1st Grade Curriculum

Bible
ECCS acknowledges that the Bible, the infallible Word of God, is our only source of faith and practice and that the chief end of man is to know God and enjoy Him forever.

 In first grade ECCS strives to engage young students in the study of the most well known and basic stories of the Bible from Genesis and Exodus, the life of Christ and the book of Acts.  It is our desire that the students come to know the basic truths of God’s Word and to begin to develop a Christian worldview through the study of Bible stories and the catechism questions and answers.  It is our belief that memorization of scripture, which corresponds with the weekly catechism, fosters an anchor to the truth of the Gospel. Our students delight in prayer, Bible reading, and growing in a relationship with the Lord. Our ultimate goal is that seeds will be planted that will germinate and grow, resulting in each child developing a personal relationship with Jesus Christ.

Language Arts
The purpose of the first grade language arts program is to give students a solid foundation in reading and writing so they can learn God’s truths by reading the Bible. Acknowledging that “faith comes by hearing and hearing by the Word of God,” determines our goal for teaching reading and writing. It is our hope that students will develop the skills to study God’s Word along with other great books in order to convey the gospel message correctly and persuasively to others throughout their lives. Mastery of 71 phonograms is the heart of the phonics and reading program.  The phonics, writing, and spelling programs are an adaptation of the Riggs and Spalding methods.  Penmanship is integrated with the teaching of spelling and phonics. The students begin the year with a limited amount of time using basal readers, but quickly begin reading first grade level classics and the Bible.  Emphasis on the enjoyment of reading and allowing students to progress at their own paces is central to our program. We seek to foster a passion and enjoyment of reading by first reading aloud to students from quality children’s literature and, as their abilities to read develop, supply them with multiple quality reading materials.

Math
We seek to communicate the order and structure of God’s creation through the first grade math program using Saxon Math 2. Building on a foundation of prior learning, new concepts are presented in increments with ample time provided for review and practice. First graders will begin to appreciate and enjoy how God gave us numbers to help us in our daily lives. The students utilize a variety of manipulatives for counting, sorting, comparing, grouping, and creating patterns. Students will count by ones, twos, threes, fives, tens, twenty-fives, and hundreds. Students will master addition and subtraction facts to 18, identify fractional parts of a whole, identify and count coins, and count with ordinal numbers. They will learn to measure by using the calendar, telling time to the minute, reading a thermometer, and mearsuring length in inches and centimeters. They will identify basic polygons and recognize, read and extend patterns using shapes, colors, designs, and numbers. Students read, draw and create graphs and develop skills and strategies for problem solving.

Science
Using the ECCS Science for Classical Learners 1 curriculum, first grade students will learn the foundational facts of science as they explore the six days of God’s Creation. As the first year of formal scientific instruction, it will be of the utmost importance that students begin to recognize that God is the Creator of the world and everything in it. This course will take the young learner through a study of geography, plants, animals, the atmosphere, and space as they journey through the six days of Creation. They will learn that God is the source of all life, truth, and scientific knowledge.  God’s wisdom, omnipotence, and sovereignty will be woven into each lesson. First graders will be introduced to foundational facts of earth science by learning the basic properties and states of matter. They will become familiar with the Earth’s atmospheric layers, and geographical formations. They will determine the characteristics of living and non-living things as they discover what plants need to live and identify the basic parts of plants and their functions. Then students will learn the importance of the sun and its relationship to the Earth.  They will investigate and learn about the moon, stars, planets and asteroids.  Students will define vertebrates and invertebrates.  They will learn the major characteristics of birds, fish, reptiles, amphibians and mammals. The students begin to realize that man, made in God’s image, was the crowning achievement of Creation.

Geography
We use the Beginning Geography Volumes 1 and 2 by Evan Moor Publishing Company as the basis for our program. The students also learn a different state each week and locate the state and its capital on a U.S.map. The students chant and sing to learn the names of the continents and oceans.

History
The goal in first grade history at ECCS is for students to see God’s hand in past, present and future world events and to learn facts about the fifty states, and specifically interesting and fun facts about their home state of Alabama. The students will learn state symbols and a myriad of facts as they assemble an Alabama State notebook. Verses from America:  A Patriotic Primer  by Lynne Cheney are used as a basis for an overview of American history.  First grade students will discover that geography is the manifestation of God’s handiwork. Students will learn map skills, discover landforms, and identify bodies of water.  Patriotism will be promoted as students are exposed to new states each week.

Grammar
ECCS first grade students are taught grammar using The Shurley Grammar Level 1 curriculum. In order to teach and impart the skills of effective communicators the curriculum seeks to provide a basic foundation of effective communication built upon study skills, parts of speech recognition, sentence classification, and writing. Students enjoy reciting grammar jingles which will imprint the building blocks of grammar into long term memory. First graders begin to develop skills of speaking and writing clearly so that they may communicate the Gospel with excellence. The students will begin to understand how to classify and use the basic parts of speech—nouns, verbs, adverbs, adjectives, article adjectives, and prepositions. First graders will begin to write sentences with correct punctuation and capitalization. They will progress from writing sentences to writing letters, paragraphs, and stories. Other language skills such as using contractions, understanding antonyms and synonyms, recognizing affixes and plurals, and using the dictionary will also be introduced.