Happy Halloween, part 2!

 Happy Halloween! I hope everyone had a spooktacular day! 

It was a little different day in first grade as both classes came together for a wonderful day of learning. 

In Religion class, we talked about how God promised to send us a Savior who would open the gates of heaven. We know this Savior to be Jesus. 

We wrapped up another week of learning in Language Arts. Today, we used our oral vocabulary words in sentences, wrote sentences using our sight words, and took our weekly assessment. 

In Math class today, we looked for shapes around us. We found everyday objects and identified both the flat shapes and the solid shapes that make up the object. 

This afternoon we joined up with our 8th grade friends to practice for our prayer service tomorrow. We are really excited to pray with everyone tomorrow. 

We ended our day with some Halloween fun. We played some minute-to-win-it games. We also played Halloween BINGO. 

Have a great night! 

Let's Taco About It!

 Greetings! Happy Monday! I hope everyone had a great weekend trick-or-treating. The students really seemed to. I loved hearing all of the stories today. 

We continue to practice for our All Saints' Day prayer service on Wednesday. We are remembering our baptismal call that one day, we too, may be saints. 

We continued with our week of learning in Language Arts. We reviewed our oral vocabulary words and read words with end blends and words with the inflectional ending -ing. To practice our sight words, we played a version of Hangman. The students guessed one letter at a time trying to spell the word before I drew a pumpkin. They won all 5 rounds! To help us build our fluency skills, we partner read a story from our decodable reader booklets. And, to help us build our comprehension skills, we read a poem and completed pages in our close reading companion that focused on finding details in the poem. We finished the morning by identifying possessive nouns in sentences. 

This afternoon in Language Arts we wrote a sentence using lots of adjectives to describe what a cat was doing. 

In Math class today, we looked at designs using our solid shapes. We practiced identifying how many of each shape were in the design. 

We ended our day with some Math fun. The students created a taco filled with different shape ingredients. They then identified how many of each shape they used. 

Have a great night! 

Happy Halloween!

Greetings! Happy Halloween! Today was a fun day in first grade. We waited all month to celebrate Halloween. 

But, before we celebrated, we went to Mass. This was our first Faith Family Mass of the year. Today we welcomed Fr. Voytek. He reminded us that we will always be tempted by the devil but we need to turn to God to help us make the right choices. 

After Mass, we quickly got into our costumes and waited to parade outside. It was so much fun seeing all of our parents and friends there as we walked around the parking lot in our costumes. 

Once we got back to our classroom, we changed and got ready for our party. We are so thankful to the parents who came and made crafts with us. We made bookmarks and monsters. 

This afternoon we enjoyed Hotel Translyvania. After the movie, we went outside for some extra recess which we earned by feeling our marble jar. 

Here is a picture from our pumpkin we carved yesterday. 

Have a wonderful weekend trick or treating. I can't wait to hear about it on Monday! 

Fun with Shapes!

 Greetings! Happy Thursday! Today was a celebration in first grade as we celebrated being drug free. The students loved wearing a holiday shirt today!

In Religion class we prayed the fourth and fifth decades of the Glorious Mysteries. As we come to the end of October and the month of the rosary, we are reminded to pray the rosary at home. 

In Language Arts class, we reviewed our sight words. Then we read At A Pond, a nonfiction piece about animals at a pond. After reading the story, we wrote about its main idea and key details. Finally, we practiced writing possessive pronouns correctly. 

In Math class today, we used our flat shapes to make designs. Afterwards, the students identified the number of each shape used. Here are some of our designs: 

In Social Studies class, we talked about why people move: to be close to family or to get a job. 

We ended the day with pumpkin fun. Today, we carved a pumpkin in preparation for our Halloween party tomorrow. The students helped clean out the seeds. Together we decided on the eyes, nose, and mouth. All watched in excitement as I carved it. We are ready for tomorrow! 

Have a tremendous night! 

Pumpkin Fun!

 Greetings! Happy Wednesday! Today we gave the boot to drugs by wearing western attire to school. All of the students really enjoyed today as we celebrated being drug free. 

In Religion class today we reviewed what happened when Adam and Eve sinned. We also talked about how we are all born with original sin and how that sinned is washed away when we are baptized. We ended class by praying the third decade of the Glorious Mysteries. 

In Language Arts class, we reviewed our oral vocabulary. We also practiced reading words with end blends and words with the inflectional ending -ing. To help us build our fluency, we partner read a story from our decodable reader. Finally, we practiced using possessive nouns in sentences. 

In Math class today, we reviewed our solid shapes by playing memory. We matched a picture of the shape to its name. 

We ended our day with pumpkin and Halloween fun. We read Creepy Carrots and wrote about what we would do if Creepy Carrots were following us. We added our writing to a creepy carrot. 

We then looked at the different parts of a pumpkin by creating a diagram. The exciting part to this project was using our messy glue. 

Don't forget your Halloween treats tomorrow! Have a wonderful night! 

Fun with Solid Shapes!

 Greetings! Happy Tuesday! I hope everyone enjoyed the beautiful fall day today!

We began our day by going over to church for Adoration. We spent some quiet time praying and talking to Jesus. Many prayed the rosary today. Once we returned to the classroom, together we prayed the second decade of the Glorious Mysteries. 

We continued with our week of learning in Language Arts. Today, we reviewed our oral vocabulary words from yesterday and learned three new words (tranquil, hibernate, and tolerate). We then worked on making predictions as we read a nonfiction piece about animals in the desert. Following that, we used our letter tiles to spell and read words with end blends. After that, we learned how to blend and read words with the inflectional ending -ing. We ended the morning by practicing using our sight words in sentences. 

We stopped our class early today so that we could begin practices for our All Saints' Day prayer service. We are looking forward to praying with everyone next week. 

This afternoon in Language Arts we focused on building our comprehension skills. This week we are focusing on main idea and key details. We reread The Best Spot and wrote about its main idea and details from the story. We did the same thing as we read our decodable reader. 

In Math class today, we identified the six solid shapes: cone, cylinder, cube, rectangular prism, pyramid, and sphere. With each shape, we experimented to see if it could stack, slide, or roll. 

This afternoon we met with our Faith Families. We spent time getting to know one another. We will begin our Faith Family masses this week. 

We ended our day with Pumpkin Fun! Today, we looked at the life cycle of a pumpkin. 

Have a terrific night! 

Red Ribbon Week!

 Greetings! Happy Monday! Welcome to Red Ribbon Week, Pumpkin Week, and Halloween Week in first grade. It is going to be an exciting week. 

In Religion class today, we talked about what was lost when Adam and Eve ate the fruit from the forbidden tree. We talked about how Adam and Eve left the Garden of Eden, peace was lost, and how the gates of heaven were closed. 

We began a new week of learning in Language Arts; this week we will be reading about habitats. We began by learning two new oral vocabulary words (habitat and depend). We then worked on making predictions as we read Babies in the Bayou. After that we learned how to blend and read words with end blends. Following that, we learned our new sight words. We ended the morning by reading The Best Spot which helped us practice reading words with end blends and our new sight words. 

This afternoon in Language Arts we talked about possessive pronouns. We practiced finding them in sentences. 

In Math class today we reviewed our flat shapes and dividing shapes into halves and fourths. 

Today is the beginning of Red Ribbon Week, a week devoted to making healthy choices and saying no to drugs. Today, we were lucky to meet some awesome women from the state. They talked to us about being buddies and not bullies. In addition, they talked to us about important Internet safety tips. We also got to meet and pet Emery, an electronics detection dog. 

Today is also the beginning of pumpkin week in first grade; we will be learning about pumpkins all week. We started our week with some pumpkin writing. We read Spookley, the Square Pumpkin. After reading the story, we created our own unique pumpkin and wrote about what made it special. 

Have a great night! 

The End of the Week!

 Greetings! Happy Thursday (and Fridays for the children)! We had a busy day to end our school week. 

In Religion class we talked about how Adam and Eve ate the fruit from the forbidden tree. We also prayed the fourth and fifth decades of the Sorrowful Mysteries. 

We wrapped up another week of learning in Language Arts. We used our oral vocabulary words in sentences, read short u words and contractions, and wrote sentences using our sight words. We then partner read a story in our decodable reader booklets. We ended the morning by taking our weekly assessment and by identifying singular and plural nouns in sentences. 

This afternoon in Language Arts, we read a short nonfiction place about different houses around the world. We then completed pages in our close reading companion that focused on finding details about the houses. We ended the day by finishing our ghost writing from yesterday. We wrote about what our ghosts turned into. We then wrote a math problem relating to our ghost. 

In Math class today, we talked about dividing shapes in halves and fourths. We folded paper squares into halves and fourths and labeled each section. We know that when we divide a shape that we have to get equal parts. 

Have a wonderful weekend! See you on Monday! 

Ghost Writing!

 Greetings! Happy Wednesday! We had a great day of learning in first grade! 

In Religion class we wrapped up our chapter on Adam and Eve by reviewing who created them, where they lived, and what God gave them. We also prayed the third decade of the Sorrowful Mysteries. 

In Language Arts class, we reviewed our oral vocabulary words, practiced reading short u words and our sight words, and spelled and read words with the contraction for is. To help build our fluency and comprehension, we partner read a story in our decodable reader booklets. We also read The Pigs, the Wolf, and the Mud. After reading this story, we wrote about the characters, setting, and events. 

This afternoon in Language Arts, we practiced writing contractions. We also did some Halloween writing. We listened to the story A Ghost's Dinner, a fantasy story where the ghosts turned into what they ate. We then created a ghost to look like some type of food. We will be finishing the writing tomorrow. 

In Math class, we began our chapter on shapes. We identified the number of sides and corners in triangles, squares, rectangles, circles, and trapezoids. We then sorted shapes by color, shape, and size. 

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

A Terrific Tuesday!

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

In Religion class today, we talked about how we receive God's grace when we are baptized. We also prayed the second decade of the Sorrowful Mysteries. 

We continued with our week of learning in Language Arts. We reviewed the oral vocabulary words we learned yesterday and then learned three new words: collapsed, refused, and furious). We then used our letter tiles to spell and read short u words. Following that we learned about contractions; this week we are focusing on the contraction for is. We created a flipbook where we wrote the contraction and then wrote a sentence using that contraction. After that we practiced using our sight words in sentences. We ended the morning focusing on comprehension; this week we are looking at identifying the characters, setting, and events in the story. 

This afternoon in Language Arts we practiced identifying singular and plural nouns. We also wrote a sentence using adjectives to describe what was happening in a picture. 

In Math class today we took our chapter test on adding and subtracting to 10. Tomorrow we will begin our chapter on shapes. 

Have a good night! 

Building Fluency!

 Greetings! Happy Monday! I hope everyone had a nice weekend despite the rain and chilly temperatures. 

In Religion class today, we talked about how God gave Adam and Eve grace. We also talked about how we have God's grace too. We ended class by praying the first decade of the Sorrowful Mysteries. 

We began a new week of learning in Language Arts; this week we are reading about buildings and what they are made of. We began by learning two new oral vocabulary words (shelter and materials). We then worked on making predictions as we read The Three Little Dassies. After that we practiced blending and reading short u words. Following that we learned our new sight words. We ended the morning focusing on building our fluency as we practiced reading short u words and our sight words in Cubs in a Hut. 

This afternoon in Language Arts we learned about singular and plural nouns. 

In Math class today, we reviewed our addition and subtraction strategies to 10. We will take our chapter test tomorrow. 

Have a great night! 

Frankenstein!

 Greetings! Happy Friday! I hope everyone had a beautiful day to end this week! 

Today was our Spanish Mass. Fr. Wolf was our guest celebrant. He reminded us to not be fearful but to trust in the Lord. 

After Mass, we had a special fire drill. The local fire companies came for this one. We did an excellent job getting out of the building. Afterwards, we spent some time with the firefighters and even got to try on a coat and helmet! 

Then, it was time to get to work. We wrapped up another week of learning in Language Arts. We used our oral vocabulary words in sentences, read short e words and spelled and read words with the inflected ending -ed. To help build our fluency we partner read a story in our decodable reader booklets. To help us build our comprehension skills we read a nonfiction piece about firefighters. We then completed pages in our close reading companion that helped us sequence what firefighters do. 

After lunch, we wrote sentences using our sight words, took our weekly assessment, and practiced finding nouns in sentences. 

After all of that work, we took a break and prayed the fifth decade of the Luminous Mysteries. 

In Math class today, we used our critical thinking skills to solve problems. I loved how the students worked to solve the problems without getting frustrated. They used their knowledge to write number sentences. I am so proud of them! 

We ended our busy day with Art class. Today we made a Frankenstein. Here are some of them:

Here is a picture from our firefighter writing we did the other day. 

Have a great weekend! 

Praying the Rosary!

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

In Religion class today, we talked about how God asked Adam and Eve to care for his creation in the Garden of Eden. He asked them to be good stewards. We then talked about how we can be good stewards today. We ended class by praying the fourth decade of the Luminous Mysteries. 

In Language Arts class, we reviewed our oral vocabulary words, read short e words, words with the inflected ending -ed, and our sight words. To help build our fluency and comprehension, we partner read a story in our decodable reader booklets. We also read The Red Hat, a realistic fiction story about a firefighter. After reading that story, we completed pages in our close reading book that focused on character, setting, and events. 

In Math class today, we reviewed fact families, using related facts, and identified true and false number sentences. 

This afternoon we attended Living Rosary. The Junior High students led us as we prayed the Luminous Mysteries. Afterwards, Fr. Harris talked about his vocation to the priesthood. 

Have a great night! 

Fire Safety Week!

 Greetings! Happy Wednesday! I hope everyone enjoyed their day. 

In Religion class today, we learned that the first two people God created were Adam and Eve. We talked about how they lived in the Garden of Eden and had everything they needed. We also prayed the third decade of the Luminous Mysteries. 

In Language Arts, we reviewed the oral vocabulary words we learned yesterday and then learned three new words (equipment, fortunately, and astonishing). We then worked on making predictions as we read about jobs in the community. After that, we used our letter tiles to spell and read short e words. Following that, we practiced using our sight words in sentences. Finally, we focused on building our comprehension skills. This week we are talking about character, setting, and event. We reread Good Job, Ben and wrote about the characters, setting and events in the story. After we read our decodable reader, we identified whether sentences talked about the characters, setting, or events. 

This afternoon in Language Arts we practiced identifying nouns in sentences and using nouns in sentences. We also wrote about what firefighters have, can do, and are. 

In Math class today we practiced identifying whether a number sentence was true or false. We used our linking cubes to help us with this. 

We continued with our fire safety lessons today. We talked about feeling a door with the back of our hands before opening it, staying low and go, getting out and staying out, and going to our meeting place. 

Have a great night! 

Picture Day!

 Greetings! Welcome back after the long weekend. I hope everyone was able to find some time for rest and relaxation. The students were quite excited for picture day today. They all looked so nice and handsome. 

We began Religion class today by praying the first two decades of the Luminous Mysteries. We then reviewed our chapter on God giving us life and our guardian angels to help us to know, love, and serve Him. 

We began a new week of learning in Language Arts today; this week we will be reading about community helpers. We began class by learning two new oral vocabulary words (community and occupation). We then worked on making predictions as we read Millie Waits for the Mail. After that, we learned how to blend and read short e words. Following that we learned our new sight words. We ended the morning focused on practicing our new skills as we read Good Job, Ben!

This afternoon we created a foldable to help us remember that nouns name a person, place, thing, or animal. 

In Math class today, we learned to use related facts to help us solve problems. The students didn't even realize they were doing this as they solved the problems. They just knew what they needed to do. 

This week is Fire Safety Week. We will be spending some time this week reviewing fire safety tips. Today, we reviewed that we call 911 in an emergency. We also talked about staying away from things that are hot. Finally, we talked about what to do if our clothes catch on fire. 

Have a great night! 

Silly Monsters!

 Greetings! Happy Friday! Today was a great and busy day to end this first week of October. 

At Mass today, we welcomed Fr. Harris. He talked to us about having our hearts opened when we come to church so that we can hear God's word. 

We wrapped up another week of learning in Language Arts. Today, we used our oral vocabulary words in sentences, wrote sentences using our sight words, and took our weekly assessment. To help us practice reading r-blend and s-blend words we played Memory; the students matched a word to a picture. 

In Math class today, we learned about fact families. We were able to look at a number bond and write two addition and two subtraction sentences. The students did quite well with this. 

In Science class, we talked about how baby animals look like their parents. The students worked in groups to match a baby animal to its parent. 

We ended our day with Art class. Today, we completed a directive drawing activity. The students followed along to draw a monster. We then used water color paints to color it in. They all did a nice job with this activity. Here are two of our monsters. 

And here is a picture from the fall writing we did this week. 

Just a reminder that there is no school on Monday. See you on Tuesday! Enjoy the long weekend! 

Finding New Things!

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

In Religion class today we talked about how our guardian angels help us to know, love, and serve God. We also prayed the fourth decade of the Joyful Mysteries. 

In Language Arts class, we reviewed our oral vocabulary words, practiced reading r-blend and s-blend words, and wrote possessive phrases. We also partner read a story in our decodable booklets. In addition, we learned about diagrams and completed pages in our close reading companion that focused on diagrams. Finally, we practiced capitalizing sentences and ending them with the correct punctuation mark. This afternoon we finished our fall writing project from yesterday by writing about what we like about fall. 

In Math class today, we continued to practice solving subtraction story problems. We do a nice job at listening to the story before writing anything. 

We ended our day with Social Studies. Today, we learned that Christopher Columbus found a new land that people didn't know was there. We wrote about what we would do if we found the new land. 

Have a great night! 

Creative Mathematicians!

 Greetings! Happy Wednesday! Wow! Today was another gorgeous day. 

In Religion class today, we reviewed how God created us with a body and soul. We then talked about how our soul helps us to know, love, and serve God. We ended class by praying the third decade of the Joyful Mysteries. 

In Language Arts class, we reviewed our oral vocabulary words, read r-blend and s-blend words, practiced reading and using possessives in sentences, and read our sight words. We then switched our focus to fluency and comprehension. We partner read a story in our decodable reader booklets. We then read Move It. After reading that story, we completed pages in our close reading companion that focused on key details from the story. 

This afternoon in Language Arts, we practiced writing sentences using capital letters and correct punctuation. We also started a fall writing project. We have the art part completed. We will be doing the writing part tomorrow. 

In Math class today, we practiced creating subtraction stories and then solving the problem. The students were very creative with their stories today. 

Have a great night! 

A Beautiful Day!

 Greetings! Happy Tuesday! I hope everyone enjoyed the sunshine and warmth today. Today is a day that you would like to bag up and open when the weather is cold and dark. 

We went to church for Adoration today. We spent some quiet time praying to Jesus. When we came back, we prayed the second decade of the Joyful Mysteries. 

This morning, we heard from Brenda Garcia. She talked to us about her Catholic faith and about her movies. 

We were able to continue with our week of learning in Language Arts today. We reviewed the oral vocabulary words we learned yesterday and then learned three new words (difficult, exhausted, and agree). We also worked on asking and answering questions as we read a fable. We ended the morning by using our letter tiles to spell and read r-blend and s-blend words. 

This afternoon in Language Arts, we learned about possessives. We also used our sight words in sentences. Finally, we worked on our comprehension as we wrote details from Move and Grin and from our decodable reader. 

In Math class today, we reviewed all of the subtraction strategies we learned. We will now put them to work as we solve word problems. 

Here is a picture from our Art project on Friday. 

Have a great night! 

Welcome to October!

 Greetings! Welcome to October! I don't know about you, but it seems to me that the trees are changing earlier this year. I hope that doesn't mean a long winter! 

In Religion class today, we learned how to pray the rosary. We colored a sheet showing us which prayers we pray. Each student was then given a rosary. Throughout the month, we will pray a decade a day. Today, we prayed the first Joyful Mystery. 

We began a new week of learning in Language Arts; this week we are reading about how our bodies move. We began by learning two new oral vocabulary words (exercise and physical). We then worked on asking and answering questions as we read Move!, a nonfiction story about how animals move. Next, we learned how to blend and read r-blend and s-blend words. Following that, we learned our new sight words. We ended the morning focusing on our new skills as we read Move and Grin. 

This afternoon in Language Arts we practiced writing sentences. We wrote sentences using correct punctuation. We also wrote a sentence describing a picture and then jazzed it up by inserting adjectives. We all agreed that the adjectives made it a better sentence. 

In Math class today, we practiced subtracting by using a number bond. The key for us to pay attention to the problem so that we write the number sentence the correct way. 

Have a good night!