Annual Applesauce Day!

 Greetings! Happy Friday! Today was a very exciting day in first grade. It was our annual applesauce day. This has become a tradition to end our week of apple fun. The students waited all week for this. 

We began our day by making our applesauce. Together, we added the apples, water, cinnamon, and sugar to our crockpot. We turned it on and let it cook all day while we learned. 

After making our applesauce, we headed to Mass. Today, Fr. Brian reminded us that our guardian angels are with us and that St. Michael the Archangel will defend us from evil. 

We wrapped up another week of learning in Language Arts. We used our oral vocabulary words in sentences, read short o words, and put words into ABC order. We wrote sentences using our sight words and took our weekly assessment. 

In Math class, we switched our focus to subtraction. We will be learning several subtraction strategies. Today, we learned to subtract by taking away. Using our linking cubes, we looked at a problem, identified where to start and how many to take away. When then solved the problem. 

Finally, after Math class, it was time to enjoy our applesauce. For those that tasted it, they loved it. 

After eating our applesauce, we created a leaf silhouette using strips on scrapbook paper. Here are some final products: 

Here are pictures from our Johnny Appleseed craft and apple writing that we did yesterday. 

Have a great weekend! 

Celebrating Johnny Appleseed!

 Greetings! Happy Thursday! Today was another fun day in first grade. 

In Religion class we learned how to pray the rosary. We colored a sheet explaining how to pray the rosary, and then we got our very own rosary to use in school during the month of October. Today, we prayed the first decade of the Joyful Mysteries. We will continue to pray one decade a day during the month of October. 

In Language Arts, we reviewed our oral vocabulary words, practiced reading short o words, and put words into ABC order. We then worked on our fluency as we read a story from our decodable reader booklets. Next, we practiced punctuating sentences with the correct punctuation. Finally, in honor of our apple celebration this week, we wrote about what we like to do with apples. We added our writing to a craft. 

In Math class today, we continued to practice solving real world addition problems. The students are very good at understanding the problem and solving it. Tomorrow we will switch gears and begin to focus on subtraction. 

We ended our day with Social Studies. Today we learned about Johnny Appleseed. We read a tall tell about his life and then wrote 3 facts that we learned about him. We will add our writing to a craft tomorrow. 

Have a great night! 

Ten Apples Up On Top!

 Greetings! Happy Wednesday! I hope everyone is doing well tonight. 

We wrapped up our chapter on God creating the world today. We reviewed how God knows everything, is everywhere, all powerful, and good. We also reviewed all that God created. 

In Language Arts class, we reviewed our oral vocabulary words, practiced reading short o words, put words into ABC order, and reviewed our sight words. Next, we worked on our fluency and comprehension. We partner read a story in our decodable reader booklets. We also read the nonfiction story Friends. After reading that story we completed pages in our close reading companion that focused on finding details. We ended our morning by deciding what punctuation mark to put at the end of the sentence. We put a question mark for a question and a period for a telling sentence. 

In Math class today, we learned the four steps that we need to take to solve a real world addition problem. We need to understand the problem, make a plan to solve the problem, solve the problem, and then check it. Using our steps, we practiced solving real world addition problems. 

We ended our day with apple fun. Today we read Ten Apples Up On Top. After reading the story, we completed a Seesaw activity where the students took a picture of themselves and then placed ten apples up on top of their heads. They had fun with this. 

Have a great night! 

Spending Time with Jesus!

 Greetings! Happy Tuesday! I hope everyone is having a nice week! 

For Religion today we headed over to church for Eucharistic Adoration. We spent some quiet time praying and talking to Jesus. 

We continued our week of learning in Language Arts. We reviewed our oral vocabulary words we learned yesterday and then learned three new words (deliver, collect, chore). We then practiced segmenting words into sounds using our sound boxes. Next we used our letter tiles to spell and read short o words. Following that, we learned how to put words into ABC order. After that, we practiced using our sight words in sentences. We ended the morning focused on building our comprehension skills. We reread Toss! Kick! Hop! and wrote details from the story. We did the same as we read our decodable reader. 

This afternoon in Language Arts we practiced identifying questions and statements. 

In Math class today, we practiced writing addition sentences for pictures. I showed the students a picture. They then wrote a number sentence for the picture. As they read their number sentences, they told a story to go along with the picture. I loved how they really looked at details to write their sentences. 

Today our apple activity centered around the parts of an apple. We created a diagram of an apple and then labeled the parts. 

Don't forget that tomorrow is a special jean day. Have a wonderful night! 

The Last Week of September!

 Greetings! Happy Monday! I hope everyone had a wonderful weekend and a great start to their week. It is hard to believe that this is the last week of September. 

In Religion class, we talked about how we all have a Guardian angel who watches over us and who we can turn to when we need help. 

We began a new week of learning in Language Arts; this week we will be reading about friends. We began by learning 2 new oral vocabulary words (cooperate and relationship). We then worked on answering questions from a text as we read Friends All Around. Following that we sorted words based on same vowel sound. Then we learned how to blend and read short o words. Next, we practiced reading our new sight words. Finally, we put our skills to work as we read Toss! Kick! Hop!, a nonfiction story about friends doing things together. 

This afternoon in Language Arts we practiced telling the difference between statements and questions. We learned that a statement tells you something while a question asks you something. 

In Penmanship class this week, we will be practicing writing t and T. 

In Math class today, we focused on telling an addition story for a picture and then writing a number sentence to go along with our problem. The children were very creative with their story telling. 

We ended our day with some apple fun. All week, we will be doing activities involving apples. Today, we talked about the life cycle of an apple. 

Have a great night! 

Making an Insect!

 Greetings! Happy Friday! I hope everyone is doing well. We had a great day to end our week. 

At Mass this morning, we remembered St. Padre Pio. Fr. Brian talked to us about always having faith and praying to St. Padre Pio for guidance. 

We wrapped up another week of learning in Language Arts. We used our oral vocabulary words in sentences, read l-blend words and plurals, and wrote sentences using our sight words. To help our fluency and comprehension skills grow, we partner read a story from our decodable reader booklets. We also read a story about the needs of pets and completed pages in our close reading companion that helped us find details in a story. Finally, we took our weekly assessment. 

In Math class, we continued to practice adding. Students worked with a partner to solve addition problems. 

In Science class, we learned about insects. We learned that all insects have 3 body parts (head, thorax, abdomen) and 6 legs. We used our Play-doh to make an insect. The students were very creative with their insects. 

We ended our day with Art class. Today we made a worm coming out of an apple. This is the kick start to next week which will be apple week in first grade! 

Here are pictures of today's art project and the owls we made a few weeks ago: 

Have a great weekend! 

A Monday Feeling on a Thursday!

 Greetings! Happy Thursday! I hope everyone enjoyed their Wednesday. Thank you for making our remote learning day such a success. 

In Religion class today we reviewed the creation story by creating a Creation Mobile. We sequenced the order God made everything. The children loved having their mobiles hang from their desks all day. 

In Language Arts class, we reviewed our oral vocabulary words, practiced reading words with l-blends, plurals, and our sight words. To help us build our fluency and comprehension, we partner read a story from our decodable reader booklets. We also read Flip, a fiction story about a dinosaur going to school. After reading the story, we illustrated what happened in the beginning, middle, and end of it. We ended the class by practicing finding statements. 

In Math class today, we reviewed our strategies on how to add. Working with a partner, we practiced solving addition problems. 

We ended our day with Social Studies. Today we talked about how leaders make rules to keep us safe. 

Have a great night! 

A Calmer Day!

 Greetings! Happy Tuesday! Today was a much more normal day in first grade. Lots of learning took place. 

In Religion class today, we talked about how God created the world. We watched a video on the creation story and talked about what God created on each day. 

We began Language Arts class by reviewing our oral vocabulary words we learned yesterday and then learned three new words (companion, groom, and popular). We then worked on visualizing as we read a nonfiction piece about pets. After that we used our letter tiles to spell and read l-blend words. Following that we learned how to read plural -s words. Next, we practiced using our sight words in sentences. We ended our morning sorting examples into groups: statements or not statements. 

This afternoon in Language Arts we worked on our comprehension skills; this week we are working on finding details in stories. We reread A Pig for Cliff and wrote details from the beginning, middle, and end of the story. We also read our decodable reader and wrote about the details in it. 

In Math class today, we practiced adding by counting on. We began by using linking cubes to help us add on and then switched to a number line. 

Just a reminder that tomorrow is a Remote Learning Day. See you on Thursday! 

An Impromptu Concert

 Greetings! Happy Monday! I hope everyone enjoyed their weekend and the beautiful weather! 

This morning we headed over to church to attend an impromptu concert performed by David Oberreuter. His performance was beautiful and helped us draw closer to Jesus. Thank you to Fr. Brian for organizing this special event for us. 

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

We began a new week of learning in Language Arts today; this week we will be reading about pets. We learned two new oral vocabulary words (care and train). We worked on visualizing as we read Cool Dog, School Dog. Next, we learned how to blend and read l-blend words, words that begin with bl, cl, fl, gl, pl, or sl. After that we learned our new sight words. 

This afternoon in Language Arts, we put our new decoding skills to use as we read A Pig for Cliff, We also worked on telling whether a sentence was a statement or not. 

In Math class today, we learned how to add using number bonds. We also wrote addition sentences using the number bonds. 

Have a great night! 

Practice Day!

 Greetings! Happy Thursday! Today was a busy day to end our week. 

In Religion class, we wrapped up our chapter on Heaven. We reviewed our Heaven is God's home and how one day it will be our home too. 

We wrapped up our week of learning in Language Arts. We used our oral vocabulary words in sentences, read short i words and words with final double consonants. We wrote sentences using our sight words, took our weekly assessment, and practiced writing sentences in correct word order. To help us build our fluency and comprehension, we partner read a story in our decodable reader booklets. We also completed pages in our close reading that focused on finding details about city life and country life. 

In Math class today, we practiced solving problems using number bonds. The students worked in groups to solve different problems. They either had to find both parts when given the whole or find the missing part when given the whole and one part. We are doing very well using number bonds. 

Just a reminder that the children do not have school tomorrow. See you on Monday! 

A Day of Practice!

 Greetings! Happy Wednesday! Today was a day of practice for us as we had a fire drill, shelter in place drill, lockdown drill, and severe weather drill. The children did very well as we practiced each one. 

In Religion class today, we practiced making the Sign of the Cross. We decorated a cross and used the cross to help as we practiced. 

In Language Arts class, we reviewed our oral vocabulary words and practiced segmenting words into sounds. We also practiced reading short i words, words with final double consonants, and our sight words. To help us build our fluency, we partner read a story from our decodable readers. We also read Go Pip, a fictional story about a squirrel's day in the city. To help us build our comprehension skills, we completed pages in our close reading that focused on finding details in the story. 

This afternoon in Language Arts, we practiced writing sentences with a capital letter, period, and correct word order. 

In Math class, we focused our number bond lesson today on how to find a part when given the whole and 1 part. We saw how it is like subtraction to find the missing part. 

Just a reminder that tomorrow is our Spelling test! Have a great night! 

Finding the Details!

 Greetings! Happy Tuesday! I hope everyone had a nice day. 

In Religion class this morning, we watched a short video on the life of St. Therese, the Little Flower. We talked about how she prayed to God often and looked forward to joining him in heaven. We then practiced praying and making the Sign of the Cross. 

In Language Arts class, we began by reviewing our oral vocabulary words from yesterday and then learning three new words (bored, scurried, and feast). We then worked on visualizing as we read the classic story "City Mouse, Country Mouse." From there we used our letter tiles to spell and read short i words. Next, we learned how to blend and read words with final double consonants, words like miss, jazz, and mitt. Following that, we practiced using our sight words in sentences. We ended the morning focusing on comprehension; this week we are working on finding key details in a story. As we reread Six Kids and our decodable reader, we noted the details in each story. 

This afternoon in Language Arts, we practiced unscrambling sentences and putting the words into correct order. 

In Math class today, we continued our work with number bonds. We again used our linking cubes to find the whole or parts of a number bond. 

Have a great night! 

A New Week!

 Greetings! Happy Monday! I hope everyone had a nice weekend. 

In Religion class today we talked about how Heaven is our forever home. We discussed that one day we will get to live with God forever in Heaven. 

We began a new week of learning in Language Arts today; this week we will be reading about where we 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 blending and reading short i words. Next, we learned our new sight words. Finally, we put our new skills to work as we read Six Kids, a fantasy story about chicks. The students really enjoyed this story. 

This afternoon in Language Arts we talked about how it is important for sentences to be in correct word order. We practiced unscrambling sentences and putting them in the correct word order. 

This week in Penmanship we will be practicing the letter L. 

In Math class, we began our chapter on number bonds. We learned that when we have two parts we can put them together to get the whole. We practiced using hula hoops and ourselves then went to linking cubes. We will continue our exploration of number bonds tomorrow. 

Have a great night! 

A Day of Firsts!

 Greetings! Happy Friday! Today was a day of firsts in First Grade!

At Mass this morning, Fr. Brian reminded us to not put others down but to build them up. He encouraged us to pray for one another each day. 

We wrapped up our first week of learning in Language Arts today. We used our oral vocabulary words in sentences and read short a words and words with inflected ending -s as we played "Stinky Feet". The goal of the game was to clean the feet by reading short a words. The team with the most points wins. After our game, we wrote sentences using our sight words. Then we took our first reading assessment of the year. 

After lunch, we took our first Spelling test. Everyone was so nervous this morning, but all did a fantastic job on the test. 

Then it was time for our first Math test. Everyone took their time and used their critical thinking skills to solve the problems. 

In Science class today, we talked about the different ways animals move. To show the different ways animals move, the students worked in groups. Each group was given a cube with pictures of different animals on them. One at a time, they rolled the cube and acted out how that animal moves. 

In Art class today, we painted for the first time. Everyone was excited to paint! We are making an owl. Once the paint dries, we will add the wings, eyes, and beak. I'll post pictures next week. 

Have a great weekend! 

A Beautiful Place!

 Greetings! Happy Thursday! I hope everyone had a terrific day! 

In Religion class today, we talked about how Heaven is the most beautiful place and is God's home. 

We continued with our week of learning in Language Arts. We practiced using our oral vocabulary words in sentences, read short a words, words with the inflected ending -s, and our sight words. To help build our fluency and comprehension we read a story from our decodable reader booklets. We also read a nonfiction piece about school rules. Following that story, we completed pages in our close reading that helped us find the key details in the selection. We ended the morning by practicing writing sentences with a capital letter and a period. 

In Math class today, we reviewed the concepts we learned with the numbers 0-10: counting, finding one more and one less, and patterns. Tomorrow we will take our test. 

We ended our day with Social Studies. Today we talked about different jobs people have and jobs we can do in the classroom. 

Have a great night! 

Building Math Thinkers!

 Greetings! Happy Wednesday! I hope everyone had a nice day. 

In Religion class today, we wrapped up our chapter on God is our Father. We reviewed how God is our father, how God made us and gives us everything we need, and on how we need to thank him. 

In Language Arts class, we practiced using our oral language words in sentences. Next, we used our sound boxes to segment words into sounds. After that we practiced reading short a words, words with the inflected ending -s, and our sight words. We then switched our focus to building our fluency and comprehension. We partner read a story in our decodable reader booklets. We then read Nat and Sam. Following that story, we completed pages in our close reading companion that focused on the key details from the story. 

This afternoon in Language Arts, we separated examples of sentences and not sentences. We then wrote in our journal. 

In Math class today, we used our critical thinking skills to solve problems. For many of the problems, we had to draw how we know that. I was quite impressed with their drawings! 

Here is a picture from Friday's Art class. 

Have a great night! 

Finding Key Details!

 Greetings! Happy Tuesday! I hope everyone had a great weekend. I loved hearing all of the weekend happenings today. It sounded like so many had fun at the fair especially with the animals. 

For Religion today, we headed over to church for Adoration. Since this was our first time going to Adoration, we sat in the cry room and talked about Adoration. We went over what it is and what we do. We ended by spending a few quiet moments praying to Jesus. 

We continued our week of learning in Language Arts. We reviewed the oral vocabulary words we learned last week and then learned three new words (common, recognize, and object). We then worked on visualizing as we read a nonfiction piece about schools around the world. Next, we used our letter tiles to spell and read short a words. After that, we learned how to blend and read words with the inflected ending -s. Following that we practiced using our sight words in sentences. We ended our morning focusing on comprehension; this week we are working on finding the key details in a story. We reread Jack Can and our decodable reader. After each story, we identified the key details. 

This afternoon in Language Arts we practiced identifying sentences. We also practiced writing sentences. 

In Math class, we explored the numbers 1-10. The students used linking cubes to show different ways to make a number. This will help us when we begin to add. 

Have a great night! 

Happy September!

 Greetings! Happy Friday! I hope everyone had a nice day to end the week. 

At Mass this morning, Fr. Brian reminded us to always be in the present and not worry about the past or future. 

We continued with our week of learning in Language Arts. Today, we reviewed short a by matching words to pictures. We also worked on our fluency as we read Jack Can. Finally, we learned what a sentence is and practiced identifying sentences. 

In Math class, we learned about number patterns. We used our linking cubes to show various number patterns. 

In Science class we talked about the different coverings animals have. We then sorted pictures of animals based on their coverings. 

Finally, it was time for Art class. Today we made a pencil person. They turned out cute. I will post pictures next week once everything has dried. 

Have a wonderful three day weekend! See you on Tuesday! 

The Beginning of Reading!

 Greetings! Happy Thursday! I hope everyone is having a nice day. 

In Religion class today we talked about how God wants us to pray and talk to him every day. He wants us to have a close relationship with us. 

We began our first week of first grade Language Arts today. We began by learning two oral vocabulary words (learn and subjects). We then worked on visualizing as we read This Will Be the Best School Year Yet. Following that we practiced rhyming words. Next, we practiced blending and reading short a words. We ended the morning by learning our new sight words. 

In Penmanship class, we practiced writing the numbers 5-9. 

In Math class, we practiced finding one more and one less than a number. We used our linking cubes to help us. 

We ended our day with Social Studies. Today, we wrapped up our rule building lessons by reviewing what it means to be respectful, make good choices, and listen. We learned about classrooms rewards when we do them and promised to try hard to be fantastic first graders. 

Have a great night!