Anger
- Self-Talk for Calming Down
- Managing Worry
Unit 4
Problem Solving
- Solving Problems, Part 1
- Solving Problems, Part 2
- Fair Ways to Play
- Inviting to Join In
- Handling Name-Calling
- Reviewing Second Step Skill