First Grade - Hebrew

 

First grade is a wonderful year, full of new beginnings.  From the moment your child enters our classroom it is our responsibility to ensure that each child has a positive, warm, and educational year.   While building our students positive outlook to learning they are being introduced to many new concepts and skills that will help them throughout their school years and the rest of their lives. Learning is always fun in first grade.  

 

The following are skills that we cover:

 

Kriyah:

One of the most crucial skills taught in first grade is Kriyah.  Students enter first grade knowing the basics of the Alef Bet and vowel decoding.  We build upon this knowledge ensuring that each child becomes a confident and fluent reader.  After assessing our students to find their current reading level, we begin by reviewing the letters followed by the vowels.  We then move on to specific reading rules such as tricky, similar letter, silent letters, special syllables, and Shva rules.  All this is taught with fluency in mind.  Kriyah is taught by using all the modalities in order to reach all different types of learners.  Visual aids, hands-on games, and songs, help ensure that our students leave first grade reading and loving it.

 

Ktiva:

Script letters, the most common form of writing, is taught in first grade using a multi-sensory approach.  Time is spent making sure that each student learns how to form each letter correctly.  We also focus on the proper way to hold a pencil and paper while writing.  The smiles on our students’ faces when shown their work from the beginning of the year compared to the end of the year is indescribable.

 

Lashon:

Lashon is an exciting part of our day as well.  The Hebrew language comes alive while mastering Poalim (action words), Zachor and Nekava (male and female), sentence structure, the different seasons, Chagim (holidays), Parsha etc.  It is amazing to see the growth in our students when they leave first grade knowing how to write complete paragraphs in Ivrit.

 

Tefilla:

A highly anticipated time of the year is when our students receive their very own Siddur. Every student gets a chance to shine in our Siddur play.  Tefilla is an integral part of a Jew’s life and we wish to instill this into our students' hearts while they are young.

 

Our students are taught the proper respect they must have for Tefilla, the meaning of the Tefillot and how they apply this to their lives.  Time is spent reading from their Siddur as they become familiar with the Tefillot we say each day.  We are so proud to hear how beautiful our students pray even when they are outside the classroom setting.

 

First Grade - English

 

A major goal in the first-grade classroom is to extend students’ abilities to work independently and in groups. These important life skills are taught in the context of the classroom community as children are working independently, learning in new ways, organizing their daily work and assuming initiative to seek help when needed.

 

First grade is the gateway to literacy. As the year progresses, first graders read with more fluency and write with more confidence, moving into conventional spelling as they gain experience as readers and writers. During this year of exploration, first graders also develop a mathematical number sense, an understanding of the scientific process and an appreciation of the culture of the world around them.

 

The first-grade student will learn to read and write with accuracy by means of basic sight vocabulary words, using phonics, grammar and context clues to decipher and understand new words.

 

They will learn comprehension strategies to recall facts and information, predict outcomes, identify main ideas, make inferences and draw conclusions.

 

In first grade, mathematics instruction will focus on developing understanding of and strategies for addition and subtraction, patterns, basic geometric shapes, and more. The children will develop an understanding of whole number relationships and place value, including grouping in tens and ones. They will be introduced to measurement and data such as length units, how to tell and write time as well as units of currency.

 

Science education will encourage an attitude of inquiry in the world around us, excite an interest in the nature and process of science and explore the relationship of science to society, technology, mathematics and other disciplines.