Class 1

About this course

Class One “I am”

The child starts Class One in the year they turn seven. The theme of the year is Fairy Tales.  The children of Class One are encouraged to live within the stories and images of fairy tales and nature stories to foster their creativity and support their inner development.

Development is dreamy and earthy. Not yet fully aware of themselves as separate individuals, the child relates to the world as it affects them. They wish to know that the world is beautiful, that adults know what is right and good and will look after their needs. Children of this age can love easily and will wish to please those they love.

All subjects are taught in an integrated and artistic way that draws on the imagination of the six and seven year old.

The aim is not to learn to write and read as quickly as possible, but to create rich experiences that stimulate the child’s senses and nurture their thinking, feeling and motivation.

In Class One the aim is to form a cohesive and socially harmonious class. Throughout the year the teacher establishes good classroom, life and work habits, creating healthy rhythms and boundaries that support the children in their daily life. The children are encouraged to care for one another like family and take ownership of good habits.

The Alphabet & Letters

The children learn from the experience of the image to the form, the letter. The imagination is encouraged to provide the bridge from stories to the letters. In this way, the child learns the alphabet by drawing pictures from the fairy tale or story of the day.  The golden goose becomes a G, the king becomes a K.

The children have a strong experience of each letter. They learnt to correctly draw them using chalk boards, walking the letters drawn big on the ground, drawing in the air, in sand or on each other’s backs. They play games with the sounds, finding words with the sounds at the start or end, and use poems and rhymes for different letters and their sounds.

They progressively learn to write words and sentences from the stories they are hearing and the pictures they are creating. Reading is then introduced as a whole class activity. Together they phonetically sound out words and read what they have written together as a whole. The main lesson books they make become their readers, and as they became more familiar with the writing in them they begin to read them to each other.

[Images of Class 1 books and blackboard]

Mathematics & Numbers

The magical world of numbers, counting and basic maths are introduced through rhythm, stories, games and movement. They begin to experience the patterns of numbers in the natural world, and through rhythm, movement and music. This initiates in the child the beginning of a connection to the wider environment.  

The children form a relationship with each number, creating a deeper understanding of the quality of each number. For instance, “1” may be taught in relation to the sun, there is only one sun, feeling the wholeness of that one and then looking at themselves as something else there is only one of.

[Images of Class 1 books and blackboard]

Handwork

In Class One, the children learn to knit. They begin to anticipate the joy of creating things both useful and beautiful.

The hand and eye working together opens up neurological pathways. Knitting is a training ground for thinking which later supports them to be able to bring their own thoughts into a coherent whole.

Their first creation brings expressions of delight and joy and a feeling of success and confidence that leads to a love for doing, a love for creating.

Form Drawing

Form drawing starts in Class One. The children are guided to create forms through visualising, moving and drawing the forms. To be able to start and stop a line helps children to sense the boundaries of their own space and form. The forms develop fine motor skills, balance and self movement along with an increased sense of body geography.

[Images of Class 1 books and blackboard]

Ngahere – the School’s native bush wonderland

Regular visits to Ngahere and nature walks around the school grounds help Class one cultivate reverence for nature, care for the environment, and interest in the world and respect for one another. They may cut and gather firewood together, prepare and cook kai together, hear nature stories and walk through the bush listening for birds together. Being at Ngahere does something magical to the class, they play and work together in the most harmonious and creative ways.

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The Arts

The arts are part of every lesson. The students are being taught though example that everyone can be an artist and that beauty is all around us. Music, including singing and playing recorder, are introduced and the class will have the experience of presenting a play for the families with all children playing an equal part.

Through guided and continual movement the young children will ‘dance’ through their school day and should arrive at the end of it, not with a feeling of exhaustion, but rather a pleasant feeling of work well done and anticipation of the activities to come tomorrow.