Students in Mrs. Amy Hill, Mrs. Mandy Scarborough and Mrs. Nicole Stabler’s first grade classes are all enjoying the start of school.

Beginning the year with story favorites such as “David Goes to School,” the children in each class helped create a list of school rules.

They have been busy learning all about letters and sounds, counting, sorting, graphing and matching. Learning to write their names, letters and numbers are also challenging for many first graders at the beginning of school. Students are able to reinforce, through practice, all of these skills and more using appropriate apps on their iPad.

Each classroom has a unique theme for the beginning of the year.

Mrs. Stabler’s theme focused on camping fun. Her children love visiting the reading center, which is inside an actual tent. First grade classes also have a “Reading Loft,” where they can relax on beanbags while enjoying a good book.

First graders also have the opportunity to be involved in Young Rembrandts, which is an after school program designed to teach art techniques and vocabulary to elementary children.

Mrs. Karen Giordano teaches students every Tuesday afternoon. As students draw a new lesson every week, they learn a variety of art concepts including:

• Portraiture

• Perspective

• Still life

• Realism/Abstraction

• Art history

• Color theory

• Fundamental composition skills

• Line and patterning

• Art vocabulary