Reading

Unit 1: Building Our Reading Habits

In this unit, students will revisit all the strategies learned in kindergarten that help them become avid readers with the ultimate goal for students to become active problem solvers while reading more challenging books. They will spend some time learning the procedures needed to read independently and build upon the habits of discussion to engage in productive and meaningful conversations about books with their peers. Students will learn to set goals and build stamina. In addition to using what they already know about letters, sounds, patterns, and trick words to decode new words, students will learn how to visualize, predict, and monitor for understanding as well as be introduced to the concept of fluency.

Unit 2: Exploring Nonfiction

This unit will help students apply all they know about reading to nonfiction texts. Teachers will guide students on how to approach nonfiction text as well as study text features to understand content specific words and learn more about a topic. As the unit progresses, it is important to support readers in their knowledge of vocabulary as well as their ability to word solve. In the first module of the unit, students will learn basic ways to approach informational books and how to navigate through various text features. They will use knowledge from sneak peeks, stop and study a page to find more details and information, slow down in their reading to name what might come next, discuss pages and infer what has already occurred or will happen afterward. They will reread to remember the whole book and how the parts piece together. Students will understand that expression and fluency assist in the ability to comprehend and recall information from their books. In the second module, students will learn how to take on new words in content areas by being persistent, using decoding strategies, slowing down to check for accuracy, identifying new words, thinking about what they mean, and understanding keywords in nonfiction. In module three, students will learn how to gather as much information as they can from the words and pictures by utilizing nonfiction text features. Throughout the unit, students will be learning about space through non-fiction read-alouds and the Magic Treehouse text, Midnight on the Moon. Throughout this exploration of space, teachers will model how to capture interesting information in their notebooks to set students up for this work in unit 3. As a culminating activity, students will discuss what was most fascinating about this topic and collaborate with peers to create a class book or flipgrid with this information.

Unit 3: Reading to Understand

This unit focuses on understanding the importance of reading fluently and its impact on comprehension, identifying and capturing the important ideas in fiction stories to effectively retell them, learning strategies for retelling nonfiction texts accurately, and developing skills in capturing and organizing students' own ideas in a notebook. Key concepts include reading fluency, with an emphasis on its definition, significance, and techniques to improve it; retelling fiction, which involves identifying main ideas, characters, settings, and plot; retelling nonfiction, which involves summarizing key points, main ideas, and supporting details; and note-taking, which involves organizing thoughts and ideas in a structured manner. In the final module of this unit, students will engage in a theatrical retell of a favorite fiction story to more deeply understand the characters in the text.

Unit 4: Studying Characters and Their Stories

This unit focuses on deepening students' understanding of character development in fiction and applying these insights to nonfiction texts, specifically biographies. Students will explore how characters change and grow, develop their opinions about texts, and engage in collaborative discussions. In the final module, students will become experts about an important person in the history of the United States. They will work to create a class timeline of America, including the person they studied and a fact of their choice. Finally the students will choose one of the people they have learned about and create a Flipgrid sharing why they feel this person is impactful on the world. This will help develop oral language and speaking/listening skills for the students.

 

Writing

Unit 1: Writing Our Hearts Out

Students will be inspired to write by immersing themselves in a variety of texts. Students will be exploring the purposes of these types of texts in books, food containers, cards, posters, menus, etc. Students will explore their world and bring in writing they find anywhere else in their lives. They will use these collected resources to create inspiration boards to help them brainstorm what they can write about. Throughout the unit, students will not be limited to any genre of writing. The goal is for students to play around with written expression and learn to enjoy the writing process.

Unit 2: Expertise Books

In this writing unit, writers will learn to develop their ideas and create a plan for their work. They'll focus on using both images and words to teach their readers effectively, ensuring their message is clear. Writers will also engage in giving and receiving feedback from their peers to improve their writing. Additionally, they will work on making their writing easy to read, emphasizing clarity and presentation.

Unit 3: Reviews

Students will learn how to write reviews on a variety of topics. Children have natural likes and dislikes, their favorites and their least favorites, and will use these to spark ideas and audience-based writing. When you think about it, most of us turn to such writing for making decisions about books, restaurants, trips, movies, etc. These can be the topics that first graders write their reviews about as well.

Unit 4: Personal Narratives + Research Clubs

Students will learn how to generate ideas from their own life experiences, which will eventually become a personal narrative. They will learn the difference between a “big moment” and a “small moment” (seed idea) story as well as the steps that should be taken in order to develop a story. Students will learn to create a strong lead and an effective ending. They will also write with dialogue, thoughts, details, and feelings to enhance their writing. Students are learning to revise their writing by using checklists and rubrics to assess their writing. Students will learn to write independently, using the skills learned in class. They will use the knowledge they gained from this writing piece and will transfer those skills to later pieces.

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Math

Unit 1: Addition and Subtraction Concepts

In this unit, students will extend understanding of base-ten notation by using place value to find the values of numbers and describe numbers in different ways. Teachers will begin modeling a 2-digit number with base-ten blocks to build understanding that a 2-digit number can be named in its expanded form as the sum of its tens and ones.

Unit 2: Addition and Subtraction Strategies and Relationships

In this unit, students will use addition strategies such as applying the Associative Property, doubles, doubles plus 1 and make a ten to add. They will also use their knowledge of related addition and subtraction facts when they use addition to solve subtraction. Students will use concrete references such as connecting cubes to communicate to their peers about related facts, different ways to build numbers, and the Commutative Property of Addition.

Unit 3: Numbers and Operations in Base 10

In this unit, students will model, count, and group to develop their understanding of place value. They apply their knowledge to solve addition and subtraction problems that strengthen place value concepts as they group tens with tens and ones with ones. Students will also deepen their understanding and use of language such as “is greater than,” “is less than,” and “is equal to” is as they learn to relate, compare, and order numbers. Students will also use a variety of formal and informal models (e.g., writing equations, using counting chips, developing their own drawings) to complete two digit addition and subtraction.

Unit 4: Measurement and Data

In this unit, students will explore the attribute of length, first using informal or nonstandard tools to represent the attribute of length. These tools include objects such as connecting cubes and paper clips. Students will also use bar graphs and picture graphs to provide opportunities to discuss the story the data tell by posing questions, collecting, organizing, representing, and analyzing data

Unit 4: Geometry

In this unit, students will classify shapes several ways. For example, all cubes are rectangular prisms because cubes must have all square flat surfaces, and squares are rectangles. They will also compose and decompose shapes. Additionally, students will focus on attributes such as straight sides and the number of vertices. 

 

Social Studies

Unit 1: Rules, Laws + Democratic Principals

In this unit, students will explore how individuals work with different levels of government to make rules by collaborating with their teacher to create classroom rules. They will learn the importance of personal and civic responsibilities in a democratic society, particularly the duty of citizens to follow laws. Through creating fair and respectful rules, students will understand how democratic principles such as equality, fairness, and respect for authority shape individuals and communities. They will also study national symbols like the bald eagle, American flag, Statue of Liberty, and Liberty Bell to understand how these symbols reflect American values and principles. Additionally, students will explore how historical symbols, monuments, and holidays embody the shared values, principles, and beliefs that define the American identity.

Unit 2: Economic Ways of Thinking

In this unit, students will explore the impact of scarcity on the choices people make when resources are limited. They will learn how supply and demand influence the price and production of goods and services. The unit will also cover why trade occurs between countries, highlighting the exchange of goods and services across borders. Additionally, students will examine various methods of exchanging goods and services, both in the present and historically, including purchasing, borrowing, and bartering.

Unit 3: Yesterday, Today + Tomorrow

In this unit, students will use multiple sources to create a chronological sequence of events that explains how and why their community has changed over time. By using a timeline of important events, they will make inferences about the broader "big picture" of history and how past events, individuals, and innovations continue to influence our lives today. Students will also explore how stereotyping and prejudice, both in the past and present, can lead to conflict. Additionally, they will examine regional folk heroes, stories, and songs to infer how these cultural elements have shaped the development of a community's history.

Unit 4: Around Our World

In this unit, students will identify examples of geospatial data, such as landmarks on the school grounds or the spatial arrangement of seats in the classroom. They will explore how human activities, like transportation, housing, and dietary needs, impact the cultural and environmental characteristics of different places and regions. Students will also identify the cultural and environmental features of various regions in New Jersey and across the United States. Furthermore, they will learn to explain why and how people, goods, and ideas move from one place to another.

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Science

Unit 1: Earth + Space Science

In this unit of study, students observe, describe, and predict some patterns of the movement of objects in the sky. Throughout the unit students look for patterns as they plan and carry out investigations and analyze and interpret data.

Unit 2: Life Science

In this unit of study, students observe organisms in order to recognize that many types of young plants and animals are like, but not exactly the same as, their parents. Students also observe how organisms use their external parts to help them survive, grow, and meet their needs, and how the behaviors of parents and offspring help offspring survive. Throughout the unit, students will look for patterns; obtain, evaluate, and communicate information; and construct explanations.

Unit 3: Waves

In this unit of study, students plan and conduct investigations and make observations as they explore sound and light energy. Students describe the relationships between sound and vibrating materials and the availability of light and the ability to see objects. They also investigate the effect on a beam of light when objects made of different materials are placed in its path. Throughout the unit, students will use their observations and data as evidence to determine cause-and-effect relationships in the natural world.