And Then There Was One

 Greetings! Happy Tuesday! It is hard to believe that today was our last full day of first grade. We had lots of fun today! 

We began our day with Religion. Today, we reviewed the events of Pentecost and talked about different symbols of the Holy Spirit. 

Then, we had our last theme day of the year. Today we celebrated popcorn! We learned how popcorn comes to be. We practice reading words with digraphs. Then, we wrote about what we are looking forward to learning in second grade. Finally, it was time to taste test popcorn. The students sampled butter, cheese, caramel, and kettle popcorn. We voted on our favorite and answered questions about our graph. 

This afternoon, we relaxed and watched Big Hero 6. It was a great way to end a great year. 

I wish to thank all of you for taking the time to read our classroom blog. It has been a joy working with this group of students. They have grown so much. May you all have a wonderful summer. See you in the fall! 

~Miss Chalich 

Popsicle Day!

 Greetings! Happy Friday! Today was a great day to end what has been a fabulous week! 

At Mass today, Fr. Brian gave thanks for a great school year. He also reminded us that summer is not a time to take a vacation from God. 

After Mass, it was time for us to celebrate popsicles. We began by learning about how popsicles were invented. Then, we sorted sentences about popsicles based on whether they were a fact or opinion. After that, we wrote about what made this a "cool" school year. Following that, the students selected a number and then spelled out the number, wrote it in expanded form, and drew a picture of it. Finally, the students drew their own popsicle. 

In Math today, we continued to practice solving money word problems. Please continue to practice addition and subtraction facts over the summer. 

In Science class, we talked about what a plant needs to survive. 

In Art class, we made a popsicle using tissue paper. 

And, after all of the hard work, we ended our day with a popsicle treat! 

Have a wonderful weekend! See you on Tuesday! 

Awards Day and Stuffed Animal Day!

 Greetings! Happy Thursday! Today was an exciting day in first grade. It was Awards Day and Stuffed Animal Day! 

We began our day with our Awards Program. The students were quite excited to be recognized for all of their hard work. I am so proud of how hard they have worked this year. 

We came back to our classroom and began our day of learning and fun. In Religion class, we learned about Pentecost. We talked about how the Holy Spirit came to the Apostles. 

Then, it was time for some stuffed animal fun! We began by writing about our stuffed friend. We added a page topper to our writing. Next, we became detectives and used our inferencing skills to find out which bear stole the honey. Then, we graphed gummy bears and discussed the data on our graphs. Finally, we colored various patterns. 

In Math class today, we practiced solving real world money problems. This was a great opportunity to review adding and subtracting with and without regrouping. 

In Science class today, we learned about the parts of a plant and why they help a plant survive. 

We ended our day with a special picnic completed with Teddy Grahams, gummy bears, and iced tea. We enjoyed the special treats with all of our friends. 

Have a great night! 

Watermelon Day!

 Greetings! Happy Wednesday! Today was another great and fun day in first grade! It was Watermelon Day! 

In Religion class today, we talked about how we can prepare for Jesus' second coming. We talked about praying, going to Mass, serving others, and being kind to one another. 

We really enjoyed our Watermelon Day fun! We began by learning about the life cycle of a watermelon. Next, we talked about the different parts of a watermelon. Following that, we read The Watermelon Seed and wrote about the problem and how it was solved. Finally, we created a giant watermelon by weaving strips of paper. We took our time and they turned out great! 

This afternoon, after all of our hard work, we got to enjoy a piece of watermelon, cantaloupe, and honey dew melon. We then created a graph to show our favorite melon. 

In Math class today, we reviewed counting quarters, dimes, nickels, and pennies. 

We ended our day with our Summer Countdown. Today, Mr. Neff joined us for a music sing-a-long. 

Have a great night! 

Lemonade Day!

 Greetings! Happy Tuesday! Today was Lemonade Day in first grade. We celebrated all things lemon! 

In Religion class today, we talked about Jesus going up to Heaven. We learned that this is called the Ascension. We also talked about how Jesus promised to send the Holy Spirit. 

In Math class today, we again used our coins to show various money amounts. The students are doing a great job at using a variety of coins to show the amounts. 

Then, it was time for some lemon fun! We began by doing a math write-the-room activity. The students walked around and identified the various shapes on cards. Next, the students worked in groups to sort words based on whether they were real words or not. Following that, we learned about the life cycle of lemons. After all of that work, it was time to sample some lemonade. The students tried both regular lemonade and pink lemonade. We voted for our favorite, and pink lemonade won. Finally, we wrote the steps in making lemonade. 

We ended our day with our "Up to the Challenge" game break. The students enjoyed playing the various board and card games. I added a few games to my list. Thank you for sending in the games. 

Have a great night! 

Beach Day Fun!

 Greetings! Happy Monday! It is hard to believe that we are entering our final full week of the year. We are going to have a great week reviewing what we learned and having fun along the way. 

In Religion class today, we talked about Jesus' Great Commission to his Apostles: to go and baptize people. We also reviewed the sacrament of Baptism. 

Each day this week will have a theme. Today's theme was Beach Day! The majority of our learning centered about beach themes. We read the story There Was an Old Lady Who Swallowed a Shell. After reading the story, we sequenced the objects she ate. We then sorted beach-theme words based on whether they named a noun, verb, or adjective. Following that, we worked in centers where we added the correct punctuation to sentences, identified the number of syllables in words, and found 10 more and 10 less than a number. We ended our morning by water coloring bookmarks. 

In Math class today, we reviewed counting a collection of quarters, dimes, nickels, and pennies. We then used our coins to show various money amounts. 

After Math, it was time to return to Beach Day fun! We completed a write-the-room activity that helped us review telling time and adding and subtracting. We then wrote about what we like to do in the summer. Finally, we sprawled out on beach towels, donned our shades, and read a book! 

Have a great night! 

Fun in the Sun!

 Greetings! Happy Friday! I hope everyone had a great day to end the week. It is hard to believe that we only have one more full week of school left. 

At Mass today, Fr. Brian reminded us that when we trust in the Lord, everything will be ok. 

We wrapped up another week of learning in Language Arts. We used our oral vocabulary words in sentences, practiced reading r-controlled -air, -are, and -ear and r-controlled syllable words, wrote sentences using our sight words, and took our weekly assessment. 

In Math class today, we continued to practice counting a collection of quarters, dimes, nickels, and pennies. 

In Science class, we started our unit on plants. We learned that young plants have some of the same characteristics as adult plants. We looked at pictures of seedlings and adult plants and matched them up. 

We ended our day with Art. Today, we created our very own beach scene using real sand and seashells. We are getting ready for summer! 

Here are pictures from this week's art project along with last week's. 

Have a great weekend!