First Grade

Miss Rachel Schelen

Rachel Schelen grew up attending a Lutheran school and church, knowing she wanted to become a teacher since elementary school. Rachel is a 2021 graduate of Concordia University Texas, she graduated with an ECE-6th grade teaching certification and her Lutheran Teaching Diploma. Rachel has a great passion for working with younger children. She loves the laughter and joy they bring to her classroom each day and she can’t wait to help them grow and expand their God given gifts and talents.

In her free time Rachel loves to read, this passion can be seen in her classroom through the read alouds and independent reading time her students enjoy every day. Rachel is blessed to be at Messiah and she knows that this is a place that truly feels like a family to all who enter.

First Grade Overview

Your first grader will start mastering the fundamentals of literacy and mathematics. Integrated throughout the day is faith education as students learn to put God first and foremost in their thoughts, words, and actions.

READING
We use the Macmillan McGraw-Hill Reading Treasures Program. Through combined instruction in phonics and whole language, students work to increase their vocabulary, comprehension, and reading fluency as well as building skills and strategies for reading.

Several times each week individual students or small groups meet with the teacher to practice more specific skills tailored to individual reading skills. During this time, other students will be working independently in centers on literacy activities.

WRITING
The basic skills of writing are taught to encompass an introduction to grammar, proper capitalization, punctuation, and form. Students will have time during the school day to work on writing that they choose as well as assignments from the teacher that emphasize the writing process.

Proper handwriting is taught at school and must also be practiced at home. 

MATH
We use the Saxon Incremental Program to emphasize math concepts, process skills, and problem solving. The use of manipulatives are incorporated to provide a developmentally appropriate, hands-on way for children to learn patterns; number recognition/sense; counting by ones, twos, fives, and tens; basic geometry and money; measurement, graphs, calendar concepts, as well as addition and subtraction of single and double digit numbers.

BIBLE / RELIGION
Christian education is the foundation for everything that goes on in the school and classroom. The Concordia Publishing House series, One in Christ is one of the resources used for instruction in God’s Word.  Students are asked to memorize selected Bible verses each week and The Ten Commandments by the end of the year. We attend chapel as a school once a week.

SCIENCE
The Scott-Foresman Series is used to guide instruction. Students explore the world around them focusing on physical, life, and Earth/space science. They do this through experimentation and inquiry with technology and hands-on activities.

SOCIAL STUDIES
Emphasis is placed on student character building, people, places, environment, patriotism, choices, and family. Some projects will be utilized in this area of study, meaning that students will enter into in-depth studies of topics of their interest as a whole class for extended periods of time.

SPECIALS: Physical Education, Music, Art, Computers