Kindergarten and First Grade

As the youngest members of our community, kindergartners and first-graders are busy learning what school is about. Our aim throughout the year is to develop and strengthen social/emotional skills, such as empathy, cooperation, and communication, while helping children develop a strong sense of belonging in a stimulating school environment—and foster a love for learning.

We provide an atmosphere in which children feel safe, respected, confident, valued and heard, not only in our classroom, but within the greater Atrium community. Our youngest children quickly find themselves befriended by teachers and children of all ages in weekly assemblies, class-to-class partnerships, and multi-grade study groups. We believe that children who are cared for socially and emotionally are more prepared and willing to take risks.

Theme/Science

Thematic study emerges from the four natural elements: water, land, air, and fire. We build these studies by focusing on children’s interests, ideas, and experiences, develop each curriculum unit so children and teachers are excited about learning together. This approach validates children’s initiatives and invites fresh, creative energy to be infused into the program each year, and allows parents, teachers, and children to share their talents in an integrated, meaningful context.

One of our themes has been Color, Light, and Shadow. This unit includes:

Exploring the transformation of tiny caterpillars into monarch butterflies, which are released into the butterfly garden at Mount Auburn Cemetery, through our ongoing educational partnership.
Learning about the constellation myths, culminating in children creating and writing about their own constellations.
Creating a planetarium in the classroom, and visiting the planetarium at the Boston Museum of Science.

In first grade, when studying water, our studies include field trips to the nearby Charles River, the Boston Harbor Islands, and the Charles River Dam to observe animal and plant life, as well as island history and the construction of bridges. Highlights include:

Physical science units include Sink and Float, Balls and Ramps, Bridges, and Boat Building.
Children demonstrate what they are learning through pencil drawings, dioramas, group murals, model bridges, clay boats, and Lego riverside communities.

Reading/Writing

In each learning unit, we share brief lessons to help beginning readers develop the strategic thinking skills necessary for a lifetime love of reading and writing — predictability and structures within text, how to decode words, and building comprehension. Ways we build literacy:

Read and write about each other’s real-life experiences, families, hopes and dreams.
Study authors and illustrators—deconstructing published works—and creating versions of our own favorite books.
Regularly visit our vibrant school librarian, who shares new and exciting literature with them, as well as explores the rich offerings of a library.

Math

Our goal is to help students enjoy and appreciate numbers as they develop confidence and fluency in approaching math problems. We encourage students to take time exploring problems in depth, searching for multiple solutions, and articulating their thought processes. We weave math into our theme studies and use fun, hands-on activities to engage children in everyday number usage instead of rote memorization.

Cataloguing different aspects of the school: Working in pairs, children count the number of chairs in a classroom, doors in the hallway, windows in the gym, and so on, then sort data using objects, pictures, numbers, and graphs.
Measuring items and objects, such as a bridge over the Charles River, using nonstandard units. Children also sort and classify objects by various properties.
Investigating geometry using pattern blocks to design images related to our theme, and to discover how different shapes relate to each other.

“Once they have their hands in something, it triggers everything in their brain.”

- Merry Murray, Atrium teacher, on observing first graders