Merry Christmas!

Today was the perfect day to end such a fabulous week in first grade! Our story today was Who Will Guide My Sleigh Tonight? by Jerry Pallotta. This book explored different animals Santa could use to guide his sleigh and the problems they might cause. We then wrote about an animal that could guide the sleigh but would not be a good choice. All of the pieces were then assembled into a class book. 

Let me take this time to wish all of you a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year! May your holiday season be merry and bright, filled with smiles and laughter. 

Until 2013 . . . 

The Joy of Giving

Today's focus in first grade was about the joy of giving. We read about that first Christmas many years ago and talked about how God gave his son to us. We then created our own Nativity scenes. Here are some pictures of their work:

Our Reading activity focused on the book The Berenstein Bears and the Joy of Giving. In this story, Brother and Sister Bear learned that it is better to give than to receive. First grade then discussed gifts that we can give others. After some great examples of things they can buy for others, the attention switched to things that cannot be purchased that they can give to others. Some of their examples included hugs, kisses, and friendship. Each student picked what they thought was the best Christmas gift that does not come from a store that they could give someone and created a gift box for it. Here is a picture of that project: 

Just a reminder that dismissal tomorrow is at 12:30 PM. Students are permitted to wear jeans to school. 

Ring the Bells!

I have to say that this week is flying by. I am really enjoying seeing the excitement on the children's faces when they walk in in the morning wondering what we are going to do. Well, today's reading activities focused on the book The Polar Express. The students just loved the story and were memorized by the pictures. After reading, we recalled the events in the story by completing a sequence chart. We then made bells to help remind us to keep the Christmas spirit ringing all year long. Here's a picture of all of the bells:

This afternoon we attended the Handbell Concert. The Church was filled with beautiful music that helped put us more in the Christmas spirit. We will be attending the Christmas Choir performance tomorrow. 

Because of the program tomorrow we will not have gym class. Just a reminder that we will have our Spelling test tomorrow though. 

Santa's Stuck!

Greetings, everyone! Today's reading activity centered around the book Santa's Stuck by Rhonda Gowler Greene. This hilarious book tells the story of Santa getting stuck in the chimney after eating too much. The book explores how the reindeer and other animals work together to free Santa. After reading the story, we talked about what we would do if Santa was stuck in our chimney and then made a cute craft project. 

In addition to this project, we practiced our penmanship by coping a poem, studied our Spelling words, and sorted and graphed pattern blocks after covering a design. 

Tomorrow should bring more excitement to first grade. We are looking forward to hearing the Handbell concert and seeing what reading activity we will be doing. 

A Grinchy Monday!

It is hard to believe that we are one week away from Christmas break! In honor of the upcoming Christmas season, first grade this week is going to be reading Christmas stories and completing a project that relates to it. Today, we read How the Grinch Stole Christmas. Afterwards, we made grinches and drew how we could make the Grinch grin. The students came up with some great ideas including singing to him, giving him presents, and giving him a hug. 

I also thought it would be nice to make our classroom look more festive, so we decorated a small Christmas tree today. The students did a great job decorating it. The tree brings a little sparkle to the room. What do you think? 

Here Comes Santa Claus!

Today was a busy day to end the week. We spent some time day working in literacy centers reviewing vowel sounds and sight words. It is very important that we can easily distinguish between long and short vowel sounds and be able to recognize sight words instantaneously. We also spent time today learning how to add 2 even numbers and how to determine whether a number is even. 

We ended our busy day with Art class. With Christmas just around the corner, we thought it was the perfect time to make a Santa Claus. I think they are just darling. 

   
I hope everyone has a great weekend. Please note that next week's Spelling test will be on Thursday not on Friday. 

Happy Thursday!

Today was a great day in first grade! The highlight, of course, was gym class. That did not come as a surprise to me. The children just love running around and exercising. Today, we went bowling. The students were divided into groups with each group given pins and a ball. Working together, they set up their pins and then tried to knock them over. They had a blast! 

Back in the classroom, we learned how to draw time on a clock and number a clock face. We also continued to practice our sight words this week. 

First grade also led a prayer service for the other primary students today. They all did such a fantastic job reading. Every teacher remarked at how nice the service was. 

Just a reminder that all students will need to have taken an AR this week. 

Happy Wednesday!

Today was a calmer day in first grade. We started our day with Music class which was a great wake to wake us all up. Once we returned, it was time to learn new things. In Language Arts, we read a story about how things grow and change. I did notice that a few students were having difficulties with our sight words for the week. Please take some extra time to review these words tonight. 

In Math, we studied the odd numbers. We learned what the odd numbers are and practiced counting the odd numbers to 21. Now we can count by both even and odd numbers! 

A Whirlwind of a Day!

Greetings, everyone! Today was a whirlwind day in first grade. The first graders had Spanish, Music, and Computer class all before lunch! Needless to say, we worked very hard this afternoon. 

We learned how to read consonant-vowel words; these words were quite easy to decode. We also practiced reading our sight words. The highlight of Language Arts class came during the grammar portion. We are talking about action verbs this week. After brainstorming a list of action words, the students each picked a word and acted out the motion. Everyone else had to guess the action. This brought such excitement to the class! 

I hope everyone is having a good week. It is hard to believe that Christmas is only 2 weeks away! 

The Ever Many Sounds of Our Alphabet

Just when we thought we had it all figured out in first grade we learned that yet another letter can have more than one sound. We discovered that y can say i or e when it is at the end of the word. The trick is to know how many syllables a word has. If it has one syllable y will say i; if the words has two syllables it will say e. With a little practice, we will be able to differentiate the sound without a problem. 

We brought a little Art into Math class today when we talked about symmetry. First, we learned that a line of symmetry divides something in half with both sides being exactly the same. We then applied that knowledge by creating symmetric Christmas trees just in time for the holiday season. 

Blown Away!

 The students totally surprised me today during Art class. The goal of class today was to take pieces of tissue paper and glue them in an outline of a Christmas ball. I was worried that it just would not work and shared those concerns with a fellow teacher. Well, the students totally amazed me doing this project. They all created such darling Christmas balls. Many teachers commented about how pretty they all turned out. I am so excited to share pictures of them. Have a look: 

     

Happy St. Nicholas Day!

There was a lot of excitement in the air today in first grade. It started with a visit from St. Nicholas. We talked about how if boys and girls put a shoe out on the feast of St. Nicholas, he will come and fill it with surprises. So, before watching a video on the life of St. Nicholas, we put our shoes in the hallway. And sure enough, St. Nicholas did come and filled our shoes with a candy cane and pencil. 

That excitement carried over into our morning of learning. We reviewed our sight words for the week, reading words with long vowels, and reading our story. 

The excitement continued this afternoon as we attended the annual Christmas program. We totally enjoyed listening to and at times jamming along with  the band. They played some of our favorite Christmas songs and some new ones. After the band concert, it was time for the Christmas play. We enjoyed watching the junior high students tell the story of the first Christmas. 

I hope your day was filled with as much excitement as ours was. 

Action-Filled Wednesday

Happy Wednesday! First grade had an action packed day today. In Religion this week, we have been learning the Lord's Prayer. Today, we looked at the meaning behind these sacred words. 

During Language Arts class, we read a story about honey bees. We learned what the queen, drones, and worker bees do in a hive. In Math, we discovered how to count dimes and pennies. It was a little tricky at first, but we soon got the hang of it. 

Wednesdays mean its Social Studies day. Our focus switched to geography today where we learned about the continents and oceans. We sang a special song and created a map of the world using a paper plate. I hope you like what they made. 

With the Christmas musical season upon us, first grade did not have music class today, but we did have an extra Science class. Today we talked about how to sort objects. We discovered we can sort object by size, color, or shape. We then did an experiment to sort objects by whether or not they float. We found out that a plastic circle shape, a pencil grip, and linking cube floats. An Army man, dice, paper clip, bean, and chalk sink. We sure enjoyed playing with the water!

Just a reminder that the students will not have gym class tomorrow because of the Christmas program. Please continue to read their library book with them. All students will need to take a test by Friday. 

We are so Industrious!

First grade has been really industrious the past few days. As maybe some of the students told you, industrious is one of our amazing words this week. I have heard several students use this word when referring to how hard we work in first grade. I love hearing them use new words! 

Things keep moving along in Language Arts. This week, we learned to read long e words spelled ee and words with 2 syllables. We also continue to practice our sight words. In Math class today we learned the even numbers and practiced counting by 2's to 20. 

Just a reminder: Please encourage your child to read his/her library book. All students will need to take an AR test on his/her book by Friday. 

Happy Advent!

Greetings! I hope everyone had a wonderful weekend and enjoyed the beautiful weather. As we begin the season of Advent, I thought I share with you what first grade will be doing this Advent season. I created an Advent calendar. Each day, one student will reach into an envelope and pull out a picture which will relate to something Jesus did or taught. We will then read a Bible story that helps explain the meaning of the picture. Afterwards, we will  add these pictures around our manger as we wait for Jesus to come. So, for today, we pulled out a quarter and grapes. The quarter reminds us to share what we have and the grapes symbolize Jesus' first miracle. Here is a picture of our Advent calendar.