Primary Learning Community Grades 1 & 2
The Primary Learning Community is made up of our First and Second Grade classes. These years are where our students make huge strides, not only academically, but spiritually, and in our school community. The Primary Learning Community will more actively engage our students in aspects of school life and provide more interactive opportunities to enhance their educational experience. Additionally, by the end of second grade, our students will have experienced two of the SevenSacraments of the Catholic Church: Penance/Reconciliation-a Sacrament of Healing, and Eucharist- a Sacrament of Initiation.
First Grade
LANGUAGE ARTS
The purpose of the first grade language arts curriculum is to provide students with opportunities that will enable them to develop into fluent, lifelong readers and effective communicators.
MATH
In grade 1, the focus is on four critical areas: (1) developing understanding of addition, subtraction, and strategies for addition and subtraction within 20; (2) developing understanding of whole number relationships and place value, including grouping in tens and ones; (3) developing understanding of linear measurement and measuring lengths as iterating length units; and (4) reasoning about attributes of, and composing and decomposing geometric shapes.
SOCIAL STUDIES
The purpose of the first grade social studies curriculum is to teach our children that they are a part of a larger community, and to develop a sense and practice of democratic values such as courage, honesty, and reliability.
SCIENCE
Students will develop an understanding of the relationship between sound and vibrating materials as well as between the availability of light and ability to see objects. Students are also expected to develop an understanding of how plants and animals use their external parts to help them survive, grow, and meet their needs as well as how behaviors of parents and offspring help the offspring survive. Students are able to observe, describe, and predict some patterns of the movement of objects in the sky.
The crosscutting concepts of patterns; cause and effect; structure and function; and influence of engineering, technology, and science on society and the natural world are called out as organizing concepts for these disciplinary core ideas.
Second Grade
LANGUAGE ARTS
The purpose of the second grade language arts curriculum is to develop skills and strategies that will aid the student to develop into fluent, lifelong readers and effective communicators.
MATH
In grade 2, the focus is on four critical areas: (1) extending understanding of base-ten notation; (2) building fluency with addition and subtraction; (3) using standard units of measure; and (4) describing and analyzing shapes.
SOCIAL STUDIES
The purpose of the second grade social studies curriculum is to allow the student to see himself/herself in the larger community and to identify the roles of the community leaders, and to further develop their citizenship skills in a study of rights, rules, and responsibilities of community members.
SCIENCE
Students are expected to develop an understanding of what plants need to grow and how plants depend on animals for seed dispersal and pollination. Students are also expected to compare the diversity of life in different habitats. An understanding of observable properties of materials is developed by students at this level through analysis and classification of different materials.
Students are able to apply their understanding of the idea that wind and water can change the shape of the land to compare design solutions to slow or prevent such change. Students are able to use information and models to identify and represent the shapes and kinds of land and bodies of water in an area and where water is found on Earth.
The crosscutting concepts of patterns; cause and effect; energy and matter; structure and function; stability and change; and influence of engineering, technology, and science on society and the natural world are called out as organizing concepts for these disciplinary core ideas.