Laura Lightner: Curriculum

Language Arts

Rigby Guided Reading – Our program was developed to meet each child’s individual reading level. It is based on teaching each student how to decode words, improve comprehension, and read fluently. I am excited about this program because it allows each student to progress at his or her own speed. Students are taught seven strategies to help build their reading skills.

1. Look at the pictures
2. Sound it out
3. Look for chunks
4. Skip the word
5. Go back
6. Does it make sense?
7. Ask someone for help

Handwriting Without Tears – The program that we will be using is Handwriting Without Tears, which was created by Jan Olsen, an Occupational Therapist who specializes in handwriting. The students will be developing their fine motor skills and learning proper handwriting habits to write neatly and fluently.

Kidwriting – Kidwriting is part of our daily routine during which time we focus on developmentally appropriate writing and spelling skills with attention to each child’s individual needs.

Sitton Spelling – The first grade students will be learning how to spell the first 30 core spelling words through the Sitton Spelling program.

Kindergarten Popcorn Words

a	can	I	my	so
all	do	in	no	the
an	go	is	on	to
and	has	it	see	up
at	he	me	she	we

Kindergarten Popcorn Chunks

-an

-ap

-at

-in

-op

-ot

-ug

First Grade Popcorn Words

a	about	after	all	and	are	as	at
back	but	came	day	for	go	got	had
have	he	her	him	his	I	in	is
it	me	my	of	on	one	out	said
saw	she	so	that	the	then	there	they
to	up	very	was	we	went	were	when
with	you

First Grade Popcorn Chunks

-ack	-ail	-ain	-ake	-an	-and
-ap	-ash	-at	-aw	-ay	-eat
-ell	-est	-ick	-ight	-ill	-ing
-ink	-in	-ip	-ir	-ock	-op
-or	-uck	-ug	-um	-unk

Math

Harcourt Math is the math series that we will be using this year. Click on “Harcourt Math” above to practice math games that correlate with our math lessons. In addition, I will be teaching first grade math to the first grade students in my classroom and Mrs. Tice’s classroom. Mrs. Tice will be teaching kindergarten math.

Social Studies

Houghton/Mifflin Curriculum. The students will learn about families, wants and needs, communities, landforms, what living was like long ago, symbols that represent America, and much more.

Science

We will be learning about life cycles, simple machines, magnets, seasons, senses, weather, and more!