Grade 1

First Grade Overview

First Grade ELA:  

The Wit & Wisdom curriculum by Great Minds is a comprehensive English Language Arts (ELA) program that emphasizes knowledge-building through rich content, high-quality texts, and integrated literacy instruction. For Grade 1, the curriculum focuses on helping students develop foundational reading and writing skills while building knowledge across subjects such as history, science, and the arts. 

Key Components:

1. Focus on Knowledge-Building:

   • Grade 1 modules center around rich themes such as community, stories, and the natural world. Students explore these themes through carefully selected texts that engage their curiosity and enhance their understanding of the world.
      

2. Texts:

   • Students read a combination of fiction, nonfiction, poetry, and visual art. These texts are chosen to inspire critical thinking and discussions while supporting reading development.
      

3. Integrated Literacy Skills:

   • Phonics, vocabulary, grammar, and spelling are seamlessly integrated into reading, writing, speaking, and listening activities.

4. Writing:

   • Students begin to develop their writing skills by responding to texts, forming sentences, and participating in shared writing experiences. The program includes practice in narrative, opinion, and informational writing.
      

5. Speaking and Listening:

   • First graders engage in structured conversations, answer questions, and participate in discussions about the texts they read, fostering strong oral language skills.
      

6. Art and Knowledge Integration:

   • Visual art is incorporated to deepen understanding of the themes and topics, encouraging connections between the texts and broader cultural and historical contexts.
      

7. Module Themes for Grade 1: While specific themes can vary slightly depending on the edition, typical Grade 1 modules include:

   • A World of Books: Exploring different types of stories and the knowledge they bring.
   • Creature Features: Learning about animals and how their adaptations help them survive.
   • Powerful Words: Understanding how language, poetry, and speeches inspire and communicate.
   • The Great Outdoors: Investigating nature and our relationship with it.

Approach:

• Close Reading: Students are guided to look closely at texts to understand meaning, structure, and language use.

• Content-Rich Discussions: Class discussions encourage students to think critically and articulate their thoughts.

• Scaffolded Support: Activities are designed to gradually increase in complexity, supporting learners as they grow more independent.

The curriculum aligns with state standards, including the New York State ELA standards, ensuring that students are meeting essential literacy benchmarks. It also emphasizes joyful, meaningful engagement with reading and writing, fostering a love for learning.

The Heggerty Phonics Program for Grade 1 is designed to systematically build phonemic awareness and phonics skills that are critical for early literacy development. The program uses a research-based approach that incorporates auditory, visual, and kinesthetic learning strategies, making it ideal for young learners in diverse classrooms. Here's a detailed breakdown of its key components and alignment to the New York State (NYS) English Language Arts (ELA) Standards:

Key Components of the Heggerty Phonics Program for Grade 1

1. Phonemic Awareness

   • Phonemic awareness refers to the ability to hear, identify, and manipulate individual sounds (phonemes) in spoken words. The Heggerty program places a heavy emphasis on developing this skill through activities such as:

     • Sound identification: Students practice identifying individual sounds in words.

     • Rhyming: Students learn to recognize and produce rhyming words, a foundational skill in word recognition.

     • Blending: Blending individual sounds into whole words, a key skill in decoding.

     • Segmenting: Breaking words into individual sounds.

     • Manipulating sounds: Changing sounds within words to make new words, which is crucial for spelling and decoding.
        

2. Phonics

   • Phonics instruction focuses on the relationship between letters and sounds. In Grade 1, Heggerty uses a structured sequence of letter-sound correspondences that progress from simple to more complex. Key aspects include:

     • Letter-Sound Correspondence: Students learn to associate sounds with specific letters or combinations of letters (e.g., the "s" sound in "sock" or "sh" in "ship").

     • Blending Sounds into Words: Blending individual sounds into whole words, which is essential for decoding unfamiliar words.

     • Decoding: Using letter-sound relationships to read and pronounce words.

     • Spelling and Writing: Incorporating phonics rules to support spelling patterns.
        

3. Fluency

   • The program emphasizes fluency in both reading and writing by providing daily practice in word decoding, spelling, and the use of phonics rules. This repeated practice helps to solidify foundational literacy skills.
      

4. Spelling Patterns

   • Heggerty’s approach involves teaching predictable spelling patterns and rules. These help students apply phonics knowledge to new words they encounter in their reading and writing.
      

5. Progress Monitoring

   • Regular assessments and checks are incorporated into the program to track student progress and identify areas that need additional support. This ensures that each student’s learning needs are met.

Alignment to NYS ELA Standards

The Heggerty Phonics Program is closely aligned to the New York State English Language Arts Standards, particularly in areas that emphasize foundational literacy skills. Here's how the program aligns with key standards:

1. Standard 1: Language and Communication Skills

   • Phonemic Awareness (Part of the NYS ELA Kindergarten and Grade 1 standards): Heggerty’s focus on phonemic awareness directly supports the development of listening, speaking, and early reading skills outlined in this standard. The activities align with NYS expectations that students identify and manipulate sounds in spoken words (e.g., NYS Standard RF.1.2).
      

2. Standard 2: Reading and Writing

   • Phonics and Word Recognition (RF.1.3): The program’s explicit instruction on letter-sound correspondence and phonics rules supports students' ability to decode and recognize words, as required by NYS Standards. This also aligns with the need for students to be able to “read with sufficient accuracy and fluency to support comprehension” as outlined in RF.1.4.
      

3. Standard 3: Comprehension and Analysis of Nonfiction and Informational Texts

   • The phonemic awareness and phonics instruction in the Heggerty program help build the foundational skills that enable students to better decode and comprehend both informational and literary texts. As students gain fluency with decoding, they will be better prepared to focus on comprehension in more complex texts, aligning with the expectation for developing reading comprehension skills as per NYS Standard RF.1.4.
      

4. Standard 4: Speaking, Listening, and Viewing

   • The program supports oral language development through activities that encourage students to listen to sounds, blend them into words, and orally manipulate them. This develops speaking and listening skills (SL.1.1) by requiring students to participate in interactive and cooperative learning experiences.

Why It’s Effective

• Structured Routine: The daily routines and predictable lessons help reinforce skills progressively and consistently, aligning with NYS’s emphasis on building knowledge through repetition and skill development.

• Engaging Methods: The program’s kinesthetic, auditory, and visual approaches make learning phonics and phonemic awareness engaging for diverse learners, supporting the inclusion of various learning styles as outlined by NYS guidelines for effective teaching.

• Assessment-Driven Instruction: The built-in formative assessments align with NYS's emphasis on data-driven instruction to support differentiated learning and ensure mastery of foundational literacy skills.

By directly targeting essential skills in phonics, phonemic awareness, and fluency, the Heggerty Phonics Program provides Grade 1 students with the tools necessary to succeed in early literacy, in alignment with the expectations of the New York State ELA Standards.

Fundations Phonics Program for Grade 1:

Fundations is a systematic and structured phonics program designed to support students in developing strong literacy skills. In grade 1, the program continues to build foundational reading and writing skills, focusing on phonemic awareness, phonics, word structure, and spelling patterns. Key components of the program include:

1. Phonemic Awareness: This is the ability to hear, identify, and manipulate individual sounds (phonemes) in spoken words. In grade 1, students focus on more complex phoneme patterns and segmenting and blending sounds in words.

2. Letter-Sound Correspondence: Fundations teaches students the relationship between letters (graphemes) and their corresponding sounds (phonemes). In grade 1, students expand their knowledge to include consonant digraphs (e.g., "sh," "ch"), vowel teams (e.g., "ai," "ea"), and r-controlled vowels (e.g., "ar," "or").

3. Syllable Types and Word Structure: The program introduces syllable types (closed syllables, open syllables, vowel-consonant-e syllables) to help students decode and spell multisyllabic words. This helps develop students' fluency and word recognition skills.

4. High-Frequency Words: Students are taught a list of high-frequency words that do not always follow regular phonetic rules, supporting students in reading and writing these words with ease.

5. Spelling Rules and Patterns: Students are explicitly taught spelling patterns such as double consonants, common suffixes, and the application of phonics rules in spelling and writing words.

6. Fluency Practice: Students practice reading and writing words and sentences quickly and accurately, enhancing their reading fluency. This is essential for building reading comprehension.

7. Writing: Students apply their phonics and spelling knowledge in writing activities, including dictation exercises and constructing their own sentences and stories. Writing helps reinforce their understanding of phonics rules and word patterns.

Alignment to NYS ELA Standards:

The Fundations phonics program is aligned with the New York State English Language Arts (ELA) standards by addressing critical components of reading, writing, and language development. Specific areas of alignment include:

1. Phonics and Word Recognition (NYS Standard 1, Reading Foundational Skills):

   • Fundations explicitly teaches phonics, letter-sound correspondence, and spelling patterns, directly supporting students' ability to decode words.

   • The program's focus on phonemic awareness and phonics aligns with NYS's emphasis on building strong foundational reading skills in the early grades.
      

2. Fluency (NYS Standard 1, Reading Foundational Skills):

   • Through repeated practice with high-frequency words and phonics skills, students gain fluency, which is a key component of the NYS standards for early literacy development.
      

3. Reading Comprehension (NYS Standard 2):

   • Fundations emphasizes decoding and word recognition, skills that support overall reading comprehension. As students develop their ability to read words accurately and fluently, they are better equipped to comprehend text.
      

4. Writing (NYS Standard 4, Writing):

   • The program’s focus on spelling, word structure, and writing activities helps students practice their writing skills, which align with the NYS standards for writing development. Writing exercises in Fundations allow students to use phonics and spelling knowledge in context, building their ability to write clearly and effectively.
      

5. Language (NYS Standard 6, Language):

   • Fundations supports the development of language skills by reinforcing grammar, spelling, and word structure. The program helps students internalize the rules of standard written English and apply them to their own reading and writing.

Overall, Fundations provides a comprehensive and explicit approach to phonics instruction that is deeply aligned with the NYS ELA standards, ensuring that students develop the essential skills needed to become proficient readers and writers.

Mathematics

Pequenakonck Elementary School uses the hands-on and minds-on K-5 Math program, enVision Math2.0 as the instructional resource within our math workshop model to teach NYS New Generation Math Learning Standards. The program focuses on developing understanding and connects mathematical content and process. Students learn through investigation, small group instruction and class discourse around problem solving and mathematical concepts. The four major domains include: Operations and Algebraic Thinking, Numbers and Operations in Base Ten, Measurement and Data, and Geometry. Students explore grade level concepts with engaging materials, manipulatives, videos, online access and interdisciplinary activities that support student learning. The program is organized to promote focus and coherence each day. Assessments provide meaningful feedback to support student learning. 

Mathematical Practices:

• 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

Some of what your first grader will be learning includes:

• Adding and subtracting within 20
• Using strategies; counting on, doubles, open number line, make 10 to add, 
• Working with addition and subtraction equations and understand the relationship between addition and subtraction
• Extending the counting sequence to 120
• Using place value understanding and properties of operations to add and subtract
• Comparing numbers; 1 more, 1 less, 10 more, 10 less, greater than, less than, number lines
• Comparing and ordering length, measure length
• Writing and telling time to the hour and half hour
• Reasoning with shapes, their attributes and fractions

Social Studies

New York State has adopted five learning standards that are the overall foundation for the Social Studies Curriculum K-12.

• History of the United States and New York 
• World History
• Geography 
• Economics 
• Civics, Citizenship, and Government 

First graders study four major units: Rules and Laws, We are Family, Unity in Community and Economics.  The focus is helping students learn about their roles as a member of a family, school community and the community where they live. 

Some of what your first grader will be learning includes:

Rules and Laws (Civics, Citizenship, and Government)

• Class Rules
• School Rules
• Rights and Responsibilities
• Symbols

We are Family

• Families Alike and Different

• Families change over time
• Jobs within a family
• Family and Cultural Traditions

Unity in Community (Civics, Citizenship, and Government, Geography)

• Different types of communities

• Citizens and their roles 
• Maps and map tools
• Physical Environment of Communities

Economics: (Economics)

• Wants, needs and resources

• Scarcity of resources
• Goods and services of our community
• Economic choices

Science

We use Science 21 as our instructional resource for teaching science. The science program is an inquiry based program. First graders use critical and creative thinking skills as well as problem solving skills to learn about the following three topics of study: Earth’s Systems: Patterns and Cycles, Waves: Light and Sound, Structure, Function and Information Processing.

In our three units of study, first grade students will:

• ask questions and defining problems 
• make observations and predictions 
• conduct experiments
• record their observations
• analyze and interpret data
• communicate information  

Earth’s Systems:  Patterns and Cycles

• The sun and its changing position in the sky

• Shadows; how they change shape and location

• Hours of daylight throughout the year- looking at patterns

• The moon; phases of the moon, orbiting around Earth

• Patterns of changes in the sky: sun, moon and starts

Waves:  Light and Sound

• Sounds; can move matter, can be different and why they are made

• Vibrations; different vibrations make different sounds

• Using senses to determine if something is making sound

• Objects that are illuminated or give their own light

• How light behaves in transparent, translucent or opaque materials

• Materials that will reflect light

Structure, Function and Information Processing

• Animal behavior; how they help their offspring, patterns in their behavior

• Animals;  how offsprings are similar to or different from their parents

• Physical characteristics of young plants and animals

• How plants and animals survive, grow and meet their needs

• Humans; mimicking plants and animals to solve human problems