While our first grade classroom environment begins to incorporate traditional teaching methods, creativity and play remain pivotal in achieving optimal student learning. Daily decodable ‘take-home books’ are a mainstay of the Imagine It! reading program. Math and language workbooks are implemented, and students begin taking their first spelling tests. Teachers facilitate learning that incorporates a variety of different learning styles—auditory, visual, and kinesthetic—through fun, hands-on activities. In addition, students attend special classes weekly in computer, library, visual art, music, physical education, science, and Spanish. They are guided through regular weekly chapel services with the help of fourth grade chapel buddies. First graders’ Junior Authors’ Breakfast is a special year-end event at which students unveil the individual books they’ve created from story map through final draft, illustrated, and published.