Religion
Children explore the Sunday worship experience and learn the meaning of the signs and events they may witness. Basic overview of liturgy and prayer is presented. Students learn about God, the Father, as presented by Jesus. The father’s love and goodness are highlighted. Students understand that Jesus is God’s greatest gift to us and that Jesus is present in the Eucharist. Scripture stories about the promise of the Holy Spirit and the action of the Spirit are presented. These stories show the relationship of the Holy Spirit to the Father, and the Son, as well as the role the Spirit plays in the life of the Church and in every person. The beginnings of the Church, which Jesus founded, are presented through Scripture stories and liturgical passages. Emphasis is placed on the concept of Church as the center of action for those who are dedicated to living the Gospel.
Math
The children are presented with activities to help understand and record addition with sums through 20. Subtraction and ways to model, record and use it is introduced. Opportunities to collect and organize data, and to make and interpret graphs are presented. Numbers through 100, place value, and number patterns are introduced. The students will review of coin names and values, as well as determining amounts in groups of coins. They will work with positions, plane and solid shapes, fractions, and probability. A variety of measurement attributes and corresponding tools are introduced. Time telling and calendars are presented. Finally, the students are given opportunities to understand and practice addition and subtraction of two-digit numbers.
Handwriting
The students will review number and letter discrimination, spatial relationships, and position vocabulary. Lower-case alphabet and common stroke families are introduced. Opportunities are given to trace and write letters and words. The students will associate a specific number of objects with the numerical symbols and then will identify, trace, and write numbers 1 through 12 and words one through twelve. Upper-case alphabet and common stroke families are taught. Continued practice in tracing and writing letters, words, phrases, and sentences are provided.
Phonics
The students will be introduced to and will work to distinguish between the sound associations for the consonant letters and the short and long vowels. As sounds are added, students will begin to blend the sounds vowels and consonants stand for. Students are introduced to and learn to apply the concepts of consonant blends and the sound of y as a vowel. Consonant digraphs, words with inflectional endings and contractions are introduced and applied. Opportunities are given for students to use the words they know to write sentences and take-home books are given to review what they are learning.
Science
Students will learn to use their five senses to group and compare living and non-living things. The concept is presented that living things, such as plants and animals, have characteristics that help us group them. Students also learn about how they grow and what they need. Students will gain the knowledge that living things are suited to live in certain environments and the living things within an environment are interdependent. Students will recognize that the Earth is composed of land, water, and surrounding atmosphere. Students will learn that changes in the weather occur daily and seasonally, and that these changes can be observed, measured, and recorded. The concept that everything in the physical universe is made of matter is taught. Opportunities are provided for students to learn that heat and light energy can change matter. Students will also learn that everything heard is a sound and sounds can be made by musical instruments. The idea is presented that a force can interact with an object and cause that object to move and that magnet attraction is one of those forces.