What is your first grader doing in school now?

[Mizelenius]

Just looking for a sampling of what 1st graders are working on at this time of year.

[annethcz]

My 1st grader is in a multi-grade classroom with kids in grades 1-3. In this classroom the kids are:
-learning about habitats for science class
-learning about poetry; they just wrote couplets
-learning about Dr. Seuss; they recently completed a group project where they wrote and illustrated a Suess-like book
-learning about different countries; my kids recently completed a group project and presentation about Germany
-yesterday they learned about phone numbers (kids come from a wide geographical area and they talked about area codes and such)

In 1st grade math class they are discussing shapes this week (rhombus, trapezoid, etc.)

In 1st grade language arts they are working on word suffixes this week; adding -ed and -ing to words. DS is required to read independently for 15 minutes three times a week and record this in a reading log. Weekly homework is to read a 'reader' book to another person 3 times and to write a sentance using all 10 of his spelling words for the week. This week's spelling words:
1. fish
2. long
3. such
4. that
5. the
6. with
7. four
8. were
9. cute
10. use

[Mizelenius]

Thanks, Ann!

RE: the math . . .do they do double digit addition yet?

RE: language arts . . .beyond the spelling, are they expected to write things (journal entries, stories, etc.)?

[annethcz]

Originally Posted by Mizelenius

Thanks, Ann!

RE: the math . . .do they do double digit addition yet?

RE: language arts . . .beyond the spelling, are they expected to write things (journal entries, stories, etc.)?

No double digit addition yet.

Yes, they write journal entries and stories, but this is in context of their regular classroom, not in the grade-level specific reading class. Each morning when they arrive they write in their journals. I think DS gets a fair amount of help with spelling and such on his journal entries from the 3rd graders he sits with.

[LynnS6]

Well, since we play "first grade" on an almost daily basis I can tell you:

For reading/writing, they are working on:
Writing informative notes ('morning messages')
Writing descriptive paragraphs ('small moments' - taking one event of a day and describing it in detail)
They just finished a project on rain forest animals where they had to research/write about a particular rain forest animal, its habitat and habits.
They're also working on basic conventions like capitalization and ending sentences with basic punctuation.

In reading they're reading "Frog and Toad" stories as a class.
Ds is reading easy chapter books for 'book club' (sustained reading time)
They're working on suffixes -er, -est.
They're working on spelling words with post-vocalic 'r'
They're working making predictions about what will happen in stories, on summarizing stories and have just started story re-telling (where you include 'all the details', not just a summary).

For math, they're working on coin values, number addition and subtraction up to 10 and basic story problems. Ds is also beginning 2 digit number addition, but nothing that needs 'carrying' yet. He's a bit ahead in his math skills and I need to get them to work on place value with him as he's ready for the concept.

For social studies they're working on continents, countries and languages. For health I think they just finished a unit on healthy eating and the food groups. They're working on their spring program in music and I haven't a clue as to what's happening in PE. (They finished bowling, which ds loved, and they're no longer jumping rope, which he enjoyed as well.)

[mommyoftwo]

This is a fun thread.

My dd just finished a little unit about Jan Brett and they are putting on a play.

In math they are practicing telling time, place value, money, measurement, and addition/subtraction with one two digit number.

Reading both from books of their choosing and the teacher's choice. Lots of reading comprehension practice. 15 minutes a day of DEAR time (silent reading-their choice of materials)

Science-unfortunately practically nothing! A major complaint of mine. They just finished studying habitats.

Social studies-our community, continents, maps

Tons and tons of writing practice-journaling, creative writing, poetry, and typical question/response type stuff.

Mostly we are pretty happy with her education and she loves school. We are constantly pushing to have her challenged a bit more and the teacher has been somewhat responsive. Unfortunately for my dd, the focus is mostly placed on children not meeting expectations not the ones ahead of the game.

Luckily they do get a lot of free time/ outside time.

[Mizelenius]

This is very helpful and interesting-- please keep the responses coming!

DD is in KG now but I am considering skipping her to 2nd for the coming school year-- BUT, I wanted to see where her school's curriculum for 1st fit in with others around the country. If the school were behind, I'd worry that if we moved or something, maybe skipping would make things too hard.

mommyoftwo, re:Unfortunately for my dd, the focus is mostly placed on children not meeting expectations not the ones ahead of the game. I think, sadly, this is all too common. If only teachers would give open-ended work and/or use multiage groupings like in annethcz's case, things would be much better!

[mammastar2]

Dd tends to be vague about what they're up to, actually.

I know they had an author visit yesterday, and they're writing poetry in writing workshop, which she likes a lot. She's looking forward to poetry night, when the parents are invited. They also finished a unit on 'how-to' books recently.

Math, I'm not sure if they're still doing graphs. She was really digging it, especially doing surveys of her classmates and then graphing the results.

Science I have no idea...

Social studies they were doing community helpers for a while, which sounds a bit lame to me.

Music there seems to be a song involving an owl that's rocking her world at the moment.

There's the usual spelling list on Monday, practice during the week, and test on Friday - she loooooves spelling tests, so I get to hear about that.

The things I get to hear about are so random. Right now, I mostly hear about her playing spies at recess, and who was hilarious in the lunchroom...

[sarahmae1]

Right now my 1st grader is doing:

- double digit math (adding and subtracting)
- mathmatical word problems, problem solving
- just finished learning about coin values
- journal writing (is encouraged to write paragraphs using proper capitalization, etc. but uses "inventive spelling")
- spelling test 1x per week on new words
- reading 1 small book per day

[Thalia the Muse]

Mine is in a 1-3 combined class, and she's on spring break right now because it's a year-round school and they have these weird breaks scattered through the year.

they were working on:

• Rocks and minerals
• Two-digit addition and subtraction -- I think it might using one two-digit and one-single digit number, can't remember
• this sort of weenie pattern recognition and set-theory stuff that is presented really poorly and is insultingly easy -- divide the clothes into one group for cold weather and one group for hot weather! Plus graphs. Stupid Everyday Mathematics.
• Reading and writing various book-report type exercises -- they might have to summarize, or list the important details, or say what they think the main message of the story is.
• Right before break, they did a month of writing various types of friendly letters -- to friends, to their teachers, to book characters. They also write little essays in class about the holidays or pets or suchlike, and they have to make little visual outlines of the main ideas before they start
• They have been working on similes and metaphors
• They just did maps

As far as I know, no spelling instruction yet.

It's a lot more than I think we were doing in first grade (half my class wasn't even reading yet, I believe), but she seems to be thriving on it so far.

[FancyPants]

Well my 1st grader has done some social studies (did different holiday customs around the world, a crafted book which they created and copied paragraphs about) and science (also rocks) but I'll stick with the current basics:

reading class - small book a day
journalling
adjectives
endings with y (ier, iest, ies)
vowel sounds (oa ea)
counting by twos, fives, tens

addition and subtraction with double digits (small numbers like 30 and 17)
these are written out as word problems and he has to draw a picture of the
problem, summarize what happened and write it as an equation

we don't do spelling words but the kids have a sheet on their desk of common words to check against. His school is also into creative spelling because of the research that kids will stick with "safe" words (i.e. ones they can spell) and not become expressive in their writing.

[SAHDS]

Originally Posted by mommyoftwo

In math they are practicing telling time, place value, money, measurement, and addition/subtraction with one two digit number.

Reading both from books of their choosing and the teacher's choice. Lots of reading comprehension practice. 15 minutes a day of DEAR time (silent reading-their choice of materials)

Science-unfortunately practically nothing! A major complaint of mine. They just finished studying habitats.

Social studies-our community, continents, maps

Tons and tons of writing practice-journaling, creative writing, poetry, and typical question/response type stuff.

This sounds a lot like DS's curriculum, except they do quite a bit w/ Science - growing plants, learning about animals, studying weather, doing experiments (my son LOVES this).

Spelling tests, weekly, based on groups (i.e "oo", long A, "ing") and homework/reading logs.

Also, they learn how to use the computer. Sure, they play too, but they actually learn how to use it as a tool.

Mizelenius - IMO, this early on, it's never a good idea to skip a grade. There is so much that is taught that they will use to build on later. If something is missed, a child won't have that to draw from and may fall behind. Skipping grades should be done later in school.

Maybe, put her in a different, more challenging school? DD was in private school for pre-K and K (she was very advanced and we didn't want to wait for public 1st grade) and the curriculum was much harder than public. She was reading at 4 (chapter books), writing full stories (original) in cursive at 5, etc. It really just varies.

[mammastar2]

Originally Posted by mammastar2

Dd tends to be vague about what they're up to, actually.

I know they had an author visit yesterday, and they're writing poetry in writing workshop, which she likes a lot. She's looking forward to poetry night, when the parents are invited. They also finished a unit on 'how-to' books recently.

Math, I'm not sure if they're still doing graphs. She was really digging it, especially doing surveys of her classmates and then graphing the results.

Science I have no idea...

Social studies they were doing community helpers for a while, which sounds a bit lame to me.

Music there seems to be a song involving an owl that's rocking her world at the moment.

There's the usual spelling list on Monday, practice during the week, and test on Friday - she loooooves spelling tests, so I get to hear about that.

The things I get to hear about are so random. Right now, I mostly hear about her playing spies at recess, and who was hilarious in the lunchroom...

They're now prepping for a poetry night, when they'll be hosting the parents.

Science they are doing stuff about kinetic energy.

Math they're doing money - working with 1/5/10 cent coins, playing store.

She's bringing home a book each night to read to a parent, and they're reviewing the words they've learned to spell since September, to be ready for second grade. They study them at home, alphabetize them, use them in sentences.

[Mizelenius]

Originally Posted by SAHDS

Mizelenius - IMO, this early on, it's never a good idea to skip a grade. There is so much that is taught that they will use to build on later. If something is missed, a child won't have that to draw from and may fall behind. Skipping grades should be done later in school.

Maybe, put her in a different, more challenging school? DD was in private school for pre-K and K (she was very advanced and we didn't want to wait for public 1st grade) and the curriculum was much harder than public. She was reading at 4 (chapter books), writing full stories (original) in cursive at 5, etc. It really just varies.

I skipped 4th and my sister skipped 1st-- I think her skip made more sense. Skipping early means the friendship transition is easier (though I was always in a split, so when I skipped and finally was not, I did know the other students). In my DD's school, 1st grade is all about learning to read (and DD is a strong reader) so I am not worried she'll miss anything.

I'd love to put her in a challenging school, but that's just not an option. It's stay put, skip, or HS (which is not really an option per DH). Her teacher thinks she should skip, too, so I think that is what we are going to do.

This is a good read re: skipping. (It's often posted by someone else on MDC.)
http://www.nationdeceived.org/

[supervee]

Seems like 1st grade is mostly about reading and writing. I can tell towards the end of the year they are really buckling down so that everyone coming out of there is reading at least CVC words.

Reading: digraphs and vowel sounds
Writing: story mapping; character development
Math: telling time to half hour; 2-D shapes (when I heard this, I thought circles and squares?! but apparently it is more like octagons etc.)
Projects: planted spring garden, started talking about what things are in cities
Art: color wheels
Music: some kind of singing and dancing

Wish we had skipped! DS is starting to get a bad attitude about "baby stuff" (which we will nip in the bud, but were hoping to avoid altogether).

[SAHDS]

Originally Posted by Mizelenius

In my DD's school, 1st grade is all about learning to read (and DD is a strong reader) so I am not worried she'll miss anything.

I'd love to put her in a challenging school, but that's just not an option. It's stay put, skip, or HS (which is not really an option per DH). Her teacher thinks she should skip, too, so I think that is what we are going to do.

That's disappointing that 1st grade is only about reading in her school. I don't blame you for wanting her to skip then; especially if you've already discussed it w/ the teacher.