Elementary 1 Curriculum

Elementary 1 Program students engaged in a combination of independent and teacher-directed learning for which the daily schedule provided the basic structure. Generally, tasks were required of the whole class, with age/ability appropriate expectations. Students were expected to take full responsibility for completing the daily assignments, as well as any extended work projects, thereby gaining independence. Students were also given some homework. For many this was new and represented an important connection between home and school.

Personal and Social Development
A prime focus of this program was socialization and learning how to work and interact respectfully and honestly with each other. Throughout the year students practiced working with partners and communicating interactively in a larger group. A group circle, in which the whole group participated, provided a focal point for many class activities. Held every day, this circle was a regular forum for academics, games, sharing, and conflict resolution within the group. Circle time was a safe forum for students to express their opinions and views, and listening skills were always a focus. As in the rest of the school, conflict resolution was stressed, with guidance for students to use words to problem solve solutions. Students also participated in anger management workshops with Barry Shaw in the fall and spring.

Language and Literacy
Writing was an integral part of the curriculum throughout the year. The students wrote in creative writing journals, practicing poetry, stories, and responses to writing prompts. Six class books were made and each student completed an animal report, story, and poem. During the Zooland Unit, students focused on researching, note taking, and report writing.

Throughout the year, students had lessons in grammar and spelling. During the reading of our daily morning message, the class had lessons in language mechanics including dialogue, apostrophes, paragraphs, punctuation, capitalization, sentence construction, and parts of speech. The spelling program focused on words misspelled from students' own writing pieces, and students had quizzes weekly.

The class reading program emphasized independent and small group reading assignments. They also were expected to read independently for at least thirty minutes per day. Students read in paired reading groups at least once a week. Upon finishing a book, they presented a book share.

Starting in February, students had a one-on-one reading conference with the teacher at least twice a week, keeping a reading log of books. Students read to a buddy at Holton Home twice a month and all participated in the selection of the statewide Red Clover children's Book Award. Finally, students also read poetry at our morning circle every day. The entire class memorized one poem and the class recited it on three occasions.

Another component of the reading program was read aloud chapter books. These often related to our theme studies. Books this year included The Magician's Nephew; The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe; The Hundred Penny Box; Mr. Popper's Penguins; Dinotopia, The World Beneath; and The Firework Maker's Daughter.

The D'Nealian handwriting program formed the basis for the manuscript and cursive handwriting in the Elementary 1 program. Manuscript was reviewed and all lower case cursive letters were introduced and practiced every day. Some first year students chose to use cursive for final copy work as well.

Mathematical Thinking
Math activities occurred on a daily basis with a strong problem-solving emphasis. Students worked either individually or within small groups. The class divided into small groups for intensive math lessons, usually with one older with one younger student. For exploration and review, the children intermingled extensively, sharing the challenges of Yahtzee, Prehistoric Times, chip trading, Ball Park Figures, Multisaurus, Dinosaur Division, and dice games.

The children often used manipulatives when learning new concepts or reviewing. Popular manipulatives were chips and Dean's blocks, used in borrowing and trading games. The class employed cuisinaire rods to learn place value and multiplication. These materials helped in start up activities to introduce the class to new concepts, and students used them independently for follow-up.

The math skills the class covered followed Vermont Standards for second and third grades: single and multiple-digit addition and subtraction, trading and borrowing, single and multiple digit multiplication (introduced), time, money, measurement, and problem solving. Problem solving occurred at various levels and included the skills above as well as the use of pattern blocks and illustrations, attribute blocks and word problems.

Social Studies
Community and friendship was a year-long theme with particular focus in the fall on our classroom community. Many activities were done to establish a strong foundation of trust and respect among the children. They reflected on their shared experiences, explored family histories and established sound friendships. Bi-weekly trips to the Holton Home brought the children into the local community to establish new friendships.

Throughout the fall semester students extended the concept of community, exploring rural, suburban and urban communities. We considered the roles different people play and the interdependence of individuals in community.

In the spring, we focused our social studies on individuals and the significance of a single person's life. The teacher read many biographies of famous people to the class. Historical events, milestones, and birthdays were presented and discussed at our morning meeting.

Scientific Thinking
Students had many opportunities to learn about science this year. Primarily, students worked on observational and sampling skills, using the woods behind the school as our classroom. They used the natural world to inspire their writing and drawing.

The Zooland unit in the winter/spring provided the opportunity to learn a great deal of scientific information about the care of animals, animal behavior, and a detailed study of at least two animals. Students read library books, Zoobook and other animal magazines, and participated in detailed Zooland assignments. The class had a special animal presentation on bats presented by a speaker from the Nature Museum at Grafton.

The children also participated in a school-wide gardening project. Under the guidance of Deb Kardane, they learned all aspects of gardening from starting seeds to transferring the small plants into the garden and then tending to them.

The Arts
The arts were integrated into all parts of the school curriculum. Students enjoyed the art of storytelling during the class's weekly storytelling activities. Science, math, social studies, and language arts all offered unlimited opportunities for artistic expression. Students' projects consisted of both two and three dimensional creations. Much of the art work done in class this year was theme-related. In addition to classroom artwork, the class had studio time at the River Gallery School in Brattleboro. Taught by Barbara Campman, the program, consisting of a five week session in the fall and a five week session in the spring. Among students' portfolios were works of clay sculpture, painting, and drawing.

Puppetry was a major focus this year and included a multi-cultural puppet-making residency with Tamami Saito from October to December. Students attended a professional puppetry performance of "Isadora's Cheek" at the Sandglass Theater. We were also fortunate to enjoy a second puppetry residency when "The Annies" visited us in January. This residency included a puppet-making forum and ended with a "Puppets for People" sharing performance.

Kirsten Peterson taught weekly music classes, percussion, and recorder lessons, and led All School Sing throughout the year. Instrumental and vocal instruction provided opportunities to explore improvisation, rhythm, listening, appreciation and expression. Students also had several opportunities to perform their rehearsed vocal and instrumental pieces.

Physical Development
During P.E. classes, the Elementary 1 students joined the students from the Primary class. The groups met together in the Gibson Aiken center once a week for most of the year (except during our Winter Sports Program of skiing, snowboarding, skating, and swimming). Students practiced specific skill challenges to help develop and refine gross motor control, played games, and did yoga. Physical Education extended beyond the gym to the playground, where informal games were played at recess, and to all-school hikes in the fall and spring.