First and Second Grade are exciting years, where children become students. They form feelings about their abilities as students, develop lifelong study and work habits and develop an attitude towards school, which often lasts throughout their school years. The curriculum below was designed to allow students to learn in the most exciting manner, while still allowing them to develop the skills that they require to become strong students with effective and necessary skills.
SECULAR CURRICULUM CONTENT AREAS
MATHEMATICS
Our comprehensive program allows students to learn critical first and second grade skills in highly stimulating, organized, systematic and attractive books and using their own math manipulative kits. Upon completion of this program, children will have a wide variety of skills and strategies and will be highly prepared for the next level of math skills. Our program will focus on: Addition,Subtraction, Justifying Answers, Graphing Data,Compare and Order Whole Numbers,Inverse Relationship Between Addition and Subtraction,Money,Identify Plane Shapes and Solid ShapesFractions and Probability,Addition and Subtraction Facts,Measuring and Comparing Length, Weight, and Capacity,Finding Time Intervals, Adding and Subtracting Two-Digit Numbers and Money Amounts, Geometry, Place Value, and even Algebra.
LANGUAGE ARTS
Reading: Our program will systematically teach children how to decode, but while doing so incorporate exercises to strengthen so many other language skills. It will take a holistic approach to language arts, which will allow children to strengthen comprehension skills, gain an appreciation for literature, grammar, spelling, vocabulary and so much more.
Literature: Teachers will help instill a love of reading and an appreciation of literature by exposing students to a wide variety of written work including read-alouds, Author Studies, Poems, Shared Readings and exposure to appropriate newspapers/ magazines.
Writing: Writing will be taught using the Writer’s Workshop process, a teaching technique that invites students to write by making the process a meaningful part of the classroom curriculum.
Spelling: In addition to the spelling rules learned through the structured reading program, students will learn the highest frequency words. These words will be introduced gradually and added to the Word Wall as they are taught.
SCIENCE
Our science program will teach students to think like scientists and provides them with an extensive knowledge of different areas of science. Children will investigate materials constructively during free exploration and in a guided discovery mode, solve problems through trial and error, develop persistence in tackling a problem, explore concepts, record observations, explore and describe variables and acquire a vocabulary that pertains to the content area they are studying. The first and second grade science curriculums will cover physical, biological and environmental sciences.
SOCIAL STUDIES
Social studies will be taught throughout the year, tying into Jewish themes and values. Children will explore units about Earth, community, history, economics and government. In First Grade the children will explore people, places and environments. In Second Grade the students will explore culture, time, continuity and change.