Merry Christmas!

 Greetings on this jolly day! Excitement was present in first grade from the moment the children arrived. And, I loved every minute of it. I just love seeing their excitement for Christmas and Santa and all the magic the holiday brings. 

In Religion class today, we watched a video about the very first Christmas. We then used stickers to create our own Nativity scene. They turned out awesome. 

Next, we read Mooseltoe. After reading the story, we wrote about the problem the characters had and how they solved it. We then decorated our very own Moose using sequins and foam stickers. 

We then spent time sitting around the Christmas tree opening presents. After lunch, we watched the Charlie Brown Christmas before heading home. As we left, we said good-bye to Jingles and all of the other elves. 

I wish you and your family a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year! I hope your holidays are merry and bright. See you in 2024. 

~Miss Chalich 

Polar Express Day!

 Greetings! Today was a much more normal day in that we did not have a two hour delay. However, it was another fun day as we get ready to celebrate Christmas. The highlight of the day was a visit from Santa. 

In Religion class today, we talked about how Jesus is God's greatest gift to us. We then talked about a gift we can give Jesus like being kind to others, praying, sharing, and using kind words. We created a gift craft showing what we can give to Jesus. 

In Math class today, we took our chapter test on the addition and subtraction strategies to 20. Our next chapter will focus on the numbers to 40. 

We spent the rest of the day having Christmas fun. We wrapped up our Gingerbread Day by writing about our gingerbread person we created yesterday. Here is a picture of our gingerbread people. 

We also did a write the room activity where the students turned short vowel words into long vowel words with the magic e.

Then our focused switched to the Polar Express. We began by reading the classic book. After that, we used jingle bells to measure various pictures. Following that, we sequenced the events in the story. Finally, we wrote about what we would like for the first gift of Christmas. 

This afternoon we attended the annual Christmas Choir show. The children did a beautiful job! 

Before leaving for the show, we made hot chocolate in a crockpot. After the show we enjoyed a cup. 

And, Jingles, gave us a book to add to our classroom library. The students were very excited to read it today. 

Have a great night! 

Gingerbread Day!

 Greetings! Today was a bit of a different day in first grade since we had the two hour delay. This was something new for everyone since we did not have one last year. Once we got going, the students settled in and had a fabulous day. 

In Religion class today, we continued our reading of the Nativity story. Today we sequenced pictures from the story. 

In Math class today, we reviewed our addition and subtraction strategies to 20. We will take our chapter test tomorrow. 

This afternoon was dedicated to Gingerbread Fun! The students worked in gingerbread man theme centers. They practiced adding by rolling dice and adding them to find the sum. They also practiced finding the number of syllables in words, identifying the correct punctuation mark to place at the end of a sentence, and matching rhyming words. We ended the day by creating our very own gingerbread person using glitter glue pens. Once they dry, I will post pictures. 

I hope everyone had a safe day. See you tomorrow! 

Grinch Day!

Greetings! Happy Grinch Day! It was a great, fun day in first grade! 

We began our day by reader How the Grinch Stole Christmas. Then it was time for some Grinch fun. Each teacher rotated to the rooms to complete an activity. The students did a directed drawing of the Grinch, played an ornament game, decorated a Who house, saw how to grow the Grinch's heart, and wrote about what they would do to make the Grinch grin. 

When we were all done, Mr. Neff stopped by to sing some Christmas carols with us. 

We did take a break to do some learning. We used our thinking caps to solve problems in Math. We also read the Nativity story and colored a booklet. 

This afternoon, after some technical difficulties, we resumed our Grinch fun by watching How the Grinch Stole Christmas. It was such a great day! 

Have a marvelous night! 

Santa Claus Fun!

 Greetings! Happy Friday! We had an exciting day in first grade. The excitement is building for Christmas! As crazy as everything is, I just love it! 

At Mass this morning, Fr. Brian reminded us that we need to get ready for Jesus' birth. After Mass, the students were treated to hot chocolate and Oreo cookies. 

We wrapped up another week of learning in Language Arts; this will be our last week of learning until January. Next week, we will be doing fun Christmas activities. So today, we used our oral vocabulary words in sentences, wrote sentences using our sight words, and took our weekly assessment. 

To get us ready for next week, we read Santa's Stuck and wrote about what we would do if Santa was stuck in our chimney. We added our writing to a craft. 

In Math class today, we practiced solving addition and subtraction word problems. The children did great knowing when to add and when to subtract. 

In Science class, we talked about how we can use light to send messages. The students colored circles and decided what each color would mean (i.e. jump, hop on 1 foot, clap, etc). Then using flashlights, they sent a signal to a partner and the partner did the action. The students loved using the flashlights for this. 

We ended our day with Art. Today, we made a Santa Claus. The highlight was using messy glue. 

Jingles was in the giving spirit today. He gave the students a new pencil. 

Have a wonderful weekend! 

A Christmas Play!

 Greetings! Happy Thursday! I hope everyone had a beautiful day. It was a bit of a different day in first grade, but we liked the change. 

In Religion class today, we wrapped up our chapter on Mary. We reviewed the Annunciation and Visitation stories. Next week, we learn about the Christmas story. 

Because of the Christmas play this afternoon, we had our Math class this morning. Today, we reviewed how to subtract within 20. The students did very well applying their favorite subtraction strategy to solve the problems. 

We did have a little bit of Language Arts before lunch. We reviewed our oral vocabulary words, read words with soft c and soft g, and read and spelled words with the inflectional endings -ed and -ing. 

After the Christmas play, we read some Mother Goose poems and found the rhyming words in them. We also identified sentences as either in the past or future tense. 

Kudos to the Intermediate Department for a job well done with the Christmas play. The singing was beautiful. We really enjoyed it! 

Have a wonderful night! 

The Gingerbread Man!

 Greetings! Happy Wednesday! I hope everyone had a wonderful day. We had a busy day of learning in first grade. 

In Religion class, we read the story of Mary visiting her cousin Elizabeth. As we listened carefully to the words Elizabeth said, we recognized them as part of the Hail Mary. 

In Language Arts class, we reviewed our oral vocabulary words, read words with soft c and soft g, read and spelled words with the inflectional endings -ed and -ing where the final e is dropped, and practiced reading our sight words. To help build our fluency and comprehension skills, we partner read a story in our decodable reader booklets. We also read The Gingerbread Man. After reading the holiday classic, we wrote cause and effect examples from the story. We ended our morning by practicing sorting verbs into past or future tense. 

This afternoon in Language Arts we focused on our writing skills. We wrote sentences telling about what we would do or have if we were one of Santa's elves. I just loved seeing how much their writing has developed this year. Their sentences were fantastic! 

In Math class today, we practiced telling whether number sentences were true or false. We learned to look at each side, find the answer, and then decide whether it was true or false. 

Have a great night! 

Learning About Cause and Effect!

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

In Religion class today, we read the Annunciation story. We discussed how the angel Gabriel visited Mary and told her that she would be the Mother of his Son and how Mary said 'yes' to God. 

We continued with our week of learning in Language Arts. We began by reviewing the oral vocabulary words we learned yesterday and by learning three new oral vocabulary words (foolish, timid, and eventually). After that we worked on making predictions as we listened to a folktale about a foolish rabbit. Following that, we used our letter tiles to spell and read soft c and soft g words. The, we learned how to add inflectional endings onto words that end in e. Next, we practiced using our sight words in sentences. We ended the morning focused on building our comprehension skills; this week we are focusing on cause and effect. We completed a worksheet where we identified what happened and why it happened. We then reread The Nice Mitten and wrote cause and effect examples from the story. Finally, we read our decodable reader and identified cause and effect examples in it. 

This afternoon in Language Arts we focused on past and future tense verbs. We sorted sentences based on whether they were in the past or future. We then practiced writing sentences using the future tense. Finally, we sorted words based on their tense. 

In Math class today, we reviewed fact families. We know that we can use our knowledge of fact families to help us solve subtraction problems. 

As promised, here is a picture of our Art project from Friday. 

And, Jingles had fun in the wrapping department last night. Just look at him. 

Have a wonderful night! 

Secret Santa Shopping!

 Greetings! Happy Monday! I hope everyone had a nice weekend. I don't know about you, but I could use just one more weekend before Christmas. There is always so much to do! 

We began our day by shopping! The students had so much fun shopping for family and wrapping their presents. We thank the parent volunteers for organizing everything and helping with the shopping and wrapping. 

Once we finished shopping, it was time to begin our day of learning. We began with Religion class. Today we talked about how God chose Mary to be the mother of his Son. We talked about how Mary is immaculate, meaning she never sinned. 

We began a new week of learning in Language Arts; this week we are reading and learning about folktales. We began by learning two new oral vocabulary words (tale and hero). Next, we worked on retelling as we listened to Interrupting Chicken. After that we learned how to blend and read words with soft c, soft g, and -dge words. Then we practiced our new sight words. Finally, we put our new skills together as we read The Nice Mitten. 

This afternoon in Language Arts we learned about past and future tense verbs. We learned that most past tense verbs end in -ed and that future tense verbs contain the word will. We also continued to work with soft c and soft g words; we sorted words based on the sound c and g made. 

In Math class today we learned and practiced a new subtraction strategy. We practiced subtracting by grouping into 10's. 

Jingles had fun over the weekend. Look what he made:

Have a marvelous night! 

Rudolph in the Snow!

 Greetings! Happy Friday! I hope everyone had a fantastic day to end the work week. We had lots of fun in first grade today. 

At Mass, we celebrated the feast of the Immaculate Conception. Fr. Brian talked to us about how God chose her to be the mother of her Son. We know Mary as our Mother and need to have a special devotion to her. 

We wrapped up another week of learning in Language Arts. We used our oral vocabulary words in sentences, wrote sentences using out sight words, and took our weekly assessment. To practice our fluency with long i words and plurals, we played BINGO. 

In Math class today, our focused switched to subtraction as we began to learn subtraction strategies to help us solve problems to 20. Today, we counted back to find the answer. 

In Science class, we continued our discussion on light. We reviewed the terms transparent, translucent, and opaque; the students sorted objects based on whether light easily passes through them, somewhat passes through them, or cannot pass through them. We then talked about what it would be like if there was no light. The students tried to read messages written in a dark box. As you guessed, it was a challenge to do so. Light makes it so much easier. 

We ended our day with Art class. Today we made a Rudolph in the snow. I'll post pictures on Monday. 

Have a wonderful weekend! 

O Christmas Tree!

 Greetings! Happy Thursday! I hope everyone had a tremendous day! We had lots of fun in first grade today. 

In Religion class, we wrapped up our chapter on the prophets. We reviewed the stories of Moses and John the Baptist. 

In Language Arts, we reviewed our oral vocabular words, long i words, and plurals. We also practiced reading our sight words. We then switched our focus to building our fluency and comprehension. We partner read a story from our decodable reader booklets. Following that, we read a nonfiction piece about how plants grow and completed pages in our close reading companion that focused on sequencing the steps. We ended the class by using present tense verbs in sentences. 

In Math class, we reviewed our to add to 20. I am so proud of how well the students are doing with adding. Tomorrow we will start subtraction. 

In Social Studies class, we learned about natural resources. 

We ended our day with some Christmas fun. The students helped decorate our classroom Christmas tree. They loved putting the ornaments on it and are so proud of it. It does look beautiful. 

And Jingles had fun last night. Look at the mess he made! 

Have a great night! 

Celebrating St. Nicholas!

 Greetings! Happy Wednesday! Happy feast day for St. Nicholas! I loved hearing about what were in the students' shoes this morning. I always remember the excitement of waking up and finding what was in mine. 

In Religion class today, we watched a video about the life of St. Nicholas. We then talked about ways that we can be kind like St. Nicholas was. 

In Language Arts class, we reviewed our oral vocabulary words, practiced reading long i words, plurals, and our sight words. To build our fluency and comprehension skills, we partner read a story in our decodable reader booklets. We also read the play A Big Yuca Plant. After reading the story, we sequenced the events in it. 

This afternoon in Language Arts, we practiced using present tense verbs in sentences. We also wrote a letter to baby Jesus telling him something we will do this Advent and someone we will be praying for. 

In Math class today, we discovered that we can add in any order. The students worked with a partner to solve addition problems. 

Jingles was also excited for the feast day of St. Nicholas. He hid 12 candy canes around the classroom. The students loved finding all of them! 

Have a wonderful night! 

Sequencing Fun!

 Greetings! I hope everyone had a terrific day! We sure did in first grade today. 

We began our day by going over to church for Adoration. We spent some quiet time praying to Jesus. It was a great way to start our day. 

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 (assist, grasped, and spied). We then practiced reading long i words by using our letter tiles to spell and read words. After that, we practiced reading plurals when the words end with a magic e. Next, we practiced using our sight words in sentences. Finally, we focused on building our comprehension skills; this week we are focusing on sequencing. We reread Time to Grow and sequenced the events in the story. We did more sequencing practice as we read our decodable reader. 

This afternoon in Language Arts, we practiced finding and using present tense verbs in sentences. We also began learning how to write how-to pieces. Today we wrote the steps in how to plant a seed. 

In Math class today, we practiced adding by looking for doubles and doubles plus 1 facts. We identified the doubles facts (i.e. 5 +5, 6+6) and used that knowledge to help us solve doubles plus 1 facts ( i.e. 5 + 6, 6 + 7). 

Have a terrific night! 

Three Weeks to Christmas!

 Greetings! Happy Monday! I hope everyone had a nice weekend! I loved hearing all of the elf stories this morning. I look forward to them. 

In Religion class today, we began our daily Advent reflection. Each day we will watch a short video from Brother Francis as he explains a symbol of Advent. After watching the videos today, we resumed our talk on the prophets. We learned how John the Baptist was the last prophet who prepared the people for Jesus. 

We began a new week of learning in Language Arts; this week we will be reading about how plants grow. We began by learning two new oral vocabulary words (bloom and sprout). Next, we worked on making predictions as we read Mystery Vine. Following that, we learned how to blend and read long i words, words like bike and kite. Then, we learned our new sight words. Finally, we read the play Time to Grow. The students really enjoyed reading the play and got into the characters. 

In Math class today, we continued to learn strategies to solve addition problems to 20. Today, we practiced making a ten and then counting on. 

Thank you for making sure that the Chrome books were charged for today. We were able to take both of our STAR tests. I am really pleased with the progress the students are making this year. 

Have a marvelous night! 

Welcome December!

 Greetings! Happy Friday! I hope everyone had a great day to end the week. It is hard to believe that it is December already. 

At Mass this morning, Fr. Stabile talked to us about staying the course and never giving up much like Daniel did. 

We wrapped up another week of learning in Language Arts. We used our oral vocabulary words in sentences, wrote sentences using our sight words, and took our weekly assessment. We also did a write-the-room activity to review long a words. 

In Math class today we began a new chapter; this chapter will focus on addition and subtraction strategies with the numbers to 20. Today, we learned one addition strategy - counting on to find the answer. We used our linking cubes and a number line to help us. 

In Science class today, we learned about light. We learned that light can be transparent, translucent, or opaque. The students created a stained glass flower. We hung them on the windows and talked about how light passes through the tissue paper. 

We ended our day with Art class. Today, we made a Christmas tree. We covered a triangle with green tissue paper. We then decorated our tree with sequins before adding a star. Some students even added snow around their tree. They look quite festive. 

Today, Jingles brought the students a sticker as a thank you for a great first week. I bet Santa is happy with that report! 

Have a wonderful weekend!