Aichi International School：Grade 1

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Elementary
Grade 1

Grade 1 students follow a 35 period week. Below is a breakdown of how many lessons per subject students study on a weekly basis:

Lessons English
Lessons Japanese
Lessons Math
Lessons Math (Japanese)
Lessons Life

Lesson Science (Japanese)
Lessons PE
Lessons Art
Lesson Moral Education
Lesson Violin

Lessons Taught in English

This section describes the curriculum for Grade 1. For core subjects students follow the California Department of Education curriculum. Each of these lessons uses Houghton and Mifflin textbooks.

AIS’s curriculum is divided into the following subjects of the curriculum, which are taught in English:

English

English at Grade 1 follows ten themes throughout the year. These themes are:

All Together Now
Surprise !
Lets Look Around
Family and Friends
Home Sweet Home (focus on poetry)
Animal Adventures
We Can Work It Out (focus on plays)
Our Earth
Special Friends (focus on folktales)
We Can Do It

At Grade 1 level students develop such skills as blending phonemes, capitalizing names and retelling and summarizing stories and events. Assessment in English is ongoing throughout the year, and there is a test at the end of each theme.

Resources: Houghton and Mifflin Reading.

Math

Math in Grade 1 follows a series of themes. Students work through the following themes over the course of the year:

Numbers, concepts operations and graphing.
Addition and subtraction facts through 10.
Geometry and fractions.
Numbers through 100.
Time and money.
Addition and subtraction facts through 12.
Measurement.
Two digit addition and subtraction.

In Grade 1 students will develop their reading and writing of numbers through to 20, will identify, create and extend patterns and apply skills and strategies to solve problems. During each month students take a unit test.

Resource: Houghton and Mifflin Math.

Life

Students study Life Science in Grade One. This program follows six themes:

Plants, animals and plants.
Living things and where they live.
Earth and our home.
Weather and the sky.
Describing matter.
Energy sources and motion.

Each theme in the Life program is assessed at the end of the unit with a test.

Resource: Houghton and Mifflin Life.

PE

In Grade 1 students explore and develop a variety of movement skills and manipulative skills such as underhand throwing/catching and ball bouncing/catching.

Students also develop their understanding of regular participation in physical activities such as swimming, ball games, athletics, gymnastics, dance, T-ball, and how to prepare/warm-up for such activities.

Art

Throughout the Elementary School there is a program of skills taught, studied and practiced. Students participate in a range of art activities, which allow children the opportunity to experience different materials, tools, images, etc. The art activities in Grade 1 support much of the cross-curricular work undertaken throughout the year.

Moral Education

Moral Education is the first lesson on Friday mornings. During this time the students learn about morals and character traits that will help make them successful adults in the future. There are times when the moral education time is used for group assembly presentations and special guest speakers, as in Career Day.

Violin

All students participate in a Suzuki-method violin program. Students have one lesson a week.

Lessons Taught in Japanese

In Grade 1 AIS students study the following subjects in Japanese, following the MEXT (Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology) curriculum.

Japanese Language

The objectives for Japanese in Grade 1 are:

For students to acquire the ability to speak about what they are familiar with.
To listen and be able to conduct a discussion in line with the speaking theme.
To write simple sentences or paragraphs on what they have experienced or imagined.
To enable students to acquire the ability to read with full awareness of the order of unfolding events and the context of the situation.

Math

The objectives for math in Grade 1 are as follow:

For students to understand the meaning and representations of numbers, and to help them understand addition and subtraction.
To form the foundations of understanding quantities and measurements.
To form the foundations of understanding geometrical figures.
To represent numbers and quantities as well as their relations by using words, numbers, algebraic expressions, figures and diagrams, and to interpret such representations.

Science

In Grade 1 the Science curriculum is focused on Living Environment Studies. Students learn about themselves, the people around them, society and nature. The objectives for the Science in Grade 1 are:

To develop student’s understanding of the relationship between themselves and the people around them, various local places and public facilities.
For students to consider their roles and actions as a member of a group or society.
To develop student’s awareness of the relationship between themselves and nature, such as plants and animals.
For students to recognize their own strengths and potential through their involvement with other people, society and nature.
To participate in activities related to people around them, society and nature, and at the same time, to enable them to express and think about what they have sensed and enjoyed, etc. through their activities in the forms of language, drawing, behaviour and drama.

Homework

Homework is given every night to students. This consists of work from the core subjects of math, science and English.