Dr. Seuss Week!

 Greetings! Happy Monday! I hope everyone had a nice weekend. Thank you so much for helping with our Remote Learning Day on Friday! 

In Religion class today, we began our study on Lent. We talked about how this church season is 40 long and how during this time we want to grow closer to Jesus. We do this through prayer, fasting, and almsgiving. 

We picked up where we left off at in Language Arts. We reviewed our oral vocabulary words, practiced reading long e words, compound words, and our sight words. To build our fluency and comprehension, we partner read a story from our decodable reader booklets. We also read a story about saving mountain gorillas and completed pages in our close reading companion that focused on main idea. Finally, we practiced finding adverbs that tell when in sentences. 

In Math class today, we began to learn how to subtract without regrouping. We are really good at starting with the ones. Now we have to remember to count backwards. 

This week is Read Across America Week, a week devoted to the love of reading and the love of Dr. Seuss. Every day this week we will read a Dr. Seuss story and complete an activity that goes along with it. Today we read If I Ran the Zoo. After reading the story, we created our own animals for this new zoo, gave them a name, and wrote about where they live and what they eat. I just loved the children expressing their creativity. Dr. Seuss would be proud! 

Have a great night! 

Trust in Jesus!

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

In Religion class today we reviewed the story of Jesus calming the sea. To help us remember to always trust Jesus, we made a picture where the boat can toss and turn and wrote to the phrase "Trust in Jesus". 

In Language Arts class, we reviewed our oral vocabulary, read long e words and compound words, and reviewed our sight words and vocabulary words. To help build our fluency and comprehension, we partner read a story in our decodable reader booklets. We also read Koko and Penny. After reading that story we completed pages in our close reading companion that focused on sequence. We ended the morning by reviewing commas in a series. 

In Math class today, we reviewed adding with and without regrouping. We are doing very well with this. Next week, we will begin solving subtraction problems. 

For Gym class today, we headed to the gym to play cornhole. Fun was had by all. 

We ended our day with Social Studies. Today we created a flipbook to help us remember the continent, country, and state where we live. 

Here is a picture of our President's Day writing from yesterday. 

Have a great weekend! 

Hard Workers!

 Greetings! Happy Wednesday! I hope everyone is having a good last full week of February. We worked hard today in first grade yet still had so much fun! 

In Religion today we watched the story of Jesus calming the sea. We talked about how his Apostles trusted Jesus and how, in our times of need, we can turn to Jesus and trust him too. 

We continued our week of learning in Language Arts today. We answered questions using our oral vocabulary words and used our letter tiles to spell and read long e words. We also learned how to blend and read compound words. After that we practiced using our sight words and vocabulary words in sentences. We ended our morning focused on comprehension; this week we are focusing on sequencing. We reread From Puppy to Guide Dog and sequenced the events in the story. We also did the same thing as we read our decodable reader. 

This afternoon in Language Arts we practiced finding adverbs that tell when in sentences. We also wrote about what we would do if we were president. We added our writing to a craft. 

In Math class today we continued to practice adding with regrouping. I just loved hearing how the students solved the problems today. They are so excited when they get a problem correct. 

Here is a picture from our Twos-day 22 craft yesterday. 

Have a good night! 

Twos-day Celebration!

 Greetings! Happy Twosday (2-22-22). This is a once in a lifetime day. So, you know we had to celebrate it. I'm always looking for a reason to bring more fun to first grade. But, before our celebration, we had some other learning to do. 

In Religion class, we reviewed the story of Jesus multiplying fishes and loaves. We created a giant poster showing how he turned five loaves and two fish into enough food to feed 5,000 people. 

We began Language Arts by working in our small groups. We then began a new week of learning; this week we will be reading about how animals help people. We learned our new oral vocabulary words (career, soothe, remarkable, trust, and advice). We then worked on visualizing as we read about a boy training a dog. After that, we learned how to blend and read long e words spelled -y or -ey. Next, we learned our new sight words and vocabulary words. We ended the morning by reading From Puppy to Guide Dog, a nonfiction story about how a dog becomes a guide dog. 

This afternoon in Language Arts we learned to identify adverbs that tell when in sentences. 

In Math class today, we learned how to add with regrouping. The key for us is to first add the ones. If that number is 10 or more then we need to regroup. We have to be careful not to get into the habit of always regrouping. 

In Spanish class today, we learned the names for window, notebook, door, pen, desk, and paper. 

Finally, it was time for our Twos-day celebration. We created a graph using 22 Fruit Loops. The students spun a spinner 22 times and added a Fruit Loop to their graph after each spin. They then worked in groups to match food pairs together. Finally, we are decorating a 22. We will need to finish that in the morning. 

Here is a picture of our Fruit Loop graph. 

Have a terrific night! 

George Washington!

 Greetings! Happy Thursday! Today was quite a busy day in first grade. We had lots of things to do before our four day weekend. 

In Religion class, we talked about how Jesus performed miracles. We learned that Jesus could perform miracles because he is God. Today we watched a video and then talked about the time Jesus fed 5,000 people by multiplying 5 loaves and 2 fish. 

We wrapped up another week of learning in first grade. Today, we used our oral vocabulary words in sentences, read long i words, read and spelled words with inflected endings, and wrote sentences using our sight words. We also read a nonfiction piece about insects and completed pages in our close reading companion. Finally, we took our weekly assessment and reviewed using see and saw in sentences. 

In Math class today, we learned how to add with regrouping. We began by using our base ten blocks. Any time we had more than ten ones we regrouped those ten ones for one ten stick. Gradually we transitioned to paper. We will continue this next week. 

For Gym class today, we exercised to GoNoodle. 

We ended our day with Social Studies. Today we learned about George Washington. We wrote facts about him and added those facts to a craft. Have a look: 

Have a great weekend! See you on Tuesday! 

Amazing Pet Show!

 Greetings! Happy Wednesday! I don't know about you, but this week is flying by. We are already half way through February! 

In Religion class today, we wrapped up our chapter on Jesus teaching the Good News. We reviewed how he went from town to town telling people about God's love and teaching them the Beatitudes and how to pray. 

In Language Arts, we reviewed our oral vocabulary words, read long i words, read and spelled words with inflected endings when the y is changed to an i, and read our sight words. After that, we partner read a story from our decodable reader before reading Hi! Fly Guy. We waited all week to read this story and were not disappointed. After reading the story, we completed pages in our close reading companion that focused on point of view. 

This afternoon, we practiced using see and saw in sentences. We also wrote about what pet we would take to the Amazing Pet Show. 

In Math class, we continued to practice addition without regrouping. We are really good and solving these problems. Tomorrow we will solve problems with regrouping. 

Here are some pictures from the Abraham Lincoln activity from yesterday. 

Have a good night! 

How A Character Feels!

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

We began our day by going to Adoration. We spent some quiet time praying and talking to Jesus. 

We continued our week of learning today in Language Arts. We answered questions using our oral vocabulary words, and we used our letter tiles to spell long i words. After that we practiced reading and spelling words with inflectional endings when the y is changed to an i. Then we used our sight words and vocabulary words in sentences. We ended our morning focusing on comprehension; this week we are talking about point of view, how a character feels. We reread our story from yesterday and our decodable reader. After each story, we discussed the characters' point of view. 

This afternoon in Language Arts, we learned when to use see and saw in sentences. We also learned about Abraham Lincoln. We wrote about what we would put in our top hats and added our writing to a craft. 

In Math class, we practiced adding two two-digit numbers without regrouping. We are doing very well with this. 

In Spanish, we learned the names for chair, pencil, book, scissors, eraser, and table. 

Have a great night! 

Happy Valentine's Day!

 Greetings! Happy Valentine's Day! I hope everyone had a lovely day (sorry . . . I couldn't resist). 

In Religion class we talked about how Jesus sharing the Good News can be summed up in the Great Commandment: love God, love others, and love ourselves. To help us remember the Great Commandment, we created a giant heart. Have a look: 

We began Language Arts class by working in our small reading groups before jumping into another week of learning. This week we will be reading about insects. We learned our five new oral vocabulary words (flutter, different, imitate, protect, and resemble). After that we worked on visualizing as we read about how insects protect themselves. Then, we learned how to blend and read long i words spelled i, igh, ie, and y. Following that we learned our new sight words and vocabulary words. We ended our morning reading Creep Low, Fly High, a fantasy story about insects. 

This afternoon was devoted to our Valentine's Day celebration. We used candy hearts to make various numbers, measure arrows, estimate, and graph. After that we distributed our Valentine's and had fun going through all of the gifts. We really enjoyed ourselves. Here are some pictures: 

Have a great night! 

Lots of Art!

 Greetings! Happy Friday! We had a busy day to end our week. 

At Mass this morning, Fr. Brian talked about doing penance for the things we did wrong. He also talked about the feast of Our Lady of Lourdes. 

We wrapped up another week of learning in Language Arts. We used our oral vocabulary words in sentences, read long o and open syllable words, and wrote sentences using our sight words. We also took our weekly assessment. We wrapped up the morning completing a fun Valentine writing project. We wrote about someone we love a 'sloth' and why we love that person. We added that to a craft. Have a look: 

In Math class today we started to learn how to add two two-digit numbers without regrouping. We first used our base ten blocks to help us solve the problems. Then we used our whiteboards. We are slowly getting the hang of it. 

In Science class today we talked about healthy habits. We talked about washing our hands, brushing our teeth, eating healthy foods, covering our coughs and sneezes, and exercising. Here is our science project: 

We ended the day with not one, but two Art projects. First we created a mouse using hearts. We then made our bag for our Valentine Day treats. Here is a picture of the mouse: 

And here is a picture from our Olympic writing from yesterday. 

Have a great weekend! 

Olympic Fun!

 Greetings! Happy Thursday! Today was a very exciting day in first grade. I loved seeing everyone leave with a smile! 

In Religion class today we learned that the Bible is a book filled with stories about God and Jesus. We talked about how we hear stories from the Bible at Mass. 

We continued our week of learning in Language Arts. Today we reviewed our oral vocabulary words and read long o words and open syllable words. We also practiced on building our fluency as we partner read a story from our decodable readers and a poem. After reading the poem we completed pages in our close reading companion that focused on sensory words. We ended class by using go, went, do, and did in sentences. 

We ended our morning working on our writing project from yesterday. Here is a finished project: 

We began our afternoon with a special Gym class. We headed to the gym to participate in the First Grade Winter Olympics. We began by taking the Olympic oath. Then we participated in the following events: speed skating, mogul skiing, bobsled, skeleton, and ice skating. When we were finished, everyone received a gold medal and stood for the playing of our national anthem. Fun was had by all!

 We came back to the classroom for Math class. Today we took our chapter test on the numbers to 40. Tomorrow we will begin to learn how to add without regrouping. 

We ended our day with more Olympic fun. We wrote about our favorite sport and added it to a craft. That project is drying. I'll post pictures tomorrow. 

Have a great night! 

The Beatitudes!

 Greetings! Happy Wednesday! I hope you were able to enjoy the sunshine today! 

In Religion class, we learned the Beatitudes. We learned that Jesus taught his Apostles them on the Sermon on the Mount. We took time looking at what each one means. To help us remember them, we created a beehive for the Beatitudes. 

In Language Arts class, we reviewed our oral vocabulary words, read long o words, open syllable words, and our sight words. We also practiced using our vocabulary words in sentences. Then our focused switched to fluency and comprehension. We partner read a story in our decodable readers and a story from our literature anthology, Vulture View. After reading that story, we completed pages in our close reading companion that focused on details from the story. 

This afternoon in Language Arts we practiced using go, went, do, and did in sentences. We also practiced capitalizing proper nouns. We ended our day with a fun Valentine's Day writing project. We read The Day It Rained Hearts and then wrote about what we would do if it rained hearts. We have to finish our project tomorrow. 

In Math class today, we reviewed the numbers to 40. We worked on place value, ordering the numbers, and patterns. We will take our test tomorrow. 

Have a good night! 

Growing Math Confidence

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

In Religion class today we talked about how Jesus shared the Good News with everyone. 

We continued our week of learning in Language Arts. We answered questions using our oral vocabulary words. Then we used our letter tiles to spell and read long o words. Next, we learned how to blend and read open syllable words. We ended our morning practicing using our sight words and vocabulary words in sentences. 

This afternoon we focused on building our comprehension; this week our skill is main idea and key details. We reread Go Wild and our decodable reader. After reading each story we wrote its main idea and key details from it. After working on our comprehension skills, we also worked on our grammar skills. This week we are practicing using go, do, went, and did in sentences. 

In Math class we used our critical thinking skills to solve problems. I loved hearing the yes when an answer was given. The math confidence in the room is growing. 

We ended our day by learning about the Olympics. We looked at the games' history and viewed videos on various sports. We ended by talking about what it means to be a team player. 

Have a great night! 

A New Week!

 Greetings! Happy Monday! I hope everyone is doing well and had a nice weekend. 

In Religion class today we wrapped up our chapter on Jesus beginning his public ministry. We reviewed how Jesus went from town to town telling people about God and how he blessed the children. We also reviewed how Jesus called the 12 Apostles to lead the church. 

We began Language Arts by reading in our small groups. Then, we began a new week of learning; this week we will be reading about how animals survive. We learned five new oral vocabulary words (survive, provide, communicate, superior, and wilderness). We then worked on retelling as we read about how some animals survive in the winter. After that we learned how to blend and read long o words spelled o, ow, oa, and oe. We ended the morning by learning our new sight words and vocabulary words. 

This afternoon in Language Arts we read our story Go Wild, a nonfiction story about how wild animals get their food. 

In Math class today, we worked on several skills. We practiced identifying the greatest and least number in a set, ordering numbers from least to greatest or greatest to least, and finding 1, 2, or 3 more or less than a number. We really enjoyed using our whiteboards today. 

Have a great night! 

Return to Normal!

 Greetings! Happy Thursday! I hope everyone is doing well. Today we returned to normal in first grade after our celebrations yesterday. 

In Religion class we made thank you cards for area businesses that have donated to Holy Name. We thank everyone for their support. 

We continued with our week of learning in Language Arts. We reviewed our oral vocabulary words, read long e words, read and defined words with prefixes, and reviewed our sight words and vocabulary words. After that, we worked on our fluency. We partner read a story in our decodable readers. We then read a nonfiction piece about bees. Following that, we completed pages in our close reading companion that focused on the details from the story. Finally, we practiced using has and have in sentences. 

In Math class today we worked on solving patterns. Using a number chart, we were able to see the pattern and identify the missing numbers in it. 

For Social Studies today, we reviewed city, town, and country. We sorted pictures based on where we would see them. 

We ended our day with Gym. We had fun dancing and singing along to GoNoodle. 

Just a reminder that tomorrow is a flexible instruction day. Please check your email for details! 

100th Day of School and Groundhog Day!

 Greetings! What a day it was today in first grade! Not only was it Groundhog Day, but also it was the 100th day of school. We had so much fun today! 

In Religion class we looked at the leadership of the church. We talked about how the pope is the successor to Peter and how he leads the whole church. We then talked about how bishops help the pope by leading little areas. Finally, we talked about how priests help the bishops by teaching us about Jesus. 

The rest of our morning was dedicated to celebrating the events of the day. We began by coloring a 100th day of school crown and by making a necklace with 100 beads. 

We then switched our focused to Groundhog Day. We watched as Phil saw his shadow telling us there will be 6 more weeks of winter. We wrote about why we were or were not happy about that. We then completed a flipbook writing facts about groundhogs. We added that to a craft. Here is a picture: 

In Math class today, we focused on place value. We used our base ten blocks to show various numbers to forty. We also were able to look at pictures of base ten blocks and identify the number shown. 

After Math class, we returned to our celebration. We created a bucket list of things we want to see, have, go, and be before we turn 100. A picture of it is below.  We also wrote about what we would buy if we had $100. Each student was given a $100 bill with their picture on it. They loved that! 

And thank you for helping to create a 100 day design. I just loved the creativity. Everyone who has seen them has commented on them. 

Have a great night! 

Teacher Appreciation Day!

 Greetings! Happy Tuesday! Today was a busy morning and a relaxing afternoon. 

In Religion class this morning we talked about the difference between disciple and apostle. We learned that Jesus called 12 men to be his Apostles. We also talked about how Jesus sent his Apostles out into the world to tell others about Jesus and God's love. 

In Language Arts, we reviewed our oral vocabulary words, read long e words, and read and defined words with prefixes. Then our focused switched to fluency and comprehension. We partner read a story in our decodable reader booklets. We also read Animal Teams, a nonfiction story about animals working together. Following that story, we completed pages in our close reading companion that focused on finding details in the story. 

We ended our morning with some groundhog fun. We wrote about whether or not we want Phil to see his shadow tomorrow. 

This afternoon, in honor of Teacher Appreciation Day, we watched a movie. The students really enjoyed Happy Feet. 

Have a great night!