Breakfast for Lunch!

 Greetings! Happy Thursday! The students were so excited for lunch today because it was breakfast for lunch. When it was time for lunch, they kept saying it was time for breakfast with laughter. It was so great to hear!

In Religion class today we talked about how God made the angels to be his helpers. We talked about how some angels turned away from God and how some angels stayed to follow God. We also talked about how our Guardian angels are always with us to help us. 

In Language Arts class, we reviewed our oral vocabulary, practiced reading short o words and our sight words, and put words into ABC order. To help build our fluency and comprehension, we partner read a story from our decodable reader booklets and our story from yesterday. We also read a poem and completed pages in our close reading companions. Finally, we practiced identifying statements and questions. 

In Math class today we continued to practice solving addition problems by using our linking cubes or our number line. Some have even tried counting mentally to solve the problems. 

For Gym, we headed outside to play and exercise. It was such a nice afternoon!

We ended our day with Social Studies. Today, we learned about community helpers. We completed an activity in Seesaw where the students took a picture of themselves, drew what they wanted to be when they are older, and recorded what they wanted to be. They turned out great!

Tomorrow is Friday! Have a great night! 

Fact Practice Time!

 Greetings! Happy Wednesday! I hope everyone is having a great week! 

In Religion class today we talked about the difference between what God created and what man makes. We provides several examples of what God made and what we make using what God made. 

We began Language Arts by reviewing our oral vocabulary words. We then worked on deleting a sound in a word to make a new word. Then we practiced reading short o words and putting words into ABC order. Following that, we practiced our sight words. Then, we switched our focus to fluency and comprehension. We partner read a story in our decodable readers and read a story in our literature anthology. After reading that story, we completed pages in our close reading companion that focused on finding details from the story. 

This afternoon in Language Arts we practiced identifying statements and questions. We also worked on our writing skills. Today, we wrote about why we love fall. We added that writing to a scarecrow craft. I'll post those pictures tomorrow. 

In Math class today, we practiced writing a number sentence for a picture. We also began our daily fact practice. Every day, we will take time to practice and learn addition and subtraction math facts. We will begin with adding 0 and adding 1 facts. 

Just a reminder that tomorrow is a jean day! Have a great night! 

The Creation Story!

 Greetings! Wow, was that a storm this morning! I was not expecting that. The thunder woke me up. I hope everyone made it to work safe today. 

In Religion class, we reflected on the creation story by making a mobile. We ordered the days of creation as we made it. They looked so nice hanging off of the desks today. I hope you are enjoying them at home too. 

We began Language Arts by reviewing the oral vocabulary words we learned yesterday; then we learned three new words (chore, deliver, and collect). Next, we worked on answering questions as we read a nonfiction piece about games played long ago. Following that, we segmented words into sounds. After that we used our letter tiles to spell and read short o words. Then, we learned how to put words into ABC order. Next, we practiced using our sight words in sentences. We ended our morning focusing on fluency and comprehension. We reread our story from yesterday and our decodable reader; after reading each story we focused on finding and writing details from them. 

This afternoon we practiced sorting sentences based on whether they were statements or questions. We also wrote another detailed sentence describing a picture. 

In Math class, we used a number line to help us to add. We start at a number and then count up. 

We ended our day with Spanish class. Today, we learned some basic Spanish phrases, phrases like hello, goodbye, how are you. They sure do love Spanish class! 

Have a great night! 

Small Group Reading!

 Greetings! Happy Monday! I hope everyone had a nice weekend and was able to get outside and enjoy the beautiful weather we had!

In Religion class today, we talked about how God created the world. We watched a short video about how God created the world and read the creation story. We ended class by drawing different things God created. 

We began a new week of learning in Language Arts; this week we will be reading about friends and what they do. We began class by learning two new oral vocabulary words (cooperation and relationship). We then worked on answering questions from a text as we read Friends All Around. Following that, we sorted words based on their vowel sound. Next, we learned how to blend and read short o words. After that, we learned our new sight words. Then, it was time to apply what we learned as we read a nonfiction story about things friends do. 

We ended our morning by reading in small groups. Each group read a story and talked about the events in the story. While we were not reading, the students practiced reading skills using Seesaw. 

This afternoon in Language Arts, we practiced telling the difference between a statement and a question. We also wrote a detailed sentence about a picture. 

In Math class today, we began to learn strategies on how to solve addition problems. Today we focused on counting on to solve the problem. We used linking cubes to help us. 

Have a great night!

A is for Applesauce!

 Greetings! Happy Friday! Today was another exciting day in first grade! 

All week we have been studying apples and learning about Johnny Appleseed. To conclude our learning, we made applesauce today. After Mass, we added the apples, sugar, water, and cinnamon to the crock pot. We turned it on, and let the magic happen while we learned. 

Before making applesauce, we went to Mass. Today Fr. Brian reminded us about our call to tell others about Jesus. 

We wrapped up another week of learning in Language Arts. We used our oral vocabulary words in sentences. Next, to help us review reading l-blend words, we did a write the room activity. I placed 12 word cards around the room; the students walked around the room and wrote each word in the correct space on their paper. They loved it so much that they asked to do it again! After that we wrote sentences using our sight words and took our weekly assessment. 

To practice our writing skills, we wrote the steps in how we made our applesauce. And, for a little fun and practice, we made a flower. On each petal, we wrote an l-blend word. 

In Math class today, we took our test on number bonds. Next week, we will begin to learn strategies to solve addition problems. 

In Science class today, we watched videos about the four needs of all animals: food, water, air, and shelter. Then, we completed a sorting activity in Seesaw. 

In Art class today, we made a leaf silhouette. We glued strips of scrapbook paper on construction paper. We then glued an outline of a leaf on top of it. They look awesome. 

Then, after waiting all day, it was time to enjoy our applesauce. As the students said, they didn't like it, they loved it! And I loved seeing their excitement. Have a great weekend! 

Picture Day!

 Greetings! Happy Thursday! Excitement was in the air today as we could not wait for Picture Day! Everyone was excited to sit and smile for the camera. I can't wait to see them when they come in!

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

In Language Arts class, we reviewed our oral vocabulary words, practiced identifying the same sound in words, read l-blend words, plural words, and our sight words. To help us build our fluency, we partner read a story from our decodable reader booklets and our story from yesterday. We also read a short nonfiction piece about what pets need; after reading that story, we completed pages in our close reading companion to help build our comprehension skills. We ended class by reviewing statements. 

In Math class today, we reviewed number bonds. We are ready for our chapter test tomorrow!

For Gym class we stayed inside and exercised to GoNoodle videos. 

We ended our day with Social Studies. Today, we continued our celebration of Johnny Appleseed. We wrote facts about him that we learned yesterday and added them to a cute craft. Here is a picture: 

Have a great night! 

Celebrating Johnny Appleseed!

 Greetings! Happy Wednesday! Today was another great day in first grade!

In Religion class, we wrapped up our chapter that was focused on Heaven. We will begin learning the creation story starting tomorrow. 

In Language Arts we reviewed our oral vocabulary, substituted phonemes, practiced reading l-blend words, plurals, and our sight words. Today, when we read our decodable reader story, we used our tablets. We practiced logging in and using the Wonder website. The children did so well with this. After reading our decodable reader story, we read a fiction story about a dinosaur going to school. After reading that story we illustrated what happened in the beginning, middle, and end of the story. 

This afternoon we practiced writing statements remembering our capital letters and periods. 

In Math class today, we practiced solving number bonds. We also used our thinking caps to solve problems. 

Our apple week celebration today focused on Johnny Appleseed. We read a story about him and then sorted statements based on whether or not they were true. 

Just a reminder that tomorrow is picture day! 

Apple Fun!

 Greetings! Happy Tuesday! I hope everyone had a great day! 

In Religion class today, we talked about people we see at Mass. We also talked about how Mass is like Heaven on Earth because Jesus is there present in the Eucharist. 

In Language Arts class, we reviewed our oral vocabulary words from yesterday and then learned three new words (companion, popular, and groom). Following that we worked on visualizing as we read a nonfiction piece about pets. After that we used our sound boxes to segment words into sounds. Next, we used our letter tiles to spell and read words with l blends. Then we practiced reading plural words and practiced using our sight words in sentences. We wrapped up our morning by focusing on comprehension. We reread our story from yesterday and our decodable reader. After each story, we wrote details from it. 

This afternoon in Language Arts we focused on identifying statements. 

In Math class today, we continued to practice number bonds. We are getting really good with them and are getting ready to learn addition and subtraction strategies. 

For our apple fun today, we created a diagram of an apple. We had fun labeling the parts. 

We ended our day with Spanish. They were so excited to play Bingo again. We have mastered the numbers to 10. Next week, we will begin to learn some simple phrases. 

Have a good night! 

The Sign of the Cross!

 Greetings! Happy Monday! I hope everyone enjoyed there three day weekend! 

We began our day with Religion. Today, we practiced making the Sign of the Cross. To help us, we made prayer buddies. We used these prayer buddies to help us practice. Aren't they adorable?

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. Next, we identified the same vowel sound in each word. Following that we learned how to blend and read words with l-blends, words that begin with bl, cl, fl, gl, pl, and sl. After that we learned our new sight words. Finally, we read a fiction story about a new pet. 

This afternoon in Language Arts we learned about statements, another name for a telling sentence. We learned that they begin with a capital letter and end with a period. 

In Math class today, we focused on solving number bonds where a part is missing. We looked at three different ways to solve them. Each one is encouraged to use the way they like best. 

In addition to all that learning, we began our unit on apples today. We will be learning and celebrating apples all week. This will lead to a very special event on Friday. Today, we focused on the life cycle of an apple. 

Have a great night! 

Picture Dump!

 Greetings! Happy Friday on a Thursday! We had an awesome day to wrap up our week!

In Religion class today, we practiced making the Sign of the Cross. We also talked about the gates to Heaven were open when Jesus died on the cross. 

We wrapped up our second week of learning in Language Arts today. We used our oral vocabulary words in sentences, practiced alliteration, segmented and blended phonemes,  and read short i and final double consonant words. Next, we wrote sentences using our sight words. Following that, we partner read both our story from yesterday and a story from our decodable readers. We also read a nonfiction piece comparing the city and the country. 

After lunch we took our weekly assessment. We also practiced writing sentences using correct word order. 

In Math class today, we continued our work with number bonds. We used linking cubes to find multiple ways to break a number into its parts. 

For Gym class, we headed outside to exercise and play with our friends. We also enjoyed watching the trucks work on the roads! 

We ended our day with Social Studies. Today, we talked about rules and why we have them. 

I have been really neglectful in posting pictures this year. I apologize for that. So, without further ado, here are the pictures that I have promised you. 

Have a great weekend! See you on Monday! 

Leaf Writing!

 Greetings! Happy Wednesday! Today was another great day of learning in first grade!

In Religion class, we took time to make thank you cards for a generous donation from a long time supporter of Catholic education. We know that it is always important to thank people for their kindness and to thank God too. 

In Language Arts, we reviewed our oral vocabulary, segmenting words into sounds, practiced reading short i words, words with final double consonants, and our sight words. To help build our fluency and comprehension we partner read a story from our decodable readers along with a story from our literature anthology. After reading that story, we wrote details from it. We ended the morning by practicing writing sentences using correct word order. 

This afternoon we worked on our writing skills. We focused today on leaves and wrote about what leaves are, what leaves can do, and what leaves have. We are working on adding it to a craft. 

In Math class today, we worked with number bonds particularly with finding the parts when given the whole. We said it is like breaking a number into 2 and finding out which two parts there are. 

For Computers today, we worked on Seesaw. Today we focused on taking a picture of our work. 

Just a reminder that tomorrow is a jean day and gym day. Have a good night! 

Short I Fun!

 Greetings! Happy Tuesday! I hope everyone is having a great week so far! 

For Religion class, we headed over to church for Eucharistic Adoration. Since this was our first time going, we sat in the cry room. That way, I could explain what we do in Adoration without disrupting those praying in the church. We talked about how when we go to Adoration, we praise God for all that he has done for us and we ask God to help those in need. 

Language Arts was a busy class today. We began by reviewing our oral vocabulary words we learned yesterday and then learned three new words (bored, scurried, and feast). After that we worked on visualizing as we read "City Mouse, Country Mouse." Next we sorted words based on same vowel sound. We then used our letter tiles to spell and read short i words. Following that we learned how to blend and read words with double final consonants, words like hill, mitt, kiss, and jazz. Then we practiced using our sight words in sentences. Finally, we worked on fluency and comprehension as we read our story from yesterday along with our decodable reader. After reading both stories, we wrote details from them. 

To practice identifying short i words, we created a pig sitting in mud. On the mud, we wrote short i words. Here is one of our pigs:

This afternoon in Language Arts we worked on putting sentences in correct word order. We are enjoying unscrambling these sentences. 

In Math class today, we continued our practice with number bonds. We continued to work with finding the whole when given the two parts. We first used our linking cubes and then switched to just our markers. 

We ended our day with Spanish class. Today we continued to practice the numbers to 10. To help us, we played Bingo. The key was listening because I only called the numbers in Spanish. The children loved this! 

Have a great night! 

Happy Monday!

 Greetings! Happy Monday! I hope everyone was able to enjoy the beautiful weather we had over the weekend! 

In Religion class, we talked about how Heaven is this beautiful place that we will one day go. We took time to illustrate us in Heaven with God. 

We began a new week of learning in Language Arts today; this week we will be reading about different places to live. We began by learning two new oral vocabulary words (city and country). We then worked on visualizing as we read Alicia's Happy Day. Following that, we practiced alliteration. Then it was time to learn how to blend and read short i words. After that we learned our new sight words. We ended our morning practicing our new skills as we read Six Kids. 

This afternoon we talked about the importance of correct word order when writing sentences. We practiced identifying correct sentences and fixing sentences that were out of order. 

In Math class, we began learning about number bonds. We practiced finding the whole when given the two parts. We used linking cubes to help us. Tomorrow, we will try solving some problems without linking cubes! 

Have a great night! 

Friday of Firsts!

 Greetings! Happy Friday! I hope everyone had a fantastic week! We had a bunch of firsts to end our Friday today. 

We began our day with Mass. Today, we listened as Fr. Brian reminded us to always do our best and turn to God in prayer. 

We wrapped up our first week of learning in Language Arts. We practiced using our oral vocabulary words in sentences. We then matched short a words to pictures. To do this, the students had to use a straw to move the words before gluing them. They loved this! 

We took a break from Language Arts to participate in our Fit Friday program. The students had so much fun exercising. They really enjoyed this! 

We then came back to the classroom to finish our Language Arts. We wrote sentences using our sight words. We then took our first reading assessment. I am so proud of how well they listened and followed along during the test. 

After lunch, we took our very first Spelling test. They were so excited to do this! 

We then took our chapter 1 test in Math. Again, they all were focused and did a great job! Next week, we will begin to learn number bonds, the basis for addition and subtraction. 

In Science class today, we talked about how animals move. We got up and showed the various ways animals can move. 

We ended our day with Art class. Today, we made an owl and worked on our fine motor skills. First, the students colored an owl. We then took time to cut it apart before gluing. I'll post pictures on Monday! 

Have a great weekend! 

Short A Fun!

 Greetings! Happy Thursday! The big excitement today in first grade is that our air conditioning is working! Thanks to all who helped make this possible! 

In Religion class today, we talked about Heaven. We talked about how Heaven is a perfect place and how it is God's home. 

In Language Arts, we reviewed our oral vocabulary, isolated vowel sounds in words, used our whiteboards to spell and read short a words and words with inflectional ending -s, and read our word wall. After that we partner read a story in our decodable readers and a short nonfiction story about school rules. Following that, we practiced writing sentences with capital letters and periods. We ended the morning with some short a fun. We created an apple tree full of short a words. Have a look:

In Math class today we reviewed all that we learned with the numbers to 10: counting, more, less, and patterns. We are ready for our chapter test tomorrow!

For Gym class, we dodged the rain and headed outside for some fun in the sun!

For Computers today, we took our Star Math test. We all took our time and did very well! 

Just a reminder that tomorrow is Fit Friday. The students may wear appropriate exercise clothes and sneakers! Have a great night! 

No Lights!

 Greetings! Happy Wednesday! Today started off with great excitement as the lights were turned off so that work could be done to get the air conditioning working. However, we did not let the loss of power disrupt our learning. 

In Religion today, we wrapped up our chapter on God as our Father. We reviewed why he made us, the importance of praying, and the Our Father. 

Language Arts was full of excitement today. We reviewed our oral vocabulary words. We then reread This Year Will Be The Best and answered questions about the structure of the story after reading it. Following that we practiced segmenting words into sounds using our sound boxes. Then we practiced reading short a words, words with the inflectional ending -s, and our sight words. Our focus then switched to fluency and comprehension. We partner read a story from our decodable reader booklets. We also read Nat and Sam. After reading that story, we wrote details from it. We ended our morning by reviewing sentences. We sorted examples into sentences or not sentences. 

In Math class today, we used our thinking caps to solve problems. This helped us build our number fluency. 

Because there was no power, we switched Computers and Social Studies today. So, in Social Studies today, we talked about jobs we can do in the classroom to be helpers. We'll have Computer class tomorrow. 

Have a great night! 

The Our Father!

 Greetings! Welcome back after the long weekend. I hope everyone was able to enjoy themselves and the sunshine! 

We began our day with Religion. Today, we took a closer look at the Our Father. We looked at what the words mean when we pray it. We also created a sign of the Our Father. I hope you were able to find a spot to hang it up tonight! 

We continued with our week of learning in Language Arts. We reviewed the oral vocabulary words we learned on Friday and then learned three new words (common, object, recognize). We worked on visualizing as we listened to a story about schools around the world. After that, we used our letter tiles to spell and read short a words. Next, we learned how to blend and read words with the inflectional ending -s. Following that, we used our sight words in sentences. We ended our morning by focusing on fluency and comprehension. We reread Jack Can and then wrote details from the story. 

This afternoon we learned about sentences. We learned that they begin with a capital letter, end with an end mark, and make sense. 

In Math class, we used our linking cubes to help us find one more and one less of a number. We then switched to using our whiteboards to solve these problems. 

We ended our day with Spanish. Today, we continued to practice counting to 10. We also practiced writing the numbers in Spanish to 10. 

Have a great night! 

Beginning First Grade Reading!

 Greetings! Happy Friday! I hope everyone had a great week!

We began our day by attending Mass. Today, Fr. Brian reminded us to always turn to God and the Holy Spirit when we feel overwhelmed with something. 

Today was a big day for us in Language Arts; we began our first grade work. Every week, we will work on new skills; just wait till you see the growth they will make this year! We began by learning two oral vocabulary words (learn, subjects). We then worked on visualizing as we read This School Year Will Be the Best. After that, we learned how to blend and read short a words. Following that, we learned our new sight words. Finally, we put our skills to work as we read Jack Can. 

In Math class today, we worked with patterns. We used our linking cubes to help us solve number patterns. The students did very well with this. 

In Science class, we talked about all the different coverings animals can have. We then sorted animals based on their body coverings.

We ended our day with Art class. Today we made a crayon person. I will post pictures of them on Tuesday once everything has dried. 

As promised, here is a picture of our "Bee Kind" activity we did as we talked about being peacekeepers. 

Have a great Labor Day weekend! Stay safe! See you on Tuesday! 

Being Peacekeepers!

 Greetings! I hope everyone has dried out after yesterday. It was good to have a full day of school today!

In Religion class, we talked about how God wants us to pray to him. We can use our own words or pray prayers we know. We also learned that Jesus taught us the Our Father. 

In Language Arts, we finished our review today. We finished our remaining letters and sight words. We are now ready to begin first grade reading tomorrow!

In Math class today, we used our whiteboards and dry erase markers to identify the greater and less number in a set. The children had fun using them!

For Gym, we headed outside. It was such a perfect day for exercising with friends!

We ended our day with our peacekeeper lesson. We talked about how when we are peacekeepers we are kind. We listed several examples of us being kind. We wrote about them. We will add them to a craft coloring sheet tomorrow. 

Have a great night! 

A Very Rainy Day!

 Greetings! I hope all are well and dry! It sure was a wet day out there! We had a great day of shortened learning!

In Religion class, we talked about how we need to thank God for all of the gifts he has given us. We took time to name just some of his gifts and thank him for them. 

In Language Arts, we reviewed k, ck, and u. We also blended words together and segmented them into sounds. Finally, we worked on telling the difference between fiction and nonfiction stories as we read the fable "The Tortoise and the Hare."

In Math class we worked on identifying more and less in a group. We used linking cubes to help us and then transition to just using our minds. 

And then, it was time to go home. Again, I hope all is well. Stay safe!