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It's exciting to observe the children adjust to a full day of school. This includes making new friends, learning to read, becoming more independent, and learning how to cooperate in the classroom and on the playground as they grow in Christian love.

The first grade Bible curriculum focuses on God's faithfulness to His people in the Old Testament and the New Testament. Some of the Old Testament stories showing God's faithfulness are: Creation, Noah, Joseph, Moses, the Judges, Ruth, Israel's kings, and the prophets. Some of the New Testament stories include Jesus' birth, life, death, and resurrection and the early church. Throughout the year we discuss how God's love and faithfulness is evident in our lives. The children memorize appropriate Bible passages with some of these stories.

A large part of the first grade curriculum is devoted to learning how to read. We use the Open Court curriculum as a base. We also use literature from children's books to teach reading and writing skills. The teaching of phonics and sight words is implemented in a variety of ways. Understanding that God created children with different learning styles, we use many methods in the teaching of reading. Our hope is that each child will develop a joy for reading that will extend into his/her adult life as Christ's servant.

We use a form of Zaner-Bloser handwriting method to teach the correct formation of numbers and letters. As the children mature and gain hand coordination with lots of opportunities to write, growth is shown in their writing and handwriting development.

First grade social studies curriculum includes learning about our families and their needs and wants. First graders are introduced to map skills. They will also learn about their past and what it means to be a good citizen. And, we begin to learn about Core Democratic Values.

Students are taught study skills through each area of the curriculum. Some of these skills include being responsible for a backpack and papers each day, memorizing Bible passages, practicing reading skills, cooperating with others and also working independently.

First graders are delightfully creative and able to sustain attention for further development in art. It's possible to make use of several different types of media and also combine media. Art is a wonderful way for a young child to express his or her thoughts, emotions, and ideas. Those expressions are encouraged and developed in first grade art. Frequently art is tied in with the classroom studies; the spring time study of plants, for example, is a good time to paint flowering trees and discuss how unique and interesting each painting can be, just as God creates each tree with its own beauty.

In first grade P.E. we work primarily on the fundamental skills of throwing, catching, and kicking. Playing by the rules and dealing with winning and losing in acceptable ways are also important parts of first grade P.E. In every activity, we try to show we are God's children in the way we participate.

First grade math is taught through many ways including the daily calendar, many manipulatives, learning games, and the Everyday Math Curriculum. Some of the skills covered are everyday uses of numbers, visual patterns and number patterns, thermometers, linear measures, clocks, number stories, practicing facts, geometry and attributes, money, fractions, and place value. Through these skills the children learn to see the order of God's creation.

We study God's world by learning more about weather, sorting by properties, and animal life.

Our goal through music education is to bring your child to understand and experience music as a gift of God, which was given to us to develop and use for God's glory and our own enrichment. By means of listening, singing, creating, movement and manipulation of melodic and rhythm instruments, your child will be led to perceive music as an artistic organization of sounds and silences through an enjoyable exploration of

1. rhythm (beat, meter and its patterns);
2. melody (pitch, melodic direction and shape, intervals, scales);
3. harmony (chords, rounds, descants, partner songs);
4. tone color (vocal, timbre, string, brass, woodwind, percussion, and orchestral sounds);
5. expressive qualities (dynamics, tempo and style); and
6. form (strophic, AB, ABA, theme and variations, rondo, sonata). In this way your child will experience music on his/her developmental level, and in a way which is delightful to the ear and challenging to the mind.

Appreciation of literature is taught through storytelling and reading books aloud for the various genres by the librarian. Children are exposed to realistic fiction, traditional literature, fantasy, poetry and non-fiction. They learn about using atlases, globes, dictionaries, children's encyclopedias, magazines and the card catalog. They are taught how to find books in the library and how to choose a book they will enjoy.