The First Grade Year

The first grade year is focused on imagination, movement and integration. The day starts with "main lesson" which is a two hour block of time that carries the rhythm and new material of the day.  It usually starts with movement, songs, flute playing, integrative movement, and poetry. After the class has warmed to the day together in this rhythmic way then new academic material is brought through imagination , applied with art and finished with a story. 

The main lessons follow a unit theme that is developed and practiced over 4 weeks.  In first grade the topics are language arts and math and the healing power of fairy tales.  The teacher tells a fairy tale at the end of each lesson - which then is brought back into the lesson the following class by the students.  These traditional fairy tales from around the world carry archetypal importance and are food for the children's imagination and soul.  They are always the favorite part of the main lesson and a crucial part of developing literacy.  The three-day rhythm establishes a habit for much of the learning in the years to come, as a story told the previous day, having been taken into the child’s sleep life, is recalled by the class then developed and explored in the days that follow in a multiplicity of ways such as drawing a picture from the story, writing-related text, or bringing it to life again through dramatization. This rhythm of learning encourages the feeling life of the child to take an active part in the act of remembering.

In first grade, we do not use textbooks but rather through the leadership of the teacher the children create their own books that document all that they have learned. These reflect what they have learned in class and sow the seeds for the children to be active participants in the learning that will take place throughout the grade school years.