Kindergarten and First Grade

Kindergarten & First Grade

Aurora’s K/1 classroom has a full time Lead Teacher and Teaching Assistant.

Isaac Pasternack

Lead Teacher

Isaac's Bio

Cheaunie Sparks

Teaching Assistant

Cheanie's Bio

Aurora kindergarteners have the benefit of having older peers to help guide them, and Aurora first-graders gain confidence mentoring their younger peers.

Our social-emotional learning program, Open Circle, emphasizes skills like self-management, strengthening relationships, and sorting/solving problems. In morning meetings, students engage in greetings, games, and songs; talk about their experiences and feelings; and learn ways to resolve conflicts.

To make sure that lessons aren’t repeated and that certain topics are taught to specific learning levels, our curriculum runs on a two-year cycle.

	Year A Topics	Year B Topics
Social Studies	Units of study: What is family? What is my identity? Lake Temescal Related field trips: K/1 Field Day at Lake Temescal Joaquin Miller Park All-School Field Day at Lake Temescal	Units of study: What is community? Aurora School Related field trips: Lake Temescal Park Rockridge Public Library Community Garden Holy Names High School
Reading	Phonics activities (Teacher’s College Phonics Units & Fundations): letter sounds, blends, digraphs, short and long vowels, word families, and spelling patterns Fluency development Guided Reading group (Teacher’s College) strategies: directionality, one to one matching, initial sound Partner reading Poems, Rhymes, and songs Comprehension strategies: making predictions, making connections, visualizing, and retelling Read alouds Self-selected literature Just right book bags Trick (Fundations) word study
Writing	Writing Workshop units : Launching Workshop/Narrative Writing Information Writing Opinion Writing Fiction Writing Letter writing Class books (often aligned with social studies topics) Handwriting instruction	Writing Workshop units Small Moments / Narrative Writing Nonfiction Books / Information Writing Letter writing Class books (often social studies based) Handwriting instruction.
Mathematics	Math is taught by grade level. Kindergarten units: Numbers to five and ten Numbers to ten Bikes & bugs: double, add and subtract Paths to adding, subtracting and measuring Two-dimensional geometry Three-dimensional shapes & numbers beyond ten Place value Computing and measuring with frogs and bugs First grade units: Numbers all around us Developing strategies with dice and dominoes Adding, subtracting, counting and comparing Leapfrogs on the number line Geometry Figure the facts with penguins One hundred and beyond Changes, changes
Science	Essential questions: What do we notice about trees? What do animals need to live and grow? Where is air and what can it do? When you look up at the sky, what do you see, and how does it change? How do we observe and describe the wind? How do daylight and weather change through the seasons? Units of study: Trees & Weather Animals 2-by-2 Air & Weather Possible field trips: Joaquin Miller Park Berkeley Botanical Garden Tilden Naturalist Program	Essential questions: What in the world is made of wood, paper, and fabric? What properties make these materials useful? How can we use materials in engineering structures? How can we change the motion of an object? What is sound and how can we change the properties of sound? What is shadow? How does light travel and change direction? How do animals (including humans) use light? Units of study: Materials & Motion Sound & Light Possible field trips: Exploratorium Lake Temescal Park
Social-Emotional Learning	Elements of Open Circle: Managing ourselves Strengthening relationships How to sort problems Problem solving Other elements of the K/1 SEL curriculum include: Morning Meeting (Responsive Classroom): class promise, greetings, games, songs Restorative Justice All-School Community Creators Aurora Active Ally Week