About First Grade


	First Grade First grade students at CCCS attend school from 8:00 a.m. – 3:00 p.m. (except for Thursdays when dismissal is at 12:00 p.m.) As in the K program, Spanish-dominant students learn to read in Spanish first while English-dominant students learn to read in English first. Daily L1 language arts is complemented by another block of the day for L2 development. For this part of the day all the Spanish-dominant students are grouped together for English Language Development while the English-dominant students are grouped together for Spanish Language Development. All other subjects (Math, Science, Social Studies, etc.) are taught to a mixed group of students one week in English then one week in Spanish. When it is a child’s “English Week” the child starts and finishes the day in the English room. When it is a child’s “Spanish Week” the child starts and finishes the day in the Spanish room. Thus the children have two teachers and two classrooms, one for English and one for Spanish. Even though the teachers are bilingual they will always maintain the language of instruction for their classrooms. The first grade teachers, like all the CCCS teachers, expect families to volunteer a minimum of five hours per month. Volunteers work with individuals and small groups, help chaperone field trips, and garden with students at their community gardening plot.