Language Arts & Social Studies

The Core of our Language Arts program is the Superkids Reading Program, developed by the Rowland Reading Foundation. Superkids is a K-2 reading program that fully integrates reading, comprehension, spelling, grammar, and writing. It is based on years of research. Monthly book reports, as well as independent reading and word work supplement the core program. Students are taught to be independent learners as they explore areas of interest to them.

The Superkids Reading Program Rowland Reading Foundation is a nonprofit organization dedicated to providing the best primary-grade reading instruction through a research-based program with proven results. Superkids is a phonics-based, comprehensive, core language arts curriculum intended just for primary grades (K-2). The key to the program’s success is its explicit, systematic phonics instruction that provides the foundation from which all other reading skills evolve.

Lessons are provided in a spiraling sequence. Known skills are reviewed and reinforced as new skills are introduced. Once letter-sounds are explicitly taught, they are applied to ample decodable text, providing the extensive practice children need to reach automaticity. This explicit instruction guarantees that nothing is left to chance and that all children are afforded high-quality reading instruction.

Moreover, Superkids seamlessly integrates the reading skills of phonemic awareness, phonics, vocabulary, comprehension, and fluency with spelling, handwriting, grammar, and mechanics. This integration provides pedagogically sound instruction for students.

First Grade Superkids After Kindergarten, the Superkids come back and are now a year older. They look like our first grade students and do things our first grade students like to do. This makes the material easy for students to connect to their real-life experiences.

What Students Learn in First Grade First grade covers two levels of the Superkids program. In first grade, students learn more complex letter-sound relationships, building on what they learned in Kindergarten. They continue to develop their decoding and encoding skills and read longer stories where comprehension and fluency are emphasized.

Level 3: Adventures of the Superkids  Variability of letter-sounds (digraphs, long vowels)  Structural analysis (endings, contractions, compound words)  Decoding and encoding using phonetic and structural patterns  Reading and spelling new high-frequency words  Comprehension skills and strategies applied to longer decodable stories  Vocabulary and fluency skills  Shared and individual writing; using the writing process  Grammar, usage, and mechanics skills Level 4: More Adventures of the Superkids  Variability of vowels (y as a vowel; aw, all, oi, oy, ou, ow, oo; r-controlled vowels)  Structural analysis (endings, contractions)  Decoding and encoding using phonetic and structural patterns  Reading and spelling new high-frequency words  Comprehension skills and strategies applied to longer decodable stories  Vocabulary and fluency skills  Shared and individual writing; using the writing process  Grammar, usage, and mechanics skills Writing with the Superkids The Superkids program includes a lot of writing, and teaches the writing process. Types of writing include:  Narrative  Informative  Opinion  Descriptive  Correspondence Some of the writing topics include:  How-to directions,  Animal riddles,  Pattern poems,  Problem and solution stories,  Writing about favorite activities,  Stories about an imagined character,  Writing dialogue,  Fairy-tales,  Informational pieces with diagrams,  Questions and answers,  Opinion paragraphs with reasons and closing sentences,  Friendly letters,  Personal narratives,  Advice stories, and more.

Life Lessons Each unit of the Superkids also includes Life Lessons, which are lessons that relate things in the stories student read to their own life experiences. They correspond to character and middot lessons students learn in their Judaics classes. Book Reports Book reports help students develop strong independent reading skills and improve comprehension skills. They encourage students to think about parts of a story, including: plot, setting, and characters. Working with books in-depth increases comprehension, and showing what they’ve learned through a variety of media deepens students’ comprehension of the books they are reading. Oral reports also help students develop their speaking and presentation skills. Students also have a chance to answer questions from their peers. Students complete monthly book reports at a grade-appropriate level. Books are chosen from a variety of genres and students are encouraged to read increasingly more difficult material as the year progresses. For each book students complete a very brief written summary, an oral report and a creative project. Projects are chosen from a list that includes enough ideas for students to find things they will enjoy creating.

Social Studies Curriculum

Social Studies will focus on learning about our Earth, our neighborhoods and families, and our communities. Students will learn:  Map skills including directions, map keys, maps and globes  Rights and responsibilities of citizens  Water and land on earth  Weather, natural resources and seasons  Our country and our neighbors  Leaders, heroes, and symbols of our communities and our country  Elections with focus on current events