Bible Study

The privilege of Lutheran schools is the opportunity to discuss God and His desires for our lives.  At Grace Lutheran School we incorporate the Christian life-style into all areas of the curriculum.  But to help students further their understanding about our Father as well as how we should live our lives, students participate in a Bible study curriculum called Voyages developed by Concordia Publishing House.

 Daily lessons are designed to articulate the path God’s children have taken since the opening of time.  Beginning with Creation, and then highlighting key events from the Old Testament, student dive into the Word, studying historical pinnacles and events that helped to build the foundation for traditions and faith today.  Students also learn more about the Savior, Jesus Christ, including his life, legacy, and love for all.  Memory curriculum is included for first grade, thereby aiding students and families in growing in knowledge of the Word.

 Language Arts

Reading

First grade is an important stepping-stone in the development of student reading skills.  For the first part of the year, focus is placed on developing a solid foundation in letter-sound relationships.  Phonemic awareness is key to the reading curriculum, so much time is spent in this area.  As time progresses, students work more with blends, digraphs, adding prefixes and suffixes, parts of speech, compound words, contractions, and other features of beginning reading.  Reading real literature is an important part of the reading program. Students develop skills in comprehension, classification, and summarization.

Language

As students progress in their knowledge of letters and sounds, their writing proficiencies also increase.  Students are able to practice and apply their phonemic awareness in written form during various writing activities throughout the year.  From books, poems, reports and more, students expand their talents in writing.  Specific emphasis is placed upon developing complete sentences and eventually paragraphs, appropriate punctuation, and identifying simple parts of speech.

Spelling

Continuing on the phonemic awareness theme, the first grade Spelling curriculum is based upon the same principles as that of reading.  Building a solid foundation in letter-sound relationships helps students to identify spelling patterns.  Thus, first grade spelling takes a single sound or concept and develops from there. 

 

Handwriting

When students know how to make letters without guesswork, their written communication skills increase.  Therefore, Grace Lutheran encourages the development of handwriting.  The Handwriting without tears style of manuscript is taught throughout the primary grades.  Focusing on the proper formation, slant, spacing, and hold of a writing utensil is practiced thoroughly.

Math

Math skills learned in first grade are those that students will use as well as build upon for the rest of their lives.  Adding, subtracting, time, money, reading and creating graphs are all part of the math curriculum. The beginning of the year focuses on numerical relationships, followed by beginning addition and subtraction, graphing and charts, numbers and patterns, time and money, measurement, and further addition and subtraction.

Science

The first graders are intrigued by many topics dealing with science.  Hands-on activities to help students gain a better understanding of the topic at hand are encouraged as well as promoted in conjunction with trade book materials.  Some of the units included for the first grade science curriculum include: health, animals, plants, weather, magnets, living things, and land.

Social Studies

Social studies in first grade is just that: studying the social contexts of our lives.  Beginning with the concepts of us in relationship to our homes, communities, state, country and world, student progress into studying various family make-ups, handling situations with others, learning about key events in our nation’s history, and map skills.

Art

A variety of medias are used to give students a well-rounded experience in the arts. From crayons and chalk to paint and glue to tracing and cutting, different items are used to create masterpieces.  Art is also an area where students develop fine motor skills, thus helping their writing/handwriting skills.  Additionally, Art is incorporated to match different topics of discussion or units being covered at particular points throughout the school year.