First Grade Specials
NFS Curriculum Update :: December, 2015
ART
First grade artists will be learning more about the oil and water resist process and will create a magical winter scene using masking and salt effects. We will continue with a wintery wonderland theme and learn about tints and shades to end December with a beautiful collage landscape and deeper understanding of light and shadow.
LIBRARY
First grade will listen to seasonal stories including It’s a Miracle, The Boy Who Wouldn't Share, and a Christmas draw story: In search of Yazoo Yak.
MUSIC
Students will continue to sing, dance and play instruments utilizing the philosophies of Kodaly, Orff and Dalcroze. We will be reading some holiday themed books and singing many holiday themed songs. Students will continue to focus on steady beat, quarter notes and rests, eighth notes and half notes. Our December composer of the month is Charles Ives.
P.E.
In PE we will continue to develop our physical fitness and work on muscular strength with a focus on core. This month our new fitness exercise will be stretching our body into the shape of a bridge. December is the start of our basketball unit and many of the classes will focus on various basketball skills, drills, and activities. We will practice the skills of dribbling, passing, and shooting. The class will participate in activities like Dribble Mania and Red Light/Green Light Dribble. Fun non-basketball activities include Baby in the Air and Snowball Alley, as well as a real life sized board game called Candy Land! In December students will again have the opportunity to use the rock wall and the month will end with holiday games and activities.
SCIENCE
December is all about light. We will explore what makes light, and we will get creative with shadows. We will use flashlights to explore objects that are transparent, translucent, and opaque while learning these advanced science terms. Then we will use mirrors to prove that light travels in straight lines and play with colors. Finally we will explore that without light, we would be unable to see at all.
SPANISH
This month will be focused on reading and writing activities using the vocabulary of “las partes del cuerpo” (body parts) and begin to create our “monstruos” (monsters). Students will create imagined monsters with various quantities of body parts. They will then describe their monster using the verb “tener” (to have). Working on our projects and discussing “La Navidad”(Christmas) and “Januca” (Hanukkah) in Spanish will take us through to the New Year.