Typical 1^st Grade Schedule:

• 8:00-8:55:Math
• 9:00-9:50:Language Arts
• 9:55-10:45:Language Arts
• 10:50-11:40:Music ¹
• 11:40-12:20:Lunch
• 12:20-1:10:Science
• 1:15-2:05:Social Studies
• 2:05-3:00:Art ²

1: three times a week
2: twice a week
Spanish: twice a week
Drama: once a week
P.E.: three times a week

1st Grade Subject Overview

Language Arts

The 1st grade Language Arts program adds a spelling component to a continued development of reading, writing, speaking, listening, and handwriting skills. The girls explore literacy through play, guided reading, shared reading, read-alouds, and dramatizations. An increased emphasis is placed upon writing complete sentences in response to prompted questions. As the year progresses students are given many opportunities to engage in creative writing with homemade pamphlets, books, letters, and informational posters. Additional enrichment activities and objectives include completing a story map to retell a story, learning blends and diagraphs, distinguishing fiction from non-fiction, and constructing character webs.

Math

The 1st grade curriculum focuses heavily on developing problem solving skills. Within each strand, girls are challenged to apply their knowledge of mathematics concepts through enriched, hands-on tasks. Through daily partner, group, and independent activities, students develop number sense in double-digit whole numbers, and strengthen their skills and understanding with respect to double-digit addition/subtraction facts, patterns, geometry, time to the hour and half-hour, coin counting, and measurement.

Science

Life Science
In 1st grade Science girls examine the three different components of soil (sand, clay, and humus), focusing particularly on the types of soils found in and around Central Texas. Another unit on organisms explores the basic needs for all living things (food, water, shelter, and space) through the study of guppies and pill bugs.

Earth Science
During a detailed weather study, students discover how temperature changes over time while becoming familiar with the tools used to monitor weather conditions. A habitat unit then concentrates on the cold deserts of Antarctica and the Arctic.

Physical Science
Topics include properties of solid and liquid matter, as well as an exploration of balance and motion through many hands-on activities such as spinning tops, balls and ramps and roller coaster building.

Social Studies

The 1st grade social studies program is an engaging experience that helps young students learn about their place in the school and home communities. Through teaching strategies such as visual discovery, experiential exercises, response groups, problem solving groups, and writing for understanding, the girls learn the value of a cooperative community and discover why rules are needed at both school and at home. They also begin to use interactive notebooks to help them access and record main ideas and supporting details from their lessons.

Spanish

The Lower School Spanish Language Program is designed for the girls to develop an appreciation for Spanish language and culture. Language is contextualized and interdisciplinarily linked with other subjects that the students are currently exploring. Kindergarten and 1st grade students become familiar with the basics of the language through music, puppets, and games.

Art

The GSA Art Curriculum is designed to develop each girl's individual creativity and self-expression through a well-rounded study of art, which includes history/context, mechanics, and hands-on application. Students are exposed to a wide variety of particular art forms and mediums, which are introduced in an historical context and exemplified in the work of notable artists such as Modigliani, Botticelli, Matisse, Vermeer, Elizabeth Vigee LeBrun, Frida Kahlo, Jackson Pollock, Georgia O'Keefe, and Andy Warhol. Discussion and demonstration then focuses on mechanics, and each unit culminates in a technique-oriented project in which students create original work in that medium or art form.

Artistic mediums/processes covered during the year include pastels, drawing, acrylic painting on canvas, printmaking, pen/ink, and clay. Technical instruction includes classical lessons in drawing the head and body, uses of shadow and light, landscapes, and still life. Guest artists/lecturers provide real-world perspective by sharing their work and experiences.

Throughout the course of the year, girls of all levels enjoy plenty of opportunities to experience a sense of personal accomplishment and recognition through their art by participating in international artwork exchange programs, formal gallery exhibits and informal school displays of their work, charitable events, and multi-cultural collaborative art-centered occasions such as The White Buffalo Project. Middle School students are also encouraged to enter their work in various local/regional/national competitions.

Every year, each K-8 student creates her own self-portrait, and the annual Self-Portrait Show is a highlight for the GSA community. By exploring and creating art, students not only engage in creative self-expression, but also develop another perspective from which to appreciate their own culture and that of others.

Music

Piano
The GSA K-8 Piano program is designed to promote a life-long love of music. A student's course of study is tailored to her individual development/skill/experience level and consists of a unique combination of one-on-one and group lessons in both application and music theory, practice and experimentation time, performance opportunities, and a variety of activities involving listening, discussion, and written response. The Faber and Faber Piano Adventures series lesson book materials are supplemented with repertoire from numerous sources and disparate styles. The girls learn how to decode and respond physically to traditional western music notation and interact with multiple number systems simultaneously. Reinforcement through in-class and at-home practice is an essential component of progress, and students are taught both healthy physiological approaches and strategic practice methods such as identifying patterns and layers, counting whole and subdivided beats, setting and meeting reasonable/strategic goals, hands-separate work, and small-section drilling. As a student advances, more abstract and/or nuanced issues of musicianship such as structure analysis, compositional technique, tactile relationship with the keyboard, constructive critique, personal interpretation, and expressive choices are incorporated into discussions and lessons.

The girls participate in two school-wide concerts per year, as well as other performances as they arise. These events provide performance experience as well as opportunities to learn and practice appropriate performer and audience etiquette. Throughout the course of the year, piano students at all levels are exposed to and encouraged to share their responses to a wide variety of musics representing disparate traditions, time periods, and levels of formality. Music is explored in a synaesthetic and interdisciplinary context.

Strings
Strings class at the GSA is a goal-oriented activity, since learning music is first about making music. Posture, theory, and technique are presented as important tools to reach the goal of making music and having fun, which provides a foundation for deeper and often interdisciplinary learning experiences.
1st grade students play the violin, but 2nd grade and older students are offered the option to play the violin, viola, or cello. In both 1st and 2nd grades, much time in devoted to group playing skills and teamwork. The students gain confidence in reading and writing music, develop a more controlled tone, play songs in two-part and three-part harmony, and learn practice skills and performance etiquette.

Health and Wellness

Lower School students learn about the following topics in their Physical Education classes: safety, nutrition, body systems and hygiene, dental health, harmful substances, human growth and development, and social and emotional health. The girls also develop skills such as volley throwing and catching, hand and foot dribble, shoot rhythms, cardiovascular/muscular strength and endurance, locomotor skills, and flexibility. Each of these topics will be introduced in the Physical Education classes at the kindergarten level and expanded upon each year thereafter. Handouts, worksheets, discussions, activities, and demonstrations will be used to teach various topics.

Community Service

The Girls' School encourages active participation in our community—on campus, in Austin, and around the world. Each grade participates in at least one volunteer project per year, and most participate in many more. Whenever possible, projects are linked to the classroom curriculum; for example, for the annual UNICEF collections, the 3rd and 4th graders calculate grade-level and school-wide statistics and then present them at a community meeting. Some of our recent community service projects are listed here.