Our Day in the Life series for this school year begins in Grade 1 with Jake, Class of 2034!

Grade 1 students travel from classroom to classroom with their Learning Expert Teacher (LET). They have six classes a day with their Subject Expert Teachers (SET), a mid-morning and mid-afternoon recess, along with their lunch and recess time. Their first class of the day begins at 8:15 AM and their last class ends at 3:50 PM.

Jake begins his day with his first class, READ. His LET, Ms.JX READ Palacio, leads this class every day. This class teaches students to develop their social and emotional skills through direct instruction, collaboration, and practical application of social-emotional skills. Today’s lesson was on “Noticing Feelings”. The students practiced recognizing emotions others might be feeling such as sad, happy, scared, and confused by how the characters look or how they are acting. They also had a group discussion on how they can help classmates who are having a bad day. There were lots of good ideas shared such as, “You can give them a high five!”, “You can tell them their day is going to get better!” and “You can smile at them and say ‘Good Morning!’ so that their morning turns good!”

Jake then heads to the playground for a quick break. He has a 10-minute morning recess every day.

After recess, Jake has Engineering and Technology with SET Ms. Bhatnagar. Grade 1 students have a fine arts class every day for 85 minutes. This class encourages students to be hands-on problem solvers. They will learn about the various types of engineering, ideologies, and concepts using the Engineering Design Process.

Next, Jake heads to his SET Dr. Singh’s classroom for Math and Science. These subjects are taught together in an integrated 85-minute block five times a week. At this level, Dr. Singh is teaching students number sense and operations, measurement, patterns, and data analysis. She also explores essential science topics, including science as a process, life science, physical science, and earth and space science.

After Math and Science comes lunch! Grade 1 students eat their lunch in our multipurpose room before heading outside to the field for recess. Their lunch period is 40 minutes long.

After lunch, Jake and his classmates head to the basketball court for Physical Education with SET Mr. Haberlach. Jake has PE every day. This class focuses on specific skills including locomotor skills, stability skills, and manipulative skills. Mr. Haberlach always has them start with warm-ups before beginning their sport for the day.

Next is Mandarin class with SET Ms. Ju! We offer Heritage and Non-Heritage Mandarin classes. Jake lived in China before moving to California and is a proficient speaker of Mandarin. In his Heritage Mandarin class that he has every day, students are working on recognizing basic Chinese characters and building a solid foundation of correct character writing. They practice shared and guided reading on a daily basis, and have differentiated small groups that are designed to meet a student’s personalized goals.

After Mandarin, Jake then heads to the field for a quick afternoon break. He has a 10-minute afternoon recess every day.

For his last class of the day, Jake has Humanities with SET Ms. Balakkrishnon. This is another class taught in an 85-minute block five times a week. This class teaches students to develop the foundational tools for reading and writing, which include reading comprehension strategies, vocabulary enrichment, phonics, and grammar skills. In addition, students begin to compare historical events, connect those events with their geographic locations, and compare aspects of various forms of government to start to gain a more complete perspective of the world in which we live.

Thank you to Jake and his family for allowing us to document his Day in the Life!

BASIS Independent Silicon Valley is a TK – Grade 12 private school, providing students with an internationally benchmarked liberal arts and sciences curriculum, with advanced STEM offerings.