Mary's Class - Grades 1-2
“The writing’s on the wall.” Literally. In first and second grade, the products of our efforts are visible everywhere in the classroom and in the hallways outside our room. ( I once had a parent who had volunteered to paint my classroom tell the principal to keep all tape dispensers away from me.) We write a lot! We write in Writing Workshop—real stories, pretend stories, opinion essays, and poems. We write friendly letters and mail them—sometimes to other states or even other countries, like England or India—and we love to get responses! In Science and Social Studies we do research and write reports, and almost all of our writing is accompanied by some type of artwork. If you step into any of our writing classes at any given moment in time, you would see boys and girls engaged in many areas of the writing process—from a student drawing an initial picture in order to focus on a new story idea to a student illustrating the pages of his or her final product. In between those initial and final stages you might see students working on editing their pieces, revising and adding descriptions or details, or typing their final draft into the computer. A primary goal of writing in first and second grade is to develop a real love for the subject. In this regard, students are given lots of choices and initially write rough drafts without being hampered or restrained by spelling or English grammar rules. The emphasis is first on what students want to say. Then we guide them through the rest of the steps in the writing process.
Everything in first and second grade is individualized—from the quantity and level of difficulty of spelling words to Math computation and concepts. This opens up the potential for any student to work beyond grade level. For example, in Math we are always working on computation simultaneously with another concept or skill, like an addition and money combination. Students work at their own pace in each of these areas. If they complete their grade level work they simply move on to the next level. We also use computers, manipulatives, and games to learn. Because the work is so individualized, classes like Writing and Math have at least two teachers available to help.
Many opportunities are provided for children to learn in different ways—sometimes using poems, chants, songs, or short skits. We learned the continents by stepping them out on a large carpet containing the map of the world. We learned the oceans by acting out a poem. Sometimes we go outside to the wonderful park behind our school to learn. We measure out dinosaur heights or use a small swimming pool and various containers to learn about volume.
When we are really immersed in a subject and have worked very hard, we put on a parent presentation. This may take the form of student read-alouds, a play, poem recitations, or a wax museum. Once we even took parents back in time with a time machine!
Although first and second graders spend the majority of their day in a nurturing homeroom environment, twice a week they also attend three specials classes: gym, music, and foreign language.
If you would like to learn more about what first and second graders do, you should really just come and take a LOOK!