Becoming Writers!

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

In Religion class today, we continued learning about Lent. We talked about who we can pray for during Lent, what we can give up, and ways we can show kindness this Lenten season. 

In Language Arts class, we reviewed our oral vocabulary, read long e words and compound words, and practiced our sight words. To help build our fluency and comprehension, we partner read a story from our decodable reader booklets. We also read a short nonfiction piece about saving bees. Finally, we practiced finding adverbs that tell why in sentences. 

This afternoon in Language Arts, we wrote our very own how-to paragraph. The students wrote and illustrated the steps in the process of their choosing. They did a very nice job! 

In Math class today, we reviewed adding and subtracting with and without regrouping. We are ready for our chapter test tomorrow. 

We ended our day with Social Studies. Today, we talked about the difference between cities, towns, and rural areas. 

Have a great night! 

An Amazing Gorilla!

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

In Religion class, we began our study of Lent. We learned that Lent lasts for 40 days and that it is a time to grow closer to Jesus and become more like Jesus. We also talked about praying, fasting, and helping in Lent. 

In Language Arts class, we reviewed our oral vocabulary words, practiced reading long e words and compound words, and reviewed our sight words and vocabulary words. To help us build our fluency and comprehension, we partner read a story from our decodable reader booklets. We also read Koko and Penny, a nonfiction story about a woman working with a gorilla. The children were amazed at what Koko could do. After reading that story, we completed pages in our Reading/Writing Companion that focused on sequencing the order of which Koko learned things. 

This afternoon in Language Arts, we practiced using adverbs that tell when in sentences. We also began preparing to write our very own how-to paper. We brainstormed a list of things we know how to do. Then, we picked the topic we liked best and illustrated the steps in that process. Tomorrow we will write our paper! 

In Math class today, we continued to practice solving word problems. We did better at listening to the word problem first which helped us decide whether we needed to add or subtract. 

Have a great night! 

Learning to Solve Word Problems!

 Greetings! Happy Tuesday! I hope everyone is doing well and is enjoying this last week of February. 

In Religion class today we wrapped up our chapter on Jesus teaching the people the Good News. We reviewed how he went from town to town telling the people how God loves them. We also reviewed how we can love God, love others, and love ourselves. 

We are continuing with our week of learning in Language Arts. We answered questions using our oral vocabulary words. We then used our letter tiles to spell and read long e words spelled with -ey or -y. Following that, we learned how to blend and read compound words. Next, we practiced using our sight words in sentences. After that, we learned our two vocabulary words for the week: clever and signal. We wrote sentences using the words. Finally, we focused on building our comprehension skills. We reread From Puppy to Guide Dog. After reading the story, we wrote what we learned from the captions. We also sequenced how a puppy becomes a guide dog. 

This afternoon in Language Arts we learned about adverbs that tell when. We practiced finding the 'when' word in sentences. We also wrote the steps in making a pizza. 

In Math class today, we worked on solving word problems. We are still working on knowing whether we need to add or subtract to solve the problem. 

Have a great night! 

The Great Commandment

 Greetings! Happy Monday! I hope everyone is doing well and is enjoying the break from the cold weather. 

In Religion class today, we learned the Great Commandment. We learned that we need to love God, love others, and love ourselves. We created a giant heart to help us remember this commandment. 

We began a new week of learning in Language Arts; we will be reading about how animals help people. We began by learning five new oral vocabulary words (career, soothe, advice, remarkable, trust). We then learned how to blend and read long e words spelled with -ey or -y. We ended our morning by learning our new sight words (found, hard, near, woman, would, write). 

This afternoon, we put our new skills to work as we read From Puppy to Guide Dog. 

In Math class today, we practiced solving word problems. We first decided whether we needed to add our subtract. We then recalled how to add or subtract with and without regrouping to solve the problem. 

Have a great night! 

Dental Health Month!

 Greetings! Happy Friday! I hope everyone is doing well. I don't know about you, but that cold just went right through me today. I am looking forward to a warm spring day! 

At Mass this morning, Fr. Brian reminded us to pick up our crosses and carry them. When we feel like we are falling, he reminded us to turn to Jesus. 

We wrapped up another week of learning in Language Arts. We used our oral vocabulary words in sentences, read vowel team i words and words with inflected ending, wrote sentences using our sight words, and took our weekly assessment. To build our fluency and comprehension skills, we partner read a story in our decodable reader booklets. We also read a short nonfiction piece about insects. 

In Math class today, we continued to practice subtraction. Today, we solved problems with and without regrouping. Our key is to pay attention to the ones and not get into the habitat of automatically regrouping. 

Our Science class was messy today. We talked about our teeth and what we need to do in order to keep them healthy. We talked about brushing them twice a day, flossing daily, and eating healthy foods. The students then got to work cleaning a dirty tooth (a hard boiled egg soaked in Coke Cola). Using toothpaste and a toothbrush, they made those teeth pearly white again. 

We ended our day with Art class. We did not get to finish our project. We completed a directive drawing on how to draw a robot. Next week, we will use water color paint to color our robot. 

Have a great weekend! 

Celebrating George Washington!

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

In Religion class today, we talked about how the Bible is the book authored by God. We talked about how it has two parts: the Old Testament and the New Testament. We also talked about how it contains the Good News. 

In Language Arts, we reviewed our oral vocabulary, practiced reading long vowel i team words, spelled and read words with inflected endings when the final y is changed, practiced using our vocabulary words in sentences, and read our sight words. To build our fluency and comprehension, we partner read a story in our decodable reader booklets along with Hi! Fly Guy. The students loved this story! After reading it, we completed pages in our close reading companion that focused on how the characters felt during the story. Finally, we practiced using the verbs see and saw in sentences. 

In Math class today, we practiced subtraction with regrouping. We are doing well knowing when to regroup. We are still working on regrouping the ten to add 10 ones. 

We ended our day with Social Studies. Today, we learned about George Washington. The students loved the fact that he had no teeth! 

Have a great night! 

The Beatitudes!

 Greetings! Happy Wednesday! I hope everyone is staying warm. Keep thinking warm thoughts! 

In Religion class today, we learned the Beatitudes. We talked about what Jesus meant by each one and how we are called to follow the Beatitudes. We created a poster to help us remember them.

We continued with our week of learning in Language Arts. We began by wrapping up a few things from last week. We partner read a story from our decodable reader booklets. We also read a poem and completed pages in our Reading/Writing companion that focused on finding details in the poem. After wrapping that up, we jumped back into our current week of learning. We answered questions using our oral vocabulary words. We then used our letter tiles to spell and read words with vowel team i. Next, we reviewed adding endings onto words where the final y is changed to an i. Following that, we practiced using our sight words in sentences. After that, we learned our new vocabulary words (beautiful and fancy) and wrote sentences using them. We ended our morning by focusing on comprehension. We reread Creep Low, Fly High. After reading the story, we wrote about problems Caterpillar had and how he solved them. We also identified the narrator in the story. 

This afternoon in Language Arts, we practiced using the verbs see and saw 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 learned how to subtract with regrouping. The key is to pay attention to the ones and see where the bigger number is. We learned that if the bigger number is on the bottom, we need to regroup. We take a ten and add it to the ones and then subtract. Once we got the hang of regrouping, we enjoyed solving the problems. 

Have a great night! 

Spring is Coming!

 Greetings! Happy Tuesday! I hope everyone had a nice long weekend! I also hope everyone is staying warm. Spring is coming in 30 days! 

Because of the cold weather, we had a late start today. But, we still were able to learn a lot in the time that we had. 

We began a new week of learning in Language Arts; this week we are reading about insects. We began by learning our new oral vocabulary words (flutter, different, resemble, protect, and imitate). Next, we worked on retelling facts as we read about how insects hide in order to stay safe. Following that, we learned how to read vowel team i words, words with i (find), y (cry), igh (sigh and night), and ie (pie). 

This afternoon we learned our new sight words (caught, flew, know, laugh, listen, were). We then put our new skills to work as we read Creep Low, Fly High. We ended our day by learning when to use the verbs see and saw in sentences. 

In Math class today, we reviewed subtracting without regrouping. Tomorrow, we will learn how to subtract with regrouping. 

Have a wonderful night! 

Happy Valentine's Day!

 Greetings! Happy Valentine's Day! We were really excited to celebrate Valentine's Day today. That two hour delay did not stop us! 

We were able to wrap up our week of learning in Language Arts. We used our oral vocabulary words in sentences and read words with the vowel team o and words with open syllables. We also wrote sentences using our sight words and took our weekly assessment. 

In Math class today, we continued to practice solving subtraction problems without regrouping. The students are doing very well adjusting from addition to subtraction. 

After all of our work, it was time to celebrate! Our activities centered around candy hearts. We used candy hearts to measure arrows. We graphed our candy hearts and answered questions about our graph. Finally, we used our candy hearts to play BINGO. After all of our games and activities, we passed out our Valentine's. We were really excited to share cards with each other. Here's a picture of a graph! 

Have a wonderful weekend! See you on Tuesday! 

A Short But Busy Day!

 Greetings! Happy Wednesday! Yes, today was a short day. However, it was filled with learning! 

In Religion class, we talked about how Jesus shared the Good News with everyone. He told everyone how much God loves us. 

In Language Arts class, we reviewed our oral vocabulary words, read words with the vowel teams o and words with open syllables. We also practiced our sight words and practiced using our vocabulary words in sentences. To help build our fluency, we partner read a story from our decodable reader booklets. We also read Vulture View, a nonfiction story about how vultures find food. The students really enjoyed this story. After reading the story, we completed pages in our Reading/Writing Companion that focused on main idea and key details. Finally, we practiced using the verbs go, went, do, and did in sentences. 

In Math class today, we learned how to subtract without regrouping. We are doing very well at beginning with the ones. The key for us is to remember that we are subtracting now. 

Here are pictures from last Friday's Art class along with our Valentine writing we did this week. 

I hope everyone made it home safely. Just a reminder that our Valentine's Day party is tomorrow! Have a great night! 

Celebrating Abraham Lincoln!

 Greetings! Happy Tuesday! I hope everyone is having a great week so far. Today was another fun-filled day in first grade! 

In Religion class, we wrapped up our chapter on Jesus beginning his public ministry. We reviewed how Jesus went from town to town teaching people about God and how Jesus called 12 men to be his Apostles. 

We continued with our learning in Language Arts. We answered questions using our oral vocabulary words. We used our letter tiles to spell and read words with the vowel team o. After that, we learned how to blend and read words with open syllables, words like taken, silent, and locate. Then, we practiced using our sight words in sentences. Following that, we learned our two vocabulary words for the week: search and seek; we wrote sentences using those words. Finally, we focused on building our comprehension skills. This week we are focusing on main idea and key details. We reread Go Wild and wrote about its main idea and the details in the story. 

This afternoon in Language Arts, we practiced using go, went, do, and did in sentences. We also created our bags to put our Valentines' in. Finally, we celebrated Abraham Lincoln by creating a picture of him and attaching a book of facts about him. We really enjoyed the fact that he put important papers in his top hat. 

In Math class today, we practiced adding three one-digit numbers. We also began exploring how to subtract two two-digit numbers. 

Have a great night! 

Superbowl Monday!

 Greetings! Happy Monday! I hope everyone had a great weekend! The students were so excited to talk about the Superbowl today. It was fun hearing their perspective on the game. 

In Religion class today, we talked about how we are called to be Apostles by listening to our parents and by being kind and nice to everyone we meet. 

We began a new week of learning in Language Arts; this week we are reading about how animals survive in nature. We began by learning our oral vocabulary words (survive, provide, communicate, wilderness, and superior). Next we worked on retelling as we listened to a story about how animals survive in winter. Following that, we learned how to blend and read words with the vowel team of o: o, oa, ow, and oe. We ended our morning by learning our new sight words (find, food, more, over, start, warm). 

This afternoon in Language Arts, we read Go Wild, a nonfiction story about how animals survive in the wild; the students loved reading about all of the animals. After that, we learned how to use the verbs go, went, do, and did in sentences. 

In Math class today, we learned how to add three one-digit numbers. The students loved doing this and called it the best Math class ever! 

Have a wonderful night! 

Two Art Projects!

 Greetings! Happy Friday! I hope everyone had a nice day to end the week! We were so close to having a normal week! Maybe next week . . . 

At Mass this morning, Fr. Brian reminded us to always be humble in all that we do. 

We wrapped up another week of learning in Language Arts. We used our oral vocabulary words in sentences, read words with the long e vowel teams and read and defined words with prefixes. We also wrote sentences using our sight words, took our weekly assessment, and practiced using the verbs has and have in sentences. Finally, we worked on our fluency and comprehension. We read a short nonfiction piece about bees. After reading the story, we wrote details about what job each bee has in the hive. 

In Math class today, we practiced adding with and without regrouping. I am so proud that the students take their time when adding. They are doing very well in knowing when to regroup and when not to regroup. 

In Science class today, we talked about how sounds and lights can be used to send signals. We played a small version of Red Light/Green Light. We also had to listen to various sound clips to decide what was making that sound and what that sound could mean. 

We ended our day with Art class. Today, we completed two art projects. First, we painted a heart stained glass. Second, we made a mouse using hearts. The students did a very good job at listening while completing both projects. 

Have a wonderful weekend! 

Lovely Writing!

 Greetings! Happy Wednesday! This has been such a great week of learning in first grade. It has been nice to be back into our routine. Unfortunately, that will not last. 

In Religion class today, we talked about how Jesus called the 12 Apostles to be his close friends, to learn from him, and eventually to be the leader of the church. 

In Language Arts class, we reviewed our oral vocabulary words, read words with long e vowel teams and with prefixes, and practiced our sight words and vocabulary words. To build our fluency, we partner read a story from our decodable reader booklets. We also read Animal Teams. After reading this story, we completed pages in our Reading/Writing Companion that focused on main idea and key details. 

This afternoon in Language Arts, we practiced using the verbs has and have in sentences. We also practiced writing sentences with capital letters and punctuation marks. In addition, we wrote about someone we love and why we love that person. Here is that writing: 

In Math class, we continued to solve addition problems that require regrouping. The students are doing very well with regrouping. They enjoy solving the problems. 

As promised, here is a picture of our polar bear art from a few Fridays ago. They make our classroom quite bright and cheerful. I love them! 

Have a great night! Be safe! 

Celebrating Groundhog Day!

 Greetings! Happy Tuesday! I hope everyone got to enjoy the weather yesterday. It brought so much hope that maybe we have turned the corner. But, with the upcoming forecast, I'm not so sure now. 

In Religion class today, we talked about how Jesus blessed the children. We talked about how Jesus wanted the children to come to him and was not happy when the Apostles tried to stop them. 

We continued with our week of learning in Language Arts. We began by answering questions using our oral vocabulary words. Then, we used our letter tiles to spell and read words with the long e vowel teams. Following that, we learned how to blend and read words with the prefixes un-, re-, and pre-; we also learned how define these words. Next, we practiced using our sight words in sentences. After that, we learned our two vocabulary words for the week (danger, partner). We wrapped up our morning focusing on building our comprehension skills; this week our skill is main idea and key details. We reread A Team of Fish and wrote about its main idea and the details in the story. 

This afternoon in Language Arts we practiced using the verbs has and have in sentences. We also finished our groundhog writing project from yesterday. They turned out cute. 

In Math class, we learned how to add with regrouping. We began by using a base ten blocks to help us see when we need to regroup (when the ones value is 10 or more). As we got more comfortable with regrouping, we switched to our whiteboards. They key for us is to remember to add the ones first. 

Here is a picture from our 100th day writing project last week. 

Have a great night! 

Hello February!

 Greetings! Happy Monday! Happy February! We have made it through January! Even though February is the shortest month of the year, it is a month jammed packed with learning and fun. 

In Religion class today, we learned why Jesus is called Rabbi - because he went from town to town teaching people about God. 

We began a new week of learning in Language Arts; this week we will be reading about how animals help each other. We began by learning five new oral vocabulary words (behavior, beneficial, dominant, endangered, and instinct). Next, we learned how to blend and read words with long e vowel teams, words spelled with e, ee, ea, and ie. We wrapped up the morning by learning our new sight words (because, blue, into, or, other, small). 

This afternoon in Language Arts we read A Team of Fish which helped us practice reading long e vowel team words and our sight words in sentences. We also learned when to use has and have in sentences. Finally, in honor of Groundhog's Day, we wrote facts about groundhogs. We will be adding our writing to a craft tomorrow. 

In Math class today, we continued to practice adding two two-digit numbers without regrouping. I am quite pleased at how well the students are doing. We will be adding with regrouping tomorrow. 

Have a great night! 

Happy 100th Day of School!

 Greetings! Happy 100th Day of School! It is hard to believe that we are already celebrating 100 days of learning. It feels like we just begun! 

Before our big celebration, we had some learning to do. 

We began our day at Mass with our Faith Families. After Mass, we were treated to hot chocolate and Oreos. What a great way to end our Catholic Schools Week celebration. 

In Math class today, we continued to practice adding two two-digit numbers. We are getting better at this. 

In Science class, we learned about how light is used to send signals. We used flashlights and colors to tell a partner what action to do. Thank you for sending in flashlights to help with this activity! 

After lunch and recess, it was time to celebrate! We colored a candy jar filled with 100 marbles. The best part is that we got to use markers to do this. 

Next, we worked in groups to make designs using 100 objects. We made designs using 100 cups, 100 pattern blocks, 100 connecting wheels, and 100 wooden blocks. Here are some of our designs.

 

Finally, we created a self portrait of us at 100 years old. The students loved crinkling the paper to give themselves wrinkles. After creating our portrait, we wrote about something we would do when we are 100 years old. 

And, of course, we could not forget about Sunday: Groundhog Day! We each made a prediction of whether or not Phil will see his shadow. We are spilt between early spring and 6 more weeks of winter. 

Have a wonderful weekend!