Fall Trees!

 Greetings! Happy Friday! I hope everyone had a great day to end their week. We had an exciting day in first grade. 

At Mass this morning, Fr. Brian talked to us about turning to the saints and asking them to help us when we need it. 

After Mass, some of our fifth grade friends came to join us. We began our time together by reading Ten Apples Up on Top. Then, working in groups the students built a tower to hold an apple. They used wooden blocks, linking cubes, pipe cleaners, cups, Play-doh, and other classroom materials. It was great seeing everyone work together and smiling. 

After fifth grade left, we wrapped up our week of learning in Language Arts. We used our oral vocabulary words in sentences and wrote sentences using our sight words. We also took our weekly assessment. 

In Math class today, we practiced solving real world addition problems. The students are really doing well with addition. On Monday, we will begin learning subtraction strategies. 

In Science class today, we talked about why animals camouflage. We practiced finding moths hidden on trees and designed our own moth to camouflage on something in our classroom. 

We ended our day with Art. Today we painted fall trees using forks. The students really enjoyed painting. I look forward to painting with them again. 

Have a wonderful weekend! 

The Creation Story!

 Greetings! Happy Thursday! Today was a good day in first grade. The children were filled with lots of excitement. 

In Religion class today, we reviewed the creation story. We created a mobile to help us remember what God created on each day. 

In Language Arts class, we answered questions using our oral vocabulary words, read words with l-blends, plurals, and sight words. To help us build our fluency and comprehension, we partner read a story in our decodable reader booklets. We also read a nonfiction story about caring for pets and then completed pages in our Reading/Writing workshop book that focused on key details. Finally, we practiced identifying statements and questions. 

In Math class today, we practiced solving real world addition problems. The key today was finding the parts in story and then finding the answer. We also began using XtraMath. We will be visiting this website daily to practice our Math facts. 

We ended our day with Social Studies. Today, we learned about community helpers. We read a story and watched a video about various community helpers. We then spent time naming community helpers. 

Have a great night! 

Writing and Walking in Math!

 Greetings! Happy Wednesday! As sad as it was not to see the sun shining today, it was nice to hear some rain. 

In Religion class today, we read the creation story. We talked about how God created everything and spent time talking about what God created each day. 

In Language Arts, we reviewed our oral vocabulary words, read words with l-blends, with plural -s, and our sight words. To help us build our fluency skills, we partner read a story from our decodable reader booklets. We also read Flip, a fantasy story about a pet dinosaur who went to school. After reading that story, we completed pages in our Reading/Writing companion that focused on character, setting, and event. 

This afternoon in Language Arts, we practiced writing statements and questions. 

For Gym class today, we headed to the gym and played Good Ship Spark. I would give a command and the students performed an action for it. Movements included sit ups, skipping, running, and freezing. They really enjoyed this. 

In Math class today, we did a write the room activity. The students walked around the room looking for addition pictures. Once they found a picture, they wrote the number sentence for the picture. 

Have a great night! 

Addition Story Writing!

 Greetings! Happy Tuesday! I hope everyone's week is off to a great start! 

In Religion class today, we talked about how God is everywhere, knows everything, is all powerful, and is all good. 

We continued our week of learning in Language Arts. We began by reviewing our oral vocabulary words we learned yesterday and then learned three new words (companion, popular, and groom). Next, we worked on visualizing as we read a nonfiction piece about pets. Following that, we used our letter tiles to spell and read words with l-blends. After that, we learned how to read plurals and use plurals in sentences. Then, we practiced using our sight words in sentences. We ended the morning focusing on our comprehension skills. This week we are focusing on character, setting, and events. 

This afternoon in Language Arts, we practiced identifying statements and questions. We also continued to build our sentence writing skills as we wrote a sentence describing a picture. 

In Math class today, we wrote addition sentences for a picture. We looked at a picture and told a story about the picture. We then used the story to help us write sentences. 

Have a great night! 

Reading Words with Blends!

 Greetings! Happy Monday! I hope everyone had a wonderful, relaxing weekend! I had one student comment to me this morning that they were so glad that the weekend was only two days long. They were so excited to come back to school and learn! 

In Religion class today, we wrapped up our chapter on heaven. We reviewed that God lives in Heaven and that one day we will live there too!

We began a new week of learning in Language Arts; this week we will be reading about pets. We began by learning two new oral vocabulary words (care and train). We then worked on visualizing as we read Cool Dog, School Dog. After that, we learned how to blend and read words with l-blends, words like blip, clip, flag, glad, plan, and slam. Following that, we learned our new sight words (be, come, good, pull). 

This afternoon in Language Arts, we put our new skills to work as we read A Pig for Cliff. We also talked about the difference between statements and questions. Finally, we practiced writing a sentence. We looked at a picture and wrote a sentence describing what was happening in it. 

In Math class today, we continued to practice our addition strategies. We used dominoes to fill in a number bond and write the addition sentences that went along with it. 

Have a great night! 

Fall Gnomes!

 Greetings! Happy Friday! I hope everyone had a great day to end the week. 

At Mass this morning, Fr. Brian asked us to pray for all vocations, especially those to the priesthood and religious life. 

We wrapped up another week of learning in Language Arts. We used our oral vocabulary words in sentences and wrote sentences using our sight words. We also took our weekly assessment. 

In Math class today, we continued to practice our addition strategies. Today, we used number lines to help us add. We are getting much better with adding. 

In Science class today, we talked about how adult animals take care of their babies. We also talked about how adults look different than their babies. 

We ended our day with Art class. Today, we made a fall gnome holding a pumpkin. They turned out cute. 

Here is a picture from our fall writing activity from yesterday. 

Have a great weekend!  

Adding with Dice!

 Greetings! Happy Thursday! I hope everyone is doing well. 

In Religion class today, we talked about the Mass, specifically how a bit of Heaven is at Mass with us. 

We continued our week of learning in Language Arts. We began by reviewing our oral vocabulary words and reading short i words, words with double final consonants, and our sight words. After a trip to the library. We worked on our fluency and comprehension skills. We partner read a story in our decodable reader booklets. We also read a fiction piece about a girl's surprise. After reading that story, we completed pages in our reading/writing companion that focused on key details. We ended our morning by practicing writing sentences using correct word order. 

In Math class today, we began to learn addition strategies. We began by using number bonds to add. When given the two parts, we know that we need to add to find the whole. To help us learn how to add using number bonds, we completed an activity with dice. The students rolled two dice and filled in the parts of a number bond. They then counted the dots to find the whole. Using those numbers, they wrote the number sentence. We really enjoyed this activity. 

In Social Studies class, we talked about rules and why we have them. We also talked about the season of fall. We talked and wrote about what we like best about fall. We added that to a craft. I'll post pictures tomorrow. 

Have a great night!