Celebrations Abound!

Greetings! I hope everyone had a fantastic week! We had an awesome week in first grade filled with learning and celebrations! 

We began our Religion class this week by talking about the Corporal Work of Mercy of sheltering the homeless. We talked about ways to help those who are homeless and ways to help out at home. We spent the rest of the week learning about the Seven Sacraments. We looked at each one and talked about it. We also made a cross with symbols of each sacrament. Here are a few examples. 

We continued our story Mama's  Birthday Present this week in Language Arts class. We reviewed our phonics skills we learned last week (long a: ai, ay and possessives) as well as our sight words. This helped us when reading the story. We really enjoyed this story as we learned all about Spanish birthday traditions. Also in Language Arts, we continued our study of adjectives as we practiced identifying them in sentences. In writing, we wrote a persuasive paragraph on why we love the zoo. It is amazing to see their growth in writing. 

The highlight of Language Arts class this week was our fiesta on Thursday. We had a pinata which rained down sight words. The students loved the confetti eggs. It was fun bringing these Spanish traditions alive in our classroom. 

During Math class this week, we practiced adding two two-digit numbers with regrouping; we used our dimes and pennies to help us solve these problems. We also learned how to tell time to the half hour and divide a shape into fourths. Finally, we practiced adding 10 to a number. 

In Social Studies class this week, we celebrated George Washington. We read a biography about his life. Taking the facts from the book, we made a poster with them. Have a look at a finished poster: 

Friday was all about Dr. Seuss. It was our annual celebration about his life and books! We read several books and completed several activities. First we read If I Ran the Zoo and then created our own animal for this new zoo. Next we read Yertle the Turtle and talked about why he wasn't a good king. We made our own Yertle the turtle and wrote about him. Then we read One Fish, Two Fish, Red Fish Blue Fish. Each student was then given a cup of goldfish crackers. We graphed the crackers and then answered questions about the graph. Our Science class even involved Dr. Seuss. After reading Bartholomew and the Oobleck we made Oobleck and wrote about the substance. And in Art class we made a Cat in the Hat. The students had so much fun celebrating this beloved children's author. 

Here are pictures from this week's and last week's art projects: 

Have a wonderful weekend!

Our First Snow Day!

Greetings! I hope everyone is enjoying their weekend! Yesterday was absolutely beautiful. It was so hard to stay inside. If only this weather would last. 

This week was even shorter than planned thanks to our first snow day. Nevertheless, we still learned lots of new skills in first grade this week. 

We wrapped up our study about the Lenten season by reviewing ways to grow closer to God during this time. We also began our study on the Corporal Works of Mercy. Each week in Lent we will focus on a Corporal Work and explore ways that we can live this work of mercy. This week we talked about giving food to the hungry and giving drink to the thirsty. We said that when we donate food to the food pantry, give someone a glass of water, or cleaning the dishes are all ways that we live out this work of mercy. 

In Language Arts class, we learned how to blend and read long a words spelled wither ai or ay. We also learned about possessives. In addition we learned our new sight words. This will help us as we read our story Mama's birthday Present next week. In addition to that we talked about adjectives. We learned that they are words to describe nouns. We will continue to practice identifying adjectives next week. Finally, we wrote our first persuasive paragraph; it was on why we love camping. 

During Math class this week, we learned how to count a large collection of objects by putting them into groups of 10. We also learned about place value. Finally, we learned how to trade pennies for dimes. This will help us next week as we learn how to add with regrouping. 

In Social Studies this week, we identified the countries that border the United States. We labeled them on a map and talked about how all the countries are the same and different. In Science, we sorted various foods into different food groups. We then drew an example of each food group on our own myPlate worksheet. 

Finally it was time for Art. This week we made a relief painting. Students painted fingerprints around a heart. I'll post pictures of the project next week!

Enjoy your Sunday! 

Happy Valentine's Day!!

Greetings on this bitterly cold Saturday morning! I hope everyone is staying warm, snuggling under blankets, and drinking hot chocolate. Spring will be here soon! 

Our Religion class this week focused on the season of Lent which began this past Wednesday. We talked about the meaning of the season and ways we can grow closer to God during this time. To help us grow closer to God, we made an Lenten calendar of things we can do each day at home. Here is a picture of our Lenten calendar: 

In Language Arts class this week, we learned how to blend and read words with comparative endings as well as words with -dge. We also learned new sight words. All of this helped us as we read our story Where Are My Animal Friends? The students especially enjoyed this story since it was a play. They enjoyed playing the different characters as we read it. While reading this story we focused on the reading skill sequence. 

In Grammar this week, we practiced identifying and writing contractions for not. They really are experts on contractions! 

We did several things in writing this week. Together we wrote a persuasive paragraph on why we love camping. The students realized that paragraph writing is really not hard. We also wrote steps we will do to keep our teeth healthy. In addition we wrote facts about Abraham Lincoln. With the last two writing pieces we added it to a craft project. Here is how they turned out: 

During Math class this week, we continued to practice our adding doubles plus 1 facts. We also learned how to solve two to-digit addition problems without using our dimes and pennies. Next, we practiced identifying how many more on a graph. Then we learned how to make congruent shapes. We learned that congruent means the same size and the same shape. 

On Friday, we celebrated Valentine's Day by doing many wonderful and exciting activities. We did two science experiments using candy hearts. First we predicted whether candy hearts would float or sink. We then tried it out. In case you are wondering, the hearts sank. We then placed candy hearts in water, vinegar, and soda to observe what would happen over time. For Math, we practiced sorting and graphing candy hearts. Then it was time to pass out our Valentine's. The bags were quite filled with love by the end of the day!

Have a wonderful weekend! Happy Valentine's Day! 

Happy 100th Day of School!

It was quite an exciting week in first grade. We celebrated Catholic's Schools Week, Groundhog Day, and the 100th Day of School. Each day brought its own festivities and fun. Not only did we celebrate but we also learned new things too. 

In Religion class, we talked about how Jesus celebrated God's love. We then discussed ways we celebrate God's love. Finally, we learned that Jesus gave us the sacraments to help us remember God's life and love. 

During Language Arts class, we reviewed our sight words, r-controlled er, ir, and ur words, and contractions. Knowing all of these words helped us read I'm a Caterpillar where we learned all about the life cycle of the butterfly. We even made a diagram to help us remember the different stages. I put a picture below. In Grammar, we continued our discussion on the verbs am, is, are, was, and were. 

In Math class we continued to learn and practice the doubles plus 1 facts. To help us, we played two games: Match-Up and Concentration. We are slowly beginning to learn these facts. 

In Science class we continued our discussion about teeth. We watched a movie on the importance of brushing our teeth. We then did an experiment using hard boiled eggs soaked in Coke. Students worked in pairs to brush the egg; they learned that when we don't brush our teeth will become brown and that it takes a lot of scrubbing to get our teeth white again. 

We began Art class by reading The Biggest Valentine Ever. We then used hearts to make the Valentine mouse that was in the story. Have a look. 

Now for the week's celebrations. On Monday, we predicted whether or not Phil would see his shadow. On Tuesday, we wrote why we were happy or sad that Phil did not see his shadow. Then we pretended we were a groundhog and answered questions. Here's pictures from our activities: 

Thursday marked the 100th day of school. The entire day was full of fun and exciting 100th day activities. Students worked in groups to build a design using 100 of some type of objects. They made a snake using 100 linking cubes, a snowflake using 100 pattern blocks, and a tower castle using 100 cups. Students then made a portrait of themselves at 100 years old and wrote what they would do when they are 100. Finally, using the digits 1, 0, 0 students made a design. Here are pictures of the portraits: 

This week was also Catholic School's Week. We enjoyed eating lunch with our parents and other family members on Tuesday. We loved playing Bingo with Mr. Rhoades and we enjoyed our movie afternoon. Thank you to everyone who helped this week! Thank you to everyone for making Holy Name School a great place! 

Enjoy the Superbowl!