Reading/Lanugage Arts:  During the mornings this year we will concentrate on our reading and language arts curriculum including phonics, reading, literature, writing, grammar, handwriting, and spelling.  Our reading series is Open Court which uses small phonics readers, literature books for comprehension, workbooks, and word/letter cards.  Everyone will read every day and take home small readers two or three times weekly to practice at home.  We will use the computerized Accelerated Reader program to challenge and encourage reading skills. Our new language workbooks take us through grammar basics and help first graders learn to write sentences, poems, and stories.  Each student will keep a journal and develop language skills and sentence structure as they write about their first grade experiences.  Spelling words are coordinated with our phonics instruction,  studied in our spelling curriculum, tested on weekly, and used in our writing and journals.

Math:  Students will learn or review addition and subtraction facts from 1-18, learn to tell time, count money, recognize parts of a whole as fractions, identify and name 2-dimensional and 3-dimensional shapes and solids, discern and repeat number patterns, and begin 2-digit adding and subtracting.  We will also focus on a variety of problem solving strategies.  We use blocks and other manipulatives to visualize concepts being taught. For those students who master the basics easily, the computer lab lets them advance to more difficult problems.

Social Studies:  The curriculum guides our first graders in exploring the world around them.  This year we will study neighborhoods, holidays, basic government, early American history, special American heroes, and geography and map skills.  Several outside projects and reports will require some basic research techniques.

Science: Our curriculum allows for hands-on experiments and demonstrations as we learn about trees and plants, ponds, animal habitats, the sun, moon, and stars, basic machines, matter, and ecology.  Field trips (Lichterman Nature Center, Botanic Gardens), special centers, a 3-day Space Camp, construction of machines, and experimenting with different types of matter are ways that we bring textbook material "alive."

Religion:  Our religious curriculum is a combination of devotions, religion class instruction, and chapel.  We learn about God's word and how we can apply it to our daily life.  Our religion curriculum covers stories from both the Old and New Testaments.  There will be a memory verse from the Bible given each week that will be recited on Tuesdays.  These will be listed in a memory book folder that will need to be brought to school each Tuesday.  Our chapel services are every Tuesday morning at 8:15.  Parents are encouraged to join us in chapel whenever possible.

First graders enjoy enrichment subjects such as music, Spanish, art, physical education, computer, counseling and life skills, and library.  Students will have the opportunity to explore various art and craft mediums as we do weekly art projects in our classroom.  The other enrichment activities are taught by specialized teachers.   

Reading/Lanugage Arts:  During the mornings this year we will concentrate on our reading and language arts curriculum including phonics, reading, literature, writing, grammar, handwriting, and spelling.  Our reading series is Open Court which uses small phonics readers, literature books for comprehension, workbooks, and word/letter cards.  Everyone will read every day and take home small readers two or three times weekly to practice at home.  We will use the computerized Accelerated Reader program to challenge and encourage reading skills. Our new language workbooks take us through grammar basics and help first graders learn to write sentences, poems, and stories.  Each student will keep a journal and develop language skills and sentence structure as they write about their first grade experiences.  Spelling words are coordinated with our phonics instruction,  studied in our spelling curriculum, tested on weekly, and used in our writing and journals.

Math:  Students will learn or review addition and subtraction facts from 1-18, learn to tell time, count money, recognize parts of a whole as fractions, identify and name 2-dimensional and 3-dimensional shapes and solids, discern and repeat number patterns, and begin 2-digit adding and subtracting.  We will also focus on a variety of problem solving strategies.  We use blocks and other manipulatives to visualize concepts being taught. For those students who master the basics easily, the computer lab lets them advance to more difficult problems.

Social Studies:  The curriculum guides our first graders in exploring the world around them.  This year we will study neighborhoods, holidays, basic government, early American history, special American heroes, and geography and map skills.  Several outside projects and reports will require some basic research techniques.

Science: Our curriculum allows for hands-on experiments and demonstrations as we learn about trees and plants, ponds, animal habitats, the sun, moon, and stars, basic machines, matter, and ecology.  Field trips (Lichterman Nature Center, Botanic Gardens), special centers, a 3-day Space Camp, construction of machines, and experimenting with different types of matter are ways that we bring textbook material "alive."

Religion:  Our religious curriculum is a combination of devotions, religion class instruction, and chapel.  We learn about God's word and how we can apply it to our daily life.  Our religion curriculum covers stories from both the Old and New Testaments.  There will be a memory verse from the Bible given each week that will be recited on Tuesdays.  These will be listed in a memory book folder that will need to be brought to school each Tuesday.  Our chapel services are every Tuesday morning at 8:15.  Parents are encouraged to join us in chapel whenever possible.

First graders enjoy enrichment subjects such as music, Spanish, art, physical education, computer, counseling and life skills, and library.  Students will have the opportunity to explore various art and craft mediums as we do weekly art projects in our classroom.  The other enrichment activities are taught by specialized teachers.   

Hi! My name is Cissy Welch and I have taught first graders for the past 8 years at Christ the King.  And while I love the eagerness and enthusiasm of 6 and 7-year-olds, I have also enjoyed teaching PS 4's (9 years) and middle schoolers (3 years) at CTK.  I've also taught freshman English at the University of Memphis.  Both my undergraduate and graduate degrees are from the U of M, and I met my husband there when we were both graduate assistants in the English department.

People in my family are charter members of Christ the King Church.  When I was a first grader (at Immanuel Lutheran School), CTK Church was just a little white house in the big woods here on Park Avenue.  Both my children attended CTK from pre-school through 8th grade and both have recently graduated from college.

I feel very blessed to be part of the ministry here at our school and church.  Christ the King is a small, secure, nurturing environment where laying the foundation for a life in Christ is just as important as building a solid education in reading, math, and science.  I want to give my students the academic knowledge to succeed at the next level of their education, and the confidence that, with their faith in Jesus Christ, they will never have to work at it alone.

Hi! My name is Cissy Welch and I have taught first graders for the past 8 years at Christ the King.  And while I love the eagerness and enthusiasm of 6 and 7-year-olds, I have also enjoyed teaching PS 4's (9 years) and middle schoolers (3 years) at CTK.  I've also taught freshman English at the University of Memphis.  Both my undergraduate and graduate degrees are from the U of M, and I met my husband there when we were both graduate assistants in the English department.

People in my family are charter members of Christ the King Church.  When I was a first grader (at Immanuel Lutheran School), CTK Church was just a little white house in the big woods here on Park Avenue.  Both my children attended CTK from pre-school through 8th grade and both have recently graduated from college.

I feel very blessed to be part of the ministry here at our school and church.  Christ the King is a small, secure, nurturing environment where laying the foundation for a life in Christ is just as important as building a solid education in reading, math, and science.  I want to give my students the academic knowledge to succeed at the next level of their education, and the confidence that, with their faith in Jesus Christ, they will never have to work at it alone.