LFCDS Grade 1 Curriculum

Lower School Curriculum

GRADE 1

Overview of Lower School (Grades 1–4) The Lower School curriculum reflects high academic standards, and our faculty is dedicated to giving each student the opportunity to discover his or her physical, creative, social, and academic strengths. Because social and academic skills are inextricably linked, we strive to create a respectful, safe atmosphere where students can explore interests, take responsible risks, and develop academic skills and knowledge. Dedicated faculty members work together in our state-of-the-art facility to create an engaging curriculum, rich with opportunities for deeper thinking as students develop key twenty-first-century skills: communication, cosmopolitanism, collaboration, character, creativity, and critical thinking.

Students benefit from:  Our developmentally appropriate, coherently sequenced, and integrated curriculum in language arts, mathematics, social studies, science, world language, fine arts, physical education & wellness, and library and education technology.  A commitment to developing important Habits of Mind, critical thinking and creative problem solving, collaboration and communications skills, and curiosity and imagination.  Our Responsive Classroom® teaching philosophy which stands apart from other public and private school programs with its emphasis on a positive social and emotional environment as the foundation for academic excellence.  A faculty who understands brain and child development and works collaboratively to engage students in a variety of learning experiences that encourage making connections, building understanding, and taking ownership of learning.  A commitment to experiential learning where students’ learning is enriched with field trips to Lake Forest Open Lands, the theater, the symphony, and historic sites.  A compassionate school environment that values personal responsibility, diversity, and openness to different points of view.

Teaching Philosophy Knowing the students we teach—individually, culturally, and developmentally—is of utmost importance to us. We also believe in the importance of getting to know their families. We value the input of parents as the child’s first teacher, beginning with intake conferences prior to the start of school when parents share their knowledge of and hopes and dreams for their child.

Two important beliefs are at the heart of our teaching philosophy: first, the social curriculum is inextricably linked with the academic curriculum; and, second, how students learn is as important as what students learn. Lower School faculty shares a commitment to the following teaching and learning practices: RESPONSIVE CLASSROOM®

DIFFERENTIATION

HABITS OF MIND

EXPERIENTIAL LEARNING

AUTHENTIC WORK OF THE DISCIPLINES

UNIFYING CONCEPTS

Responsive Classroom® techniques foster a welcoming, accepting, safe, and nurturing environment for learning.

Teachers promote ways of thinking and behaving that develop self-discipline and strong character.

Teachers focus on each individual student’s learning style and make adjustments as needed to provide support or additional challenge.

Students enjoy opportunities to engage in hands-on activities and role-play experiences that help them understand abstract ideas.

The curriculum emphasizes academic work that requires Ideas are introduced in the context of central unifying concepts or critical thinking, problem solving, and collaboration and has themes to help students recognize and remember connections in real-world applications. what they are learning in different disciplines.

Lower School Curriculum Guide

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Lower School Curriculum

Overview

Responsive Classroom® Approach The Lower School faculty utilizes Responsive Classroom® techniques to create a welcoming, accepting, safe, and nurturing environment. In classrooms where caring communities are created and in which children are valued for where they are on the continuum of learning, students are prepared to face challenges intentionally designed to stretch their thinking and help them develop confidence in what they can accomplish. As students grow and mature, they take increasing responsibility for their own learning, for setting goals, and for evaluating their learning style. By fourth grade, students lead their fall and spring parent conferences, using portfolios to explain their progress, strengths, and challenges.

Community Meeting

Stop by at 8:15 on a Wednesday morning to experience a Lower School Community Meeting, a time when students in senior kindergarten through fourth grade come together for approximately twenty minutes.

The meetings are designed to:

 build community through the sharing of common values and experiences.  provide an opportunity for students to present examples of their accomplishments and work in all disciplines.  celebrate birthdays and reward qualities we value (i.e., persistence, risk-taking, sportsmanship, respect, teamwork, dedication to high-quality work).  share musical and movement selections.

These meetings also provide the opportunity to remind students about important Habits of Mind and shared values that are an integral part of the LFCDS experience, including the value of “filling each other’s buckets.”

Children must have multiple opportunities to learn and practice in order to be successful academically and socially.

Since the greatest cognitive growth occurs through social interaction, various social settings (e.g., one-to-one conferences, small groups, whole class, and team experiences) provide opportunities for learning cooperation, assertion, responsibility, empathy, and self-control.

Inherent in the Responsive Classroom® approach is shared ownership of the classroom community and choice. The year begins with cooperative creation of classroom rules based on students’ hopes and dreams for the year and the classroom atmosphere necessary to accomplish them. Guidelines for behavior are shared with teachers of “specials” such as Every Lower School Have You Filled a Bucket Today? speaks to art, music, science, and classroom begins the the power of our words and actions in making one another physical education & feel good about and respected for who we are as individuals. day with a Morning wellness so expectations The premise is that each of us carries an invisible bucket that Meeting. News and represents our mental and emotional self.

The ways we interact are consistent throughout Announcements are with others affect whether one another’s buckets are empty or the day. Students are read by the children as overflowing with positive energy at the end of the day. taught to resolve conflict they arrive, building Students learn about the ways they can be bucket fillers as well with words and to offer excitement about as bucket dippers. Students come to understand that by filling amends for any hurt the day’s events and someone else’s bucket, they are also filling their own. they may have caused. engaging the students in Teachers use logical consequences for infractions and a meaningful question of the day designed to enhance are proactive about dealing with social cruelty. Students learning and sometimes just to have fun. During the feel heard and safe and understand that these situations sharing that follows, students practice essential skills, are part of growing up. such as learning to share concisely; actively listening with empathy and understanding; asking increasingly complex questions; and making connections with what they hear. The meeting ends with a fun, bonding activity.

Lower School Curriculum Guide

Because we know that choice is highly motivating, the faculty creates opportunities each week when students determine what they will read, write about, or 3

Lower School Curriculum

Overview

explore as well as how they will go about learning and demonstrating understanding. Students become more engaged, productive, persistent, and excited about learning and sharing their knowledge when they have choices. They are also more likely to think deeply and creatively.

Research indicates that the Responsive Classroom® approach provides a more positive school experience for both students and faculty, improves the social skills of students, increases academic achievement, and leads to more high-quality instruction.

Nutrition and Manners

Lunch is included in tuition and, since LFCDS focuses on the whole child, mealtime is structured as an opportunity for children to learn and practice gratitude, good manners, polite conversation, and healthy eating habits.

 Lunches are served family style with six or seven students assigned to a table with an adult or fourth-grade supervisor. Fourth-grade students may sit at self-managed Honor Tables.  OrganicLife provides healthy hot selections, an extensive salad bar, and a sandwich bar daily.

Fresh fruit is served four or five times a week for dessert. On one or two days a sweet dessert is offered in addition to the fruit. A water pitcher is on each table, and milk is also available.  Each child has a job to accomplish so that tables are respectfully cleared, cleaned, and prepared for the next lunch.  A music selection is played during which the lunchroom is silent and the focus is on eating.  On occasion, world language immersion tables provide an enriching, authentic, and fun experience for students. They are supervised by world language staff and bilingual volunteer parents.  Parents are welcome at lunch both as visitors and as volunteer table supervisors.

Habits of Mind Habits of Mind are behaviors or dispositions that we believe provide a strong foundation for success in school and in life. Across curricular areas, faculty members discuss their application and provide regular opportunities for students to apply them. For example:

 First-grade students take responsible risks using challenging playground equipment.  For our early childhood students, gathering data through the senses and persisting are part of the fabric of their day.  During a fourth-grade mathematics class,  In science class, students question and pose a teacher encourages metacognition as problems as they create "fair tests" and make students prepare to share a variety of ways to solve inferences from the results. a problem.  Throughout the Lower School, students practice  A world language teacher asks students to strive for listening with empathy and understanding, accuracy when pronouncing new vocabulary. managing impulsivity, responding with wonder and awe, and finding humor as a community  Third-grade students think and communicate with during daily Morning Meetings. clarity and precision as they write essays.  Students learn to think interdependently, be  Second-grade students think flexibly in visual creative, use their imaginations, and be innovative art class as they determine the materials and during a myriad of small- and large-group problem perspective to complete their project. solving situations across the disciplines.

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Lower School Curriculum

Overview

Authentic Work of the Disciplines At LFCDS, we emphasize authentic learning experiences—ones that reflect critical thinking, problem solving, collaboration, and real-world applications. In order to prepare students for a

university education, a meaningful career, and life in general, we work to develop students’ deep understanding of content and issues and ask them to demonstrate their new learning, not just recite it. The authentic work of real-world learning experiences enables students to develop important lifelong skills and to view The LFCDS House System their education as relevant and connected to Four large flags in the school atrium represent four “Houses” or groups the larger world. within the School. LFCDS has developed the House System to foster connections within the school community. The objective is to bring together the Upper and Lower School students, faculty, and staff for organized fun that enhances each member’s sense of belonging and builds tradition.

 The four houses are named for significant leaders in the School’s history (Bell, Mason, and Farwell) and a founder of the first private day school in America (Alcott). Each house has a signature color.  Students in grades one and five, two and six, three and seven, and four and eight are paired as house buddies.  The House System provides students with enjoyable leadership and mentoring opportunities in a setting outside the classroom.  School spirit is enhanced through friendly House events throughout the year, ending with Field Day activities.  Building connections and developing lasting relationships among faculty, staff, and all students from first through eighth grade, ultimately creates a stronger sense of responsibility for the well-being of each member of the community.

So what does this look like at LFCDS? Second-grade students analyze literature and design open-ended questions to pose to their book clubs. The reduction of carbon footprints on our earth is the focus of fourth-grade students as they develop individual action plans. First-grade students conduct a videotaped oral history with one of their grandparents or special neighborhood friends. Preschool students use cloth napkins for snacks and grow vegetables in their school garden beds. Following student-designed research, third-grade students contribute articles to an online children’s encyclopedia.

Learning experiences like these offer intellectual challenge, build work habits of persistence, metacognition, and accuracy, and engage students in the kinds of creative and critical thinking that will serve them well throughout their lives.

Differentiation Differentiation is the process of matching instruction to varied students and their interests and needs. It is a cornerstone of high-quality teaching and learning and a practice that pervades LFCDS. We pride ourselves on our ability to deeply know our students as learners and to think outside of the box when it comes to approaching their learning in the most appropriate and effective ways. This is responsive education. Students who exhibit academic talent may participate in a

Lower School Curriculum Guide

Knights of the Round Table mathematics think tank experience, read and discuss Junior Great Book classics, and assume editor responsibilities for the Lower School newspaper. Those children who require additional support may receive in-class individual and small-group assistance or instruction offered through our Learning Services department. Ongoing assessment enables us to efficiently and flexibly encourage our students’ interests and to meet their academic and developmental needs.

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Lower School Curriculum

Overview

Experiential Learning What child wouldn’t want to become a toy designer, a pioneer in the 1850s, a travel journalist making a crosscountry trek, a Chinese dragon parade manager or a member of royalty in medieval England? Experiential learning occurs when students investigate and gain understanding through their play. An excellent instructional strategy to engage the whole child— cognitively, socially and emotionally, physically, and

creatively—experiential learning allows students to learn by doing: creating, constructing, planning, solving problems, and collaborating. LFCDS teachers carefully craft experiential, hands-on learning activities that will tap students’ interest and engagement and then allow for divergent thinking, open-ended responses, student choice, and rich understanding. Joyful play and academic rigor can occur simultaneously!

LFCDS ROCKS

The Lower School theme is LFCDS ROCKS! This stands for: Lake Forest Country Day students Respect Others, Community, Knowledge, and Self.  Senior kindergarten students and new members to the School community are welcomed during Community Meetings with a gift of two rocks.  One rock taken from the School property represents the uniqueness of each student, faculty, and staff member as well as the importance of rich diversity to a healthy and vibrant School community. Each individual also receives an identical, polished green (School color) one engraved with LFCDS ROCKS. It represents the significance of shared values and the high standards for behavior that allow for a rigorous learning environment.  A catchy cheer is shared to make the theme fun and memorable. Signs in classrooms provide a visual reminder of our commitment to respecting each other, our community, our learning environment, and ourselves.

Unifying Concepts Unifying concepts provide a structure for organizing and making meaning of the knowledge and information that students learn throughout the school day. Research supports this notion: facts and ideas become usable understandings for children when they are linked to central themes or concepts. Knowing how students learn best, we developed preschool through eighth-grade social studies and science curricula around unifying concepts that build upon and connect to each other. For example, the relationships concept that grounds the preschool social studies curriculum is enhanced by the study of animal-environment

Lower School Curriculum Guide

relationships in junior kindergarten; by the contentious relationships between European settlers and native peoples studied in third grade; and by the relationship between individual and government in eighth-grade American history. At the same time, each grade level represents a new layer of unifying concept that enriches and broadens students’ understanding of it and its application in varied contexts. Unifying concepts are integral to ensuring that students make connections within and across disciplines and topics and, as a result, comprehend their learning experiences more deeply.

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GRADE 1 Curriculum

are popular and often the children become deeply engaged in negotiating the rules for their interactions in Our energetic first-grade students excitedly skip into the games. First-grade students typically like to enforce school through the Onwentsia entrance. Any first-day the rules and routines that provide them with security jitters are quickly replaced by enthusiasm about moving and predictability, so this is a year when “tattling� is from the Early Childhood Center to classrooms in the common. First grade is the perfect time for families to Lower School wing. These eager, curious establish and reinforce six-year-olds are expectations about increasingly independent common courtesy, table in a variety of ways, from manners, and phone walking to class without etiquette, as well as the an adult to completing importance of writing homework each evening. thank you Dip a net to discover and observe prairie insects They love pondering new notes and being and frogs at a local nature preserve. ideas; asking questions; generous to others. and learning through Take part in a Chinese dragon parade and

The First-Grade Experience at LFCDS

Highlights of the FirstGrade Experience

eat Chinese delicacies with chop sticks as a games, poems, songs, At LFCDS, we celebration of Chinese New Year. field trips, and handsemphasize respect and on projects. First-grade Practice the art-making tradition of on what it means to be henna while learning about the culture and classrooms are bustling part of a community. history of India. places! These industrious Each classroom develops children are not as its own group agreement Learn about history by interviewing attuned to neatness a grandparent or elderly friend. with standards for as they will be soon; behavior. First-grade Make a difference by planting for them the process is students regularly flowers to beautify the courtyard for more important than eighth-grade graduation. attend and participate the product. Their in weekly Lower School Experience performance art such as a play, ability to understand Community Meetings. poetry slam, or dance. a variety of points of In late September, there Forge relationships in the school view is growing. They is great anticipation community through House events with proudly carry home their about meeting their fifth-grade buddies. work, and they thrive fifth-grade buddies as Take on the responsibility of doing homework, on encouragement, they join the House word sort, and mathematics facts. surprises, and brain System, a tradition breaks. They are of pairing Lower and beginning to understand Upper School classes. past and present and how and why things happen. Their First-grade students will enjoy several activities each bodies are growing and changing rapidly, and it is the year with their buddies who will be part of their lives year of losing teeth! until the younger students move into the Upper School and their buddies graduate from LFCDS. Socially, first-grade students are learning to develop and maintain friendships. Chasing and role-play games

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Grade 1 Schedule

Beginning in first grade, students follow a six-day academic schedule:  Language arts (i.e., reading, writing, and word study): two hours and fifteen minutes each day  Social studies: three times a week for approximately forty-five minutes  Mathematics: one hour each day; calendar and number sense activities are part of the Morning Meeting routine  Physical education & wellness: thirty minutes each day, taught by members of the Physical Education & Wellness department.  Mandarin Chinese: three times in a six-day cycle for twenty-five minutes, taught by a native speaker  Science and music: two or three times in a sixday cycle for twenty-five to thirty-five minutes, taught by a specialist  Visual art classes: twice in a six-day cycle for forty-five minutes, taught by an artist/educator Each day begins with a Morning Meeting during which time students greet one another, get to know each other better through sharing, engage in an activity, and read the daily message. Each morning and afternoon students take a short break for a snack.

Because we value fresh air, play, and the skills gained through unstructured activities, a thirty-minute recess occurs each afternoon.

Overview  In first grade, students should spend approximately twenty minutes on homework.  There are designated word study sorts to complete and activities to promote fact fluency.  Reading to or with a child daily is expected as it promotes reading as an important lifelong habit and builds vocabulary.

Standardized Assessments

Standardized and normed data provided by the following tools, along with classroom-based assessments, offer teachers a more complete understanding of each of their student’s learning profiles and will guide individual instruction as well as curriculum design.  Three times a year the Fountas and Pinnell Benchmark Assessment System is administered to gauge student progress in reading accuracy, fluency, and comprehension.  First-grade students’ skills with letter naming, letter sounds, and phonemic segmentation in addition to their reading fluency and early mathematics concepts are also assessed three times per year.

Homework

This is the year to set the stage for positive organization and attitudes surrounding homework. Parents have the opportunity to establish routines for when and where homework will be completed; for checking to be certain it is completed neatly and accurately; and to determine where work is placed so materials are ready to be returned to school the following morning. A parent’s presence for answering questions and setting standards establishes homework as a valued part of school.

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Grade 1

Language Arts

Language Arts Overview The Lower School language arts curriculum provides a framework for teaching and learning that is student centered, rigorous, and individualized. Divided into three instructional blocks of reading, writing, and word study, the language arts program enables students to become strong readers, writers, speakers, listeners, and researchers who can think and investigate in critical and creative ways. Students read and write in a variety of genres.

Grade-Level Expectations

In first grade, students work to master the following language arts skills:

Reading Foundational Skills  Distinguish long from short vowel sounds in spoken single-syllable words.  Isolate and pronounce initial, medial vowel, and final sounds in spoken single-syllable words.  Decode regularly spelled one-syllable and two-syllable words.  Recognize and read grade-appropriate, high-frequency words. Learn 300+ new sight vocabulary words.  Read on-level text with understanding.  Read on-level text orally with accuracy, appropriate rate, and expression on successive readings.

Reading Literature  Retell stories, including key details, and demonstrate understanding of their central message or lesson.  Describe characters, settings, and major events in a story, using key details and illustrations.  Consistently use reading comprehension strategies (e.g., connecting, questioning, visualizing, inferring, and drawing conclusions).  Explain major differences between books that tell stories and books that give information, drawing on a wide reading of a range of text types.  Identify who is telling the story at various points in a text.  Identify words and phrases that suggest feelings or appeal to the senses.  Compare and contrast the adventures and experiences of characters in stories.

Reading Informational Text  Identify the main topic and retell key details of a text.  Describe the connection between two individuals, events, ideas, or pieces of information in a text.  Ask and answer questions to help determine or clarify the meaning of words and phrases in a text.  Know and use various text features (e.g., headings, tables of content, glossaries, electronic menus, and icons) to locate key facts or information in a text.  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).

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Grade 1

Language Arts Writing  Write opinion pieces that include an introduction to a topic, an opinion, a reason for the opinion, and some sense of closure.  Write informative/explanatory texts that include a topic, some facts about the topic, and some sense of closure.  Write narratives that include two or more appropriately sequenced events, some details regarding what happened, temporal words to signal event order, and some sense of closure.  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.  Participate in research and writing projects.  Recall information from experiences or gather information from provided sources to answer a question.

Speaking and Listening  Follow agreed-upon rules for discussions.  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.  Describe people, places, things, and events with relevant details, expressing ideas and feelings clearly.  Add drawings, visual displays, or complete sentences to oral descriptions when appropriate to clarify ideas, thoughts, and feelings.

Language Use  Neatly print all upper- and lowercase letters.  Use proper handwriting grip.  Use common, proper, and possessive nouns with matching verbs in basic sentences.  Use verbs to convey a sense of past, present, and future.  Use frequently occurring adjectives, conjunctions, and prepositions.  Produce and expand complete simple and compound declarative, interrogative, imperative, and exclamatory sentences.  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.  Distinguish shades of meaning among verbs differing in manner and adjectives differing in intensity by defining or choosing them or by acting out the meanings.

Lower School Curriculum Guide — Grade 1

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Grade 1

Mathematics

Mathematics Overview The Lower School mathematics curriculum aligns with National Council of Teachers of Mathematics and Common Core State Standards and combines computation, reasoning, and problem-solving skills in a format that ties mathematics to students’ lives. Each year students are challenged with multilevel problems to analyze the structure of questions and discover effective strategies to solve them. Traditional methods of learning quantitative skills are blended with engaging projects to help students enjoy using mathematics for a lifetime.

In the 2013–2014 school year, the Singapore program Math in Focus will be implemented in senior kindergarten through fourth grade. Excellent supplementary materials and technology will be used to enrich and differentiate instruction. We are committed to providing students with a strong conceptual background that lays the groundwork for success in the future; procedural understandings and fact fluency that engender confidence and precision; the ability to clearly communicate one’s thinking with models, both orally and in writing, using mathematical terminology; and the motivation to persevere when problem solving.

Grade-Level Expectations

In first grade, students work to master the following mathematics skills:

Operations and Algebraic Thinking  Represent and solve problems involving addition and subtraction within 20 (i.e., adding to, taking from, putting together, taking apart, and comparing) with unknowns in all positions.  Solve word problems that call for addition of three whole numbers whose sum is less than or equal to 20 by using objects, drawings, and equations.  Relate counting to addition and subtraction.  Demonstrate fluency with addition and subtraction within 10.  Use strategies to compute sums and differences (e.g., counting on, making 10, adding 10, decomposing numbers, using the relationship between addition and subtraction, and using doubles).  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.  Determine the unknown whole number in an addition or subtraction equation that makes the equation true.

Number and Operations in Base Ten  Extend the counting sequence by counting to 120 from 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 within two-digit numbers.  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 using a variety of computation and decomposing strategies.  Mentally find 10 more or 10 less than a one- or two-digit number without having to count and explain reasoning.  Subtract multiples of 10 from multiples of 10 in the range 10–90.

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Grade 1

Mathematics Measurement and Data  Order three objects by length.  Express the length of an object as a whole number of non-standard units.  Measure with non-standard and customary units and represent measurements graphically  Tell and write time in hours and half hours using analog and digital clocks.  Identify coins (i.e., pennies, nickels, dimes, quarters) and understand their values.  Calculate multiple combinations of coins.  Organize, represent, and interpret data with up to three categories.

Geometry  Describe the attributes of basic, two-dimensional geometric shapes.  Develop concepts of congruence and symmetry.  Combine two- and three-dimensional shapes to create a composite shape.  Partition circles and rectangles into two and four equal shares. Describe the shares using the words halves and fourths/quarters.

Mathematical Problem-Solving Practices (embedded within each content strand above)  Make sense of problems and persevere in solving them.  Reason abstractly and quantitatively (i.e., attend to the meaning of quantities; know and flexibly use different properties of operations).  Construct logical arguments and evaluate the reasoning of others.  Model with mathematics (e.g., write equations, draw a picture, and make a table).  Use appropriate tools strategically (e.g., pencil and paper, protractor, ruler, calculator).  Attend to precision (e.g., specify units of measure, calculate accurately, label answers, attend to the context of the problem).  Look for and make use of structure (i.e., discern patterns, recognize and use properties of operations).

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Grade 1

Social Studies

Social Studies Overview An integrated study of the social sciences forms the basis for the Lower School social studies curriculum.

Unifying themes develop throughout the grades from preschool through eighth grade, allowing students to build on the mastered skills and the lenses through which they have experienced the social studies content. With emphasis on higher-level thinking skills that include chronological sequencing, comprehension, analysis, and decision making, the social studies program offers students the chance to pursue independent inquiry, participate in hands-on lessons and projects, and investigate real-world problems. Through social studies lessons, students develop their capacities to make thoughtful, informed decisions. These skills and understandings are essential for participating citizens in our culturally diverse nation and global world.

The unifying theme for first grade is diversity. Students begin the year studying family life—past and present—and their own heritage. Building on the Early Childhood Center’s world cultures investigations, they delve into cultural studies of China and India, with a particular emphasis on families throughout the world.

The year concludes with a first-grade project that reflects what has been learned during the year about how individuals can make a difference in the world.

Grade-Level Expectations

In first grade, students work to master the following social studies skills:

Culture  Describe similarities and differences in the ways different groups of people meet similar needs and concerns.  Describe the value of cultural unity, as well as diversity, within and across groups.

Time, Continuity, and Change  Identify and use a variety of primary and secondary sources for reconstructing the past.  Identify examples of both continuity and change as described in stories, photographs, and documents.  Compare and contrast differing stories or accounts about past event, people, places, or situations and offer possible reasons for the differences.  Use methods of inquiry of history and literacy skills to research and present findings.

People, Places, and Environments  Identify the names and locations of continents.  Identify distinguishing characteristics of major oceans.  Ask and find answers to geographic questions.  Acquire, organize, and analyze geographic information from atlases and maps to draw conclusions.

Individual, Groups, and Institutions  Describe interactions between and among individuals, groups, and organizations.  Analyze how individuals can make a difference in the world and/or change history.  Determine and enact a first-grade initiative to make a difference in the world.

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Grade 1

Social Studies, Science Global Connections  Explore the ways that aspects of culture, such as language, beliefs, and traditions, may facilitate understanding or lead to misunderstanding between cultures.  Identify and examine issues that impact people in different parts of the world.

Science Overview The Lower School science curriculum includes three units of study per year at each grade level that address the three branches of science—physical science, life science, and earth/space science. In a hands-on, inquiry-based setting, students pose questions, explore hypotheses, and form conclusions. Students further their scientific understanding through learning that is relevant to real-life experiences and through spiraling unifying themes from senior kindergarten through eighth grade.

First-grade students develop understandings around the theme of change over time. They study habitats created in the classroom, on our campus, and in the local community; explore changes in matter; and investigate weather and the properties of air.

Grade-Level Expectations

In first grade, students work to master the following science skills:

Questions  Pose thoughtful questions about the world.

Observation  Recognize the need to observe, record, and measure.  Use numbers to represent a physical quantity.  Observe, describe, and record the properties of living and non-living things.  Observe, describe, and record change over time.

Communication  Construct precise scientific drawings and/or representations of events.  Record written predictions, observations, and results in a journal and on record sheets, class charts, and brainstorming lists.  Synthesize classroom discussion and offer meaningful contributions.

Comparison  Make comparisons.  Compare conditions over time.

Comprehension  Identify the main topic, focus, and key details of a scientific or technical text.  Read on-level informational text with purpose and understanding.

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Science, World Language Inquiry Design  Explain fair test.  Identify factors that vary in the situation under study.  Design and implement a fair-test experiment.  Analyze and draw logical conclusions from results.  Make a claim or argument and support it with evidence.

Scientific Instruments  Use simple tools such as rulers, magnifying glasses, and observation boxes to measure the required data.

World Language Overview LFCDS offers Spanish, Mandarin Chinese, and French in the ECC and Lower School. These languages were selected in order to expose our students to a variety of important world cultures and better equip them to meet the challenges of global citizenship. Our design is based on current brain research and best practices in elementary world language education. Adhering to the national standards for the teaching of world languages, we aim to prepare our students to view the world from broader perspectives, compare and contrast languages and cultures, and appreciate the importance of communication in international communities. The benefits of this model lead beyond language learning into the discovery of diverse cultural worlds where these languages are spoken.

The Early Childhood and Lower School curriculum sequence is: Spanish: Preschool and Junior Kindergarten Spanish is the most prominent second language in the United States. Often young children have already had some exposure to Spanish expressions and culture. The two-year study of Spanish provides a foundation in Spanish which will also set the stage for the learning of other languages with different sounds and syntax.

Mandarin Chinese: Senior Kindergarten and Grade 1 Chinese represents the fastest growing Eastern language and may be the most important business language outside of English in the twenty-first century. In addition, brain research shows benefits from the study of pictographic and tonal languages, which naturally develop simultaneous use of multiple areas of the brain, enhancing student learning of other subjects. The two-year study of Chinese enriches our senior kindergarten and first-grade cultural studies, especially our first-grade social studies unit on China.

French: Grades 2 and 3 French is an official language in thirty-three countries spread throughout five continents. While learning French, students discover the influence of French on the English language. This awareness deepens their knowledge of our own language as they explore the multitude of French words the English language has absorbed. The two-year study further enriches the third-grade social studies unit on the French voyageurs.

Spanish, Mandarin Chinese, and French: Grade 4 Fourth-grade students have the opportunity to revisit or become familiar with Spanish, Mandarin Chinese, and Lower School Curriculum Guide — Grade 1

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Grade 1

World Language, Fine Arts

French. In our global world today, some knowledge of the sound system and basics of each language is critical for a well-rounded education. In addition, an opportunity to compare all three languages over the course of a year allows students, with the support of parents and teachers, to make an informed choice about which single language to study in Upper School. Having experienced all three languages also complements the fourth-grade immigration unit and their culminating study of global warming.

Grade-Level Expectations

First-grade students will work to master the following Mandarin Chinese skills:  Counting, describing, and identifying colors of bugs.  Describe their families using “to have” and “to be” structures.  Describe winter clothing and indicate possession.  Request food as if at a restaurant and express likes and dislikes of food items.  Describe motion using “to go” structures and destinations.  Describe their feelings using “I am structures” and ask friends how they are feeling.  Use “going to + verb” structures and future tense to talk about activities outside of school.

Fine Arts Overview Education in the arts is an inseparable part of the education of the whole child. Children learn to express and interpret ideas through observation and analysis of these art forms. They learn creative modes of problem solving and in so doing develop an array of expressive, analytical, and developmental tools which can be applied to every human situation. Students understand the influences of the arts in their power to create and reflect cultures, both past and present, thus enabling them to make informed judgments about cultural products and issues. They also develop attributes such as self-discipline, perseverance, and collaborative skills. Experiences in the arts develop each child’s imagination and sense of personal fulfillment.

General Music

The three main components of the Lower School general music program at each grade level are music literacy, performance, and music listening and analysis. Students learn proper performance etiquette (posture, facial expression, and singing technique) and audience etiquette (active listening, predicting appropriate responses based on genre and venue).

Grade-Level Expectations

In first grade, students work to master the following general music skills:  Read, notate, and perform equal divisions of beat in non-traditional/traditional notation.  Identify and conduct in simple meter.  Explore the higher vocal tessitura through warm-ups.  Identify and perform intervals beginning with fifths and thirds.  Interpret and apply musical symbols such as order of rest values, intervals on the staff, clefs, and dynamic markings.  Execute proper performance etiquette.  Analyze well-known music, lives of, and influences on the musical output of several well-known composers from the Baroque and Classical Era including: Bach, Haydn, and Beethoven.

Lower School Curriculum Guide — Grade 1

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Grade 1

Fine Arts, Information Literacy

Visual Arts

The three main components of the Lower School art program at each grade level include: art production, art literacy and criticism, and art history.

Grade-Level Expectations

In first grade, students move to master the following general visual art skills:  Plan and use variations in line, shape/form, color, and texture to communicate ideas or feelings in works of art.  Draw simple objects from careful observation and practice drawing from memory.  Identify characteristics of color – primary and secondary colors, neutral colors, and color temperature.  Mix secondary colors from primary colors and describe the process.  Distinguish between opaque and transparent painting media and the appropriate use of each.  Explore the relief printmaking process with stamps.  Demonstrate the pinch method of hand-building in clay as well as impressing designs into wet clay forms and glaze application.  Produce a simple tabby weaving.  Identify characteristics of various art forms from Chinese and Indian cultures.  Identify characteristics of the work of visual artists/illustrators including Eric Carle, Lois Ehlert, Antoinette Portis, Ed Emberley and discuss how their work represents their experience and way of thinking.

Information Literacy Overview Library visits and classes are designed to develop two aspects of students' intellectual lives: familiarity with and enthusiasm for literature, both fiction and nonfiction; and the ability to locate, access, and utilize information for the production of original work.

Grade-Level Expectations

In first grade, students work to master the following information literacy skills:  Become familiar with more mature and complicated picture books and easy nonfiction.  Exercise increased responsibility in selecting books to check out from the School’s library.  Develop skills in using alphabetical and numerical order.

Lower School Curriculum Guide — Grade 1

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Grade 1

Education Technology, Physical Education & Wellness

Education Technology Overview Competence in education technology is requisite for everyday work and personal life endeavors. To prepare students for a high-tech and global world, LFCDS’ educational technology program provides integrated instruction to effectively and responsibly access, analyze, evaluate, and communicate information.

First-grade students learn introductory technology skills. Students identify specific parts of the computer as well as the use of icons on the monitor. Programs are chosen to enhance the curriculum and to differentiate instruction.

Grade-Level Expectations

In first grade, students work to master the following education technology skills:  Utilize input and output devices such as the keyboard, mouse, monitor, and printer, recognize and use icons.  Log onto computer using group name and password.  Use directionality keys and develop familiarity with the keyboard.  Reinforce academic skills using software programs such as One More Story; computer components with SRA Real Math Building Blocks and game; Sheppard Math Software, Building Blocks, and drawing applications.  Navigate the iPad to engage in educational reading, spelling, and mathematics games.

Physical Education & Wellness Overview The mission of the physical education & wellness program is to help students develop a lasting appreciation for physical activity and acquire the skills, strategies, and knowledge that lay the foundation for a lifetime of wellbeing through athletics. Teachers strive to inspire a commitment to health-related fitness and positive lifestyle choices regardless of athletic ability. Our goals are to enhance students’ ability to lead, work together as a team, participate fairly with sportsmanship, and develop respect for peers. We encourage active participation from all students.

Grade-Level Expectations

In first grade, students work to master the following physical education & wellness skills:  Develop physical competency in age-appropriate locomotor, non-locomotor, and manipulative skills.  Develop spatial awareness and individual responsibility during physical activity.  Develop physical competency in age-appropriate manipulative skills (i.e., hand dribble, foot dribble, kick, underhand or overhand throw).  Be exposed to various directional and pacing terms and the vocabulary of various physical movements.

Lower School Curriculum Guide — Grade 1

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Grade 1

Physical Education & Wellness  Observe classroom rules and follow daily routines(e.g., listen attentively, follow directions, participate safely, engage in warm-up and cool-down activities)  Engage in and understand the importance of warm-up and cool-down activities that regulate heart rate.  Understands basic health concepts.  Participate actively, cooperatively, and with a positive attitude in a variety of independent, small- and whole-group physical activities.  Recognize feelings that come with failure and with winning and develop appropriate reactions to them.  Follow the LFCDS PE/Wellness Code of Conduct.

Lower School Curriculum Guide — Grade 1

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Grade 1

Resources for Parents

Resources for Parents We are confident that first grade will be a terrific experience not only for your child but for your family.

Beginning with intake conferences with your child’s teacher, an informational coffee in early September, and grade-level social events, there will be many opportunities to establish important connections. As the school year progresses, there will also be several ways for you to volunteer—for classroom activities and field trips, lunch supervision, and in a variety of capacities through the Parent Association and the Auction.

We encourage you to join other parents for coffee and conversation on Tuesday mornings at 8:15 a.m. in the Parent Relations Office next door to the Onwentsia Lower School Office. Also, we welcome you to join the Lower School students in the Green Bay Atrium on Wednesday mornings at 8:15 a.m. for Community Meeting. Take a moment to visit in the Parent Association Office as you enter the Green Bay Atrium from the Lower School.

The Panther Portal (www.lfcds.net), as well as the external website (www.lfcds.org), provides a wealth of information:  Parent Downloads, Forms, and Links: This area on the Portal is filled with a variety of helpful information (i.e., online directories and class lists, downloadable medical forms, information on the school dress program, and more).  Curriculum Review Information: Each year a representative task force of faculty examines and revises a specific disciplinary area of study. This Portal page outlines our curriculum development framework and offers a venue for you to share constructive feedback.  Enrichment Activities/Resources: At LFCDS, we believe that summer is an opportune time to balance learning with a bit of leisure. This page provides information about required summer work, book lists for particular grade levels, mathematics and science challenges, and parent resources.  WordPress Blogs: Many classrooms have a WordPress blog set up, which gives a fun glimpse into the classroom. These are also available on the Panther Portal.  Parent Association Information: This tab provides information about ways to get involved in the LFCDS Parent Association and the numerous events they help coordinate.

We believe social media is a timely way to tell the story of Lake Forest Country Day School, and to that end, the School has a Facebook account and a Twitter account that we encourage you to “Like” and “Follow”! Simply search for “Lake Forest Country Day School” on Facebook and follow @LFCountryDay on Twitter. We have a strict social media policy and never post individual student names or information on these channels. You will discover snippets of all of the great things happening at LFCDS on a day-to-day basis!

Your room parents are available to answer questions and help you get involved, and you are welcome to stop by the Lower School Office anytime. Questions? Please contact the office of the Head of Lower School at (847) 615-6188.

Lower School Curriculum Guide — Grade 1 Rev. July 2013

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