At Corvian, while we teach isolated skills, we strive to continuously give students meaningful and purposeful opportunities to use those newly learned skills. All students at all grade levels are always participating in multi-disciplinary, integrated units of study that allow the students to participate in meaningful, purposeful, and relevant studies. Rather than memorizing isolated facts, students will ponder and reflect upon big ideas that truly matter in the larger picture of life. For every unit, there are one or two of the core commonalities studied as threads that tie our learning together. We adhere to the brain research that supports helping students find connections across all learning.

1st grade Thematic Study is divided into three multi-disciplinary, integrated units that are taught continuously throughout the school year.  NCSCOS Standards for Science and Social Studies, as well as Basic School Core Commonalities, are integrated into each unit through relevant and purposeful learning activities. 

Unit 1: Stories Old and New: 

Students compare and contrast fables and fairy tales from around the world while exploring the unique customs, languages, art, and folklore of diverse regions. Students celebrate and share their learning throughout this unit with a play entitled ‘One World, Many Stories’. 

• NSCOS Science Standards: earth materials, living things, force and motion

• NCSCOS Social Studies Standards: history/cultures, map skills, diversity

• Basic School Core Commonalities: connections to nature, life cycles, sense of time and space

Unit 2: Artists Around the World: 

Students study World History and Geography through an Artistic lens, from Early Western Civilizations to the present. Students celebrate and share their learning throughout this unit with an Art Crawl. 

• NSCOS Science Standards: Force and motion, Earth, Moon, Sun, Earth Materials

• NCSCOS Social Studies Standards: history/cultures, map skills, diversity, goods and services

• Basic School Core Commonalities: use of symbols, response to aesthetic, membership in groups, sense of time/space, producing and consuming, connections to Nature

Unit 3: The Rainforest: 

Students discover earth materials and living things from diverse habitats while learning how to preserve and care for their planet. Students celebrate and share their learning throughout this unit with a play entitled ‘The Great Kapok Tree’. 

• NCSCOS Science Standards: earth materials, preservation, living things

• NCSCOS Social Studies Standards: natural resources, map skills

• Basic School Core Commonalities: life cycles, connections to nature