Blog

First grade is an exciting year for Columbia Independent School students and their families. First graders make huge academic gains and grow in their confidence, independence and leadership skills. Parents are often amazed at the change in their children from the beginning of the school year to the end!

 Kindergarten is a year of building a foundation of academic, social and emotional skills. They learn the routines of a school day, the expectations of being a kind and curious student, and how to interact with their teachers and classmates. In essence, they are constructing a learning launch pad. But in first grade, watch out! Your little learner will take off like a rocket. 

 Keep reading to find out why first grade at CIS is absolutely fabulous.

 1. Growth in reading, writing and spelling

While every child works at their own pace, first grade students typically grow six reading levels during the school year. That’s compared to four levels of growth in kindergarten and three or four levels in second grade. Your child will become a confident reader in first grade. They’ll explore different genres and build lots of independent reading strategies, so that by the end of the year your child will love to read on their own and know what kinds of books they find interesting.

 Students will explore different writing styles. They publish their own personal narratives, gingerbread stories, poetry, and realistic fiction stories. The amount of writing they produce is impressive! Students also show a marked improvement in spelling. At the beginning of the year, they use phonetic spelling to write the sounds they hear, but by the end, many students have transitioned to writing that can be read by classmates. 

 2. Developing a Global Perspective

We want students to develop an awareness and appreciation of the world around them, and we do this through our Global Perspectives curriculum. In lower school, this is achieved through modern language instruction, a yearly continent study, and a global focus in many subject matters. 

 First graders may choose to study Spanish or French, and this will be their modern language selection throughout their years at CIS. Language acquisition is easier when children are young, and you’ll be amazed at their confidence with a new language. 

In addition, first graders study the continent of Australia, including an introduction to plant and animal life, geography, art, and even a few unique Australian phrases.

3. STEM skills in the Cube

All CIS students spend time building STEM skills in our Cube maker space. This year, first graders learned to code using programs such as  Kodable, Scratch Jr. and Code.org. They explored programming concepts such as commands, events, operators, variables, functions and loops. Students also learned about energy, electricity, and circuits by using Simple Bits circuits. They built simple circuits and tested how resistance works with rheostats. The Cube is full of hands-on, exploratory fun!

 4. Independent kids

When kids begin first grade, they still rely on others (teachers, peers, or parents) and they very much want to be a part of the group. By the end of first grade, they have become independent kids who are proud of themselves and secure in their accomplishments and decisions. 

 For example, in math, students might begin the year unsure of what the directions in their math workbooks say, but by the end of the year they have developed reading, reasoning and problem solving skills. Even if they aren’t 100% sure of an answer, they have enough tools and ideas to get started and attempt tricky math problems.

 First graders develop many social and emotional skills. At the end of kindergarten, students start noticing others and their differences and taking an interest in others. That means at the beginning of first grade, they are into each other’s business quite a bit, but haven’t developed the tools to solve social problems on their own yet. We work hard to empower the kids to be independent problem solvers, use their words and communicate with their friends. By the end of the year, they are great advocates for themselves and their peers.

 5. Learning about leadership

In social studies, our curriculum includes a monthly values study, and first graders begin to learn about leaders at different levels of community. Who are leaders in the school? Who are leaders in our Columbia community? Who are leaders in our country? Who are leaders in Australia? First graders get a good sense of what it means to be a leader and who are role models they can look up to and pattern their own behavior after.

 6. Terrific teaching partners

Our first grade teachers, Jessica Dudenhoeffer and Lyndsey Hulen, are intelligent, compassionate, and lots of fun! Mrs. Dudenhoeffer and Mrs. Hulen are teaching partners who work incredibly well together. We’re grateful to have Mrs. Dudenhoeffer and Mrs. Hulen leading our students during such a pivotal year in their development.

 First grade is a year of transformation, and it’s a joy to watch. 

 Interested in first grade enrollment for Fall 2023? We have openings! Contact Kari in the admissions office at admissions@cislions.org or (573) 777-9257.