First Grade
Overview
First grade is an important year of growth as students build upon the foundations established in Kindergarten and begin taking greater responsibility for their learning.
At Oasis Christian Academy, first-grade students learn in an engaging, Christ-centered environment that combines direct instruction, hands-on learning, small-group activities, independent practice, and meaningful interaction with teachers and classmates. Students are encouraged to become more confident readers, writers, mathematicians, thinkers, and problem-solvers while developing greater independence and responsibility.
OCA utilizes BJU Press curriculum throughout the first-grade academic program, providing rigorous, age-appropriate instruction taught through a Biblical worldview. Biblical truth is intentionally integrated throughout academics and classroom life as students continue developing spiritually, intellectually, physically, emotionally, and socially.
Bible
Using BJU Press Bible curriculum, students develop a greater understanding of God's Word through age-appropriate study of significant people, events, and teachings throughout Scripture.
Students learn about God's character, His work throughout Scripture, the life and ministry of Jesus Christ, and what it means to follow Him. Bible instruction encourages students to apply Biblical principles such as obedience, honesty, kindness, forgiveness, responsibility, and love for God and others to their everyday lives.
Scripture memory, prayer, worship, and Biblical application are important components of the first-grade experience.
Phonics & Reading
Using BJU Press English Language Arts curriculum, first-grade students continue developing the foundational skills necessary to become confident and increasingly independent readers.
Instruction develops phonemic and phonological awareness, phonics, decoding, vocabulary, fluency, and reading comprehension. Students encounter age-appropriate literature and informational texts while learning to identify important details, understand characters and events, make connections, draw conclusions, and communicate their understanding.
Direct instruction is complemented by guided practice, small-group learning, independent reading, and other literacy activities.
Mathematics
Using BJU Press Mathematics, first-grade students develop number sense, mathematical reasoning, and problem-solving skills through direct instruction, hands-on activities, manipulatives, guided practice, and independent application.
Students build foundational skills in addition, subtraction, place value, measurement, time, money, data, fractions, geometry, and introductory multiplication concepts while learning to explain their mathematical thinking and apply mathematics to everyday situations.
Language Arts & Writing
Through BJU Press English Language Arts curriculum, first-grade students develop the foundational skills necessary to communicate effectively through speaking and writing. Zaner-Bloser Handwriting is used to provide systematic handwriting instruction and help students develop proper letter formation, legibility, spacing, and appropriate handwriting habits.
Students strengthen grammar, capitalization, punctuation, spelling, vocabulary, and sentence development while learning to create organized pieces of writing for different purposes.
Students are introduced to the writing process and learn to plan, draft, review, edit, and improve their work with age-appropriate guidance and support.
Science
Using BJU Press Science, students explore God's creation through observation, questioning, investigation, and hands-on learning.
Students explore age-appropriate concepts related to living things, plants and animals, the human body, matter, Earth and space, forces and motion, and other areas of the natural world.
Science instruction encourages curiosity and critical thinking while helping students recognize the order, complexity, and wonder of God's creation.
Social Studies
Using BJU Press Social Studies, first-grade students develop a greater understanding of their community, state, nation, and world through a Biblical worldview.
Students learn about significant people and events, develop foundational geography and map skills, compare life today with life in the past, explore American symbols and traditions, and begin developing an understanding of citizenship, government, responsibility, and community.
Students are encouraged to recognize God's sovereignty throughout history and understand their responsibility to demonstrate respect, compassion, service, and good citizenship.
By the End of First Grade, Students Will:
Bible
- Recognize the Bible as the Word of God.
- Demonstrate an age-appropriate understanding of significant people, events, and teachings found throughout Scripture.
- Identify characteristics of God revealed through His Word.
- Demonstrate an age-appropriate understanding of the life and ministry of Jesus Christ.
- Identify Christian virtues and explain how followers of Christ can demonstrate them in everyday life.
- Identify ways to grow in their faith through prayer, Scripture, worship, and obedience.
- Demonstrate an understanding of what it means to love and serve others.
- Develop an age-appropriate understanding of sharing the Gospel with others.
- Memorize selected passages of Scripture and begin applying Biblical truth to everyday situations.
- Participate in worship through music, prayer, Bible study, and other age-appropriate expressions of faith.
Phonics/Reading
- Demonstrate grade-appropriate phonemic and phonological awareness.
- Apply grade-appropriate phonics and word-analysis skills when decoding words.
- Read grade-appropriate literature, poetry, and informational texts with increasing accuracy and fluency.
- Ask and answer questions about important details in a text.
- Identify the main topic or central idea and supporting details.
- Describe characters, settings, and important events using information from text and illustrations.
- Recognize words and phrases that communicate feelings or appeal to the senses.
- Make age-appropriate inferences using information from a text.
- Describe connections between individuals, events, ideas, or pieces of information.
- Retell and sequence important events from a story.
- Demonstrate comprehension through discussion, questioning, and written responses.
Math
- Demonstrate an understanding of addition, subtraction, and equality.
- Apply addition and subtraction strategies to solve age-appropriate problems.
- Demonstrate an understanding of place value with numbers through the hundreds.
- Compare and order numbers using appropriate mathematical language and symbols.
- Tell and represent time using age-appropriate intervals.
- Identify and work with common coins and money concepts.
- Measure and compare the length of objects using appropriate units.
- Collect, categorize, represent, and interpret data.
- Develop an introductory understanding of fractions as equal parts of a whole.
- Develop an introductory understanding of multiplication through equal groups, repeated addition, and patterns.
- Identify and describe age-appropriate geometric shapes and their attributes.
- Explain mathematical thinking and select appropriate strategies for solving problems.
Language Arts
- Demonstrate an age-appropriate understanding of English grammar and usage.
- Write complete sentences using appropriate capitalization and punctuation.
- Apply grade-appropriate spelling and phonics skills to written work.
- Demonstrate proper manuscript letter formation, spacing, alignment, and legibility using skills developed through Zaner-Bloser Handwriting.
- Develop appropriate pencil grip, posture, and handwriting habits.
- Write opinion pieces that introduce a topic, state an opinion, provide supporting reasons or details, and include an appropriate conclusion.
- Develop informational writing that introduces a topic and communicates relevant facts.
- Participate in the writing process by planning, drafting, reviewing, editing, and improving written work with appropriate support.
- Communicate ideas, thoughts, and feelings clearly and respectfully.
- Recognize and use age-appropriate vocabulary and word relationships.
- Participate appropriately in classroom conversations and presentations.
- Listen attentively and follow multi-step directions.
Science
- Ask questions about God's creation and the natural world.
- Use the five senses and other age-appropriate tools to observe and describe objects and events.
- Make observations, ask questions, and participate in simple scientific investigations.
- Sort and classify objects according to observable properties.
- Identify characteristics and needs of living things.
- Describe basic structures and functions of the human body appropriate to the grade level.
- Identify and describe basic properties and states of matter.
- Develop an age-appropriate understanding of forces, motion, and gravity.
- Explore basic concepts related to Earth and space.
- Gather, record, and communicate information from scientific observations and investigations.
- Recognize evidence of God's design, order, and creativity throughout the natural world.
Social Studies
- Examine history and culture through a Biblical worldview.
- Recognize God's sovereignty throughout human history.
- Compare and contrast aspects of life today with life in the past.
- Identify significant historical people and events appropriate to the first-grade curriculum.
- Recognize important national holidays and explain why they are celebrated.
- Identify important American symbols and explain their significance.
- Develop an age-appropriate understanding of American government and citizenship.
- Recognize the importance of rules, laws, leadership, and responsibility within a community.
- Use simple maps and geographic tools to identify locations and basic geographic features.
- Develop an awareness of different cultures, communities, and ways of life.
- Demonstrate respect for others and recognize their responsibility to serve and care for people within their community.