The major academic emphasis in first grade is on developing a student's reading, writing and math skills.  In Reading, we use the Reading Street Series by Scott Foresman.  The children learn to read independently, in small groups and with the whole class.  They work to expand their sight word vocabulary, learn to read phonetically and work on developing reading fluency and comprehension.  In writing, the students work on understanding basic punctuation (capitalizing the first letter of a sentence, using periods and question marks at the end of sentences etc.) writing neatly, putting spaces between words and writing about many different topics, including their own personal experiences and ideas.  Each student keeps a daily journal using words, sentences, drawings and inventive spelling.  They also learn to spell 10 - 12 words a week to help them with their reading and writing skills.

In Math, we use the Sadler-Oxford Series called Progress in Mathematics.  We learn to recognize and write numbers to 100 and learn to count by 2's, 5's and 10's.  We learn to add and subtract numbers to 20, add and subtract pennies, dimes and quarters, tell time to the hour and half hour, use simple graphs, explore shapes and patterns and learn about measurement.  Our Social Studies and Science curriculum is actually an important part of our reading program and is incorporated in our reading books.  We also use our Weekly Readers to supplement our learning. We explore such topics as family and community, the five senses, the life cycles of frogs and butterflies, the weather, dental health and dinosaurs.  And finally, our Religion program is based on the Sadler series "We Believe".  This program involves the children in prayer, music and reflections to help them understand and develop strong Christian values and beliefs.