Greetings, everyone! I hope everyone is doing well on this rainy Sunday morning. We had a busy week last week learning new things in first grade.
In Religion class, we learned the Great Commandment. Jesus told us to love God, love others, and love ourselves. We talked about ways to love God, others, and ourselves. To help us remember the Great Commandment we made a mobile. Check it out:
In addition to learning the Great Commandment we began praying the Glorious Mysteries. We will finish praying them this week.
Things switched up for us in Language Arts class. We learned how to blend and read long a words. The key for us is to look for that Magic e at the end of words and remember that when we see Magic e that a will say its name. We also learned how to blend and read words with a c when it says s and a g when it says j. It will take practice for us to remember all of these rules.
Also in Language Arts class, we talked about identifying cause and effect in stories. In addition we practiced writing proper nouns correctly. One thing we did was create a Proper Noun Pizza. I posted a picture below of this tasty work. Finally, in the spirit of Halloween we wrote about haunted houses. We described what we see, hear, feel, and touch in a haunted house.
With fall in full swing we took time to explore pumpkins. We looked at the life cycle of a pumpkin as well as the parts of the pumpkin. We even carved a pumpkin for our classroom. Check out what we did:
In Math class this week, we used number cards to identify a number one more than a number. This led us to a discussion on the adding 1 facts. We also learned how to write number sentences for some, some went away stories. We ended the week by identifying things we do in the morning, afternoon, evening, and night.
Have a great rest of your weekend!
Greetings! I hope everyone is doing well! We had a busy week in first grade. We really enjoyed dressing up for pictures on Wednesday. I can't wait to see everyone's smiles.
We began our week with Mass with Fr. Jim. He reminded the students to always show others mercy. During our studies in Religion this week, we again talked about how Jesus helped others. We made a special poster reminding us that Jesus is our Healer; check out the picture below. We also discussed why people followed Jesus and learned the Great Commandment of loving God, ourselves, and others.
In Language Arts this week, we learned to blend, read, and spell words with digraphs sh, and th as well as words with the vowels al. We also practiced our sight words. All of this helped us as we read A Big Fish for Max. The students really love this story about Max and Ruby. This week as we read our story we worked on finding cause and effect examples in the text. Also this week, we learned about nouns and practiced finding and using nouns in sentences. Finally, we continued to work on writing sentences by adding details to them.
During Math this week, we added a new piece to our homework. Each night we will be practicing writing answers for our Math facts. This will help us learn them. In addition to practicing our math facts, we learned how to identify heavier and lighter objects by using a balance, covered designs using pattern blocks, and solved a problem by looking for a pattern.
With the sun shining, we took Gym class back outside on Thursday. It was such a picture perfect day to spend outdoors playing with our friends. In Science class we talked about how adult animals care for their babies. And in Social Studies we learned about continents and oceans. We even made a map of the world. Here it is:
Finally, it was time for Art class. We began by tracing a pattern on black construction paper. We then used marshmallows to outline it. They turned out great:
Have a terrific weekend!
Greetings, everyone! I hope you had a wonderful week. We had a great week in first grade learning all sorts of new things. This week was extra special because it was Fire Safety Week. We talked about the job firefighters do. We also reviewed the emergency number we call and discussed fire safety rules like stay low and find our meeting spot. Here is an example of the fire safety dog we made on Wednesday:
In Religion class this week we prayed the Luminous Mysteries. We also attended the Living Rosary. Our friends in third, fourth, and fifth grade did a beautiful job leading us as we prayed the rosary. Also in Religion class this week, we talked about how John the Baptist prepared people for Jesus' coming. In addition, we studied how Jesus shared God's love with everyone and how Jesus helped all those in need.
In Language Arts class, we learned to blend and read short u words as well as words with final blends. Our story this week, Animal Park, took us on a safari as we read about the various animals that live there. While reading this story we worked on identifying cause and effect as well as our sight words. In Grammar this week, we learned all about questions including how to write questions correctly. Finally, in writing, we practiced writing a three part sentence using descriptive words.
During Math class this week we used our geoboards to make rectangles. We also learned how to write addition number sentences. In addition we learned new doubles facts; we used our linking cubes to help us find the answers to these facts. We also made our very own student fact cards which we will use to help us learn these facts. Finally, we used a new math manipulative this week: pattern blocks. We learned to identify pattern blocks by their color and their shape. We also used them to make repeating patterns.
We learned about Christopher Columbus this week in Social Studies. We made a small booklet about his life. We also made a poster of his three ships. Here's a poster:
In Science class, we talked about the four basic needs of animals: food, water, air, and shelter. Next students drew an animal and then drew the basic needs for that animal.
Finally, it was time for Art class. In the spirit of Halloween we made mummies. This is one of my favorite art projects to do with the students.
Have a fantastic weekend!
Greetings! Welcome to October! It is hard to believe that the first month of school has come and gone. We are working really hard at learning new things. This week was no exception.
On Monday in Religion class the students were given a rosary. We talked about how to pray the rosary and the sets of mysteries we pray. Each day we prayed a decade of the Joyful Mysteries. We will continue to pray the rosary throughout the month of October. In addition to learning to pray the rosary, we talked about Jesus as a young boy. We learned that Jesus grew up in Nazareth with Mary and Joseph and that as a family they did many things together. We ended the week by celebrating Mass with the school. Msgr. Lockard reminded us to always listen to our guardian angel.
In Language Arts this week, we practiced blending and reading short e and initial blend words. We also reviewed reading words with inflected endings. In addition we practiced our sight words. While reading Get the Egg, we focused on differentiating between realism and fantasy. During one activity, students were given a scenario and had to decide if it was real or fantasy. Here is how our chart turned out:
Also in Language Arts, we learned about telling sentences. We discussed that these sentences tell us something, begin with a capital letter, and end with a period. In writing, we wrote a three part sentence and then jazzed it up by adding adjectives.
This week in part of Language Arts class we learned about apples. We talked about the life cycle of an apple and the parts of an apple. The students created an apple using pieces of construction paper and then made a sentence describing their apple. Here are some examples:
We learned and practiced several new skills in Math this week. On Monday, we made a pictograph showing the number of seeds in an apple. We then noted observations about our graph. Next we practiced writing addition number sentences; we used our linking cubes to help us do this. Then we talked about ordinal position; we again used linking cubes to help us identify ordinal position to the sixth. Finally we began to learn our double facts. We will be learning lots of addition and subtraction facts this.
As for our other classes . . . The rain forced us to the gym this week. We played several rounds of "Alligator, Alligator." The students love this game and game away sweaty and tired. In Social Studies class, we wrapped up our unit on our community. And in Science we learned about insects. Working in groups, the students used Play-doh to make a model of an insect. Each model included a head, thorax, abdomen, and six legs. Here is one model:
We ended our week with Art class. Our focused switched from fall to Halloween. We made screaming ghosts. They are boo-tiful!
Have a wonderful (and dry) weekend!
