Stuffed Animal Day!

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

We began our day with our Awards program. Today we recognized students for their achievements this year. The students were so excited to receive their awards. 

Today was Stuffed Animal Day in first grade. The students loved having a furry companion today. We began by reading Corduroy. After reading the story, we created a Corduroy and wrote about what a good friend is. 

After that, we wrote about our stuffed animal friend. We added our writing to a craft. 

Finally, we did some gummy bear math. The students graphed gummy bears, created a bar graph, and answered questions about their graph. 

In Math class today, our focus was on graphs. We spun a spinner 15 times and graphed the results. We then answered questions about our graph. 

In Social Studies today, we learned about different American symbols. 

After all of that hard work, it was time to relax and have a picnic. Accompanied by our animal friends, we enjoyed Teddy grahams, gummy bears, and iced tea. It was 'beary' good. 

Here are pictures from today. 

Have a great night! 

Watermelon Day!

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

In Religion class today, we talked about how the Apostles waited for 10 days for the Holy Spirit to come. On the tenth day, they heard a strong wind and saw flames of fire above their heads. Filled with the Holy Spirit, the Apostles went out and began telling people the Good News. 

Today was Watermelon Day in first grade. We had a melon-tastic day! We began by reading The Watermelon Seed, a fantasy story about a crocodile who eats a watermelon seed. After reading the story we talked about how the crocodile solved his problem. 

Next, we learned about the life cycle of a watermelon. We created a slice of watermelon showing how it goes from seed to sprout to flower to watermelon. Next, we talked about the different parts of a watermelon. We created a diagram to show them. We ended our morning sampling different types of melons. We tried watermelon, cantaloupe, and honey dew. We graphed our favorite one and answered questions about our graph. 

In Math class today, we talked about place value. We identified which place a digit in a two digit number is located. 

In Music class today, we reviewed the words presto and largo. We used hand motions to show when a piece of music went fast or when a piece of music went slow. 

We ended our day with more watermelon fun. Today, the students created a giant watermelon slice by paper weaving. They did a great job of following directions to create the watermelon. 

Here are pictures from our day of fun: 

Have a great night! 

Camping Day!

 Greetings! Today was an adventurous day in first grade. We really enjoyed our Camping Day. 

We began our day with Religion. Today, we talked about how Jesus promised to send the Holy Spirit before he ascended into Heaven. 

Our Camping Day fun began with a story. We read A Camping Spree with Mr. Magee. After reading the story we identified the characters, setting, problem, and solution. We also matched the rhyming words in the story. 

Next, we worked in camping theme centers. We identified the digraphs in words, sorted sentences based on the likelihood of them happening during camping, matched verbs to pictures, unscrambled camping theme words, and matched synonyms. We ended our morning by writing the steps in how to make s'mores. We added a s'mores craft to our writing. 

In Math class today, we reviewed how to subtract with and without regrouping. 

After Math class, we resumed our Camping Day fun. We enjoyed playing our board games with friends. It was awesome watching them play and just have fun. 

We ended our day with a s'mores snack. The students really enjoyed it. 

Have a great night!  

Beach Day!

 Aloha! Welcome to the final days of first grade. Each of the remaining days will be centered around a theme. We will spend time reviewing all that we have learned this year. Today was Beach Day! 

We began our day with Religion. Today, we talked about Baptism. We learned that Jesus sent his disciples out commanding them to go and baptize people. 

Then, it was time for our Beach Day fun. We began by reading There Was an Old Lady Who Swallowed a Shell. After reading that story, we sequenced the order of the objects she ate. Next, we wrote about what we would do at the beach. Then, it was time to work in beach day centers. With friends, we practiced telling time, practiced solving addition and subtraction problems, identified 10 more and 10 less than a number, identified the number of syllables in a word, and added the correct punctuation to the end of a sentence. We ended our morning sorting words based on whether they were a noun, verb, or adjective. 

In Math class, we reviewed adding with and without regrouping. We played Knockout. The goal was to quickly solve a problem. The students had fun adding and showing off their skills. 

After Math class, we resumed our Beach Day fun. We wrote about what we like to do in the summer and added it to a craft. We also painted a surfboard using watercolor paints. These surfboards will be laminated and turned into a bookmark to be used for summer reading. 

Here are pictures of today's writing project along with Friday's art project. Enjoy! 

Have a great night! 

Wrapping Up!

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

At Mass this morning we gathered with our Faith Families one last time this school year. We celebrated our kindergarten and eighth grade graduates. 

We wrapped up another week of learning in Language Arts. We used our oral vocabulary words in sentences, read r-controlled words, wrote sentences using our sight words, and took our weekly assessment. In addition, we practiced finding adverbs that tell how in sentences. Finally, we partner read a story in our decodable reader booklets. 

In Math class today, we took our chapter test on telling time. Next week, we will be reviewing the skills we learned this year. 

In Science class today, we talked about how seedlings will grow into adult plants. We observed different seedlings and predicted what plants they would grow into based on our observations. 

We ended our day with Art. Today, we created a mosaic sun. I love how each student took their time to design their sun. 

Have a great weekend! 

Ascension Thursday!

 Greetings! Happy Thursday! I hope everyone had a nice day. Only one more day to go! 

We began our day by attending Mass. Today we celebrated the Feast of the Ascension. 

We continued with our week of learning in Language Arts. We reviewed our oral vocabulary words, read r-controlled words and our sight words, and wrote sentences using our vocabulary words. We also practiced using adverbs that tell how in sentences. 

This afternoon in Language Arts we read Happy Birthday USA. After reading the story, we completed pages in our Reading/Writing Companion that focused on main idea and key details. 

In Math class, we used our critical thinking skills to solve problems involving time. The students did an excellent job at this. 

In Social Studies class, we talked about how the government makes laws to keep people safe. 

Have a great night! 

Fun in Music!

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

In Religion class today we talked about how Jesus stayed with his Apostles for 40 days before he went back to Heaven. We call this the Ascension. 

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 r-controlled -air, -are, and -ear. After that, we learned how to blend and read r-controlled syllable words, words like hairy and burning. Next, we practiced using our sight words in sentences. Following that, we learned our vocabulary words (nation and unite) and wrote sentences using the words. We ended our morning by writing a narrative paragraph about the Hawk Walk. 

This afternoon in Language Arts we focused on comprehension. We reread Share the Harvest and Give Thanks. Then, we wrote about the author's purpose. Finally, we learned about adverbs that tell how and practiced finding them in sentences. 

In Math class today, we reviewed telling time to the hour and half hour. We are very good at telling time. 

We ended our day with Music class. Today, we talked about the words forte and piano. Students took turns hiding a stuffed apple in the classroom. Then, using our singing voices, we sang louder or softer as another student looked for the apple. Smiles and laughter were abound. 

Have a great night! 

A Return to Learning!

 Greetings! Happy Tuesday! After two fun days, it was time to return to learning today. 

We began our day with Adoration. We spent some quiet time in church talking to Jesus. 

We began a new week of learning in Language Arts; this week we will be reading about holidays. We began by learning our new oral vocabulary words (display, purpose, represent, pride, and design). Next, we worked on retelling as we read about the American flag. Then we learned how to blend and read r-controlled words spelled with -air (chair), -are (share), and -ear (bear). After that, we learned our new sight words (favorite, few, gone, surprise, wonder, young). Finally, we put our new skills together as we read Share the Harvest and Give Thanks. 

This afternoon in Language Arts we wrote a narrative paragraph about our field trip yesterday. 

In Math class, we practiced telling time to the half hour. The students worked in pairs to match time shown on a clock to its digital time. 

Have a great night! 

Field Trip Day!

 Greetings! Happy Monday! Happy Field Trip Day! We had a wonderful time on our field trip today. 

We began our day at Discovery Space. First, we took part in a science lesson. We learned about physical and chemical changes. We made slime to demonstrate both physical and chemical changes. 

Then, we got to explore the exhibit floor. We had tons of fun digging for dinosaur bones, making a tornado, being meteorologists, playing with Legos, and so much more. 

After Discovery Space, we headed to the Creamery for our ice cream treat. We really enjoyed that! 

Now, its back to work tomorrow! Have a great night! 

Hawk Walk Day!

 Greetings! Happy Friday! Today was a very exciting day in first grade! It was our annual Hawk Walk Day! 

Before Mass, we took our Spelling test and read a Scholastic News magazine. 

At Mass, Fr. Brian reminded us to love others just as Jesus commanded us to do. 

Then, it was time for fun! We began with our walk around the neighborhood. Yes, it was chilly, but we enjoyed getting out and having the trucks honk for us! 

After lunch, we had fun playing the games. We enjoyed the oversized board games in the cafeteria along with the dress up relay game. Thanks to the volunteers who helped with the face painting. 

The highlight for us was the bounce houses. The kids had fun just going from one to another. 

We ended our game fun in the gym. We enjoyed racing with pizza boxes, throwing footballs, and trying cornhole. 

By the end of the day, we were tired. There was not much noise at dismissal. I'm sure everyone slept great! 

Have a great weekend! 

May Crowning!

 Greetings! Happy Thursday! I hope everyone had a great day. 

Our day started with practicing our drills. We did a fire drill, hard lockdown, soft lockdown, and weather drill. The students did great with these ones. 

After settling down, we got our day started with Religion. We wrapped up our chapter on Jesus starting the church. 

We wrapped up another week of learning in Language Arts. We used our oral vocabulary words in sentences, read words with three letter blends and with inflectional endings, wrote sentences using our sight words, and took our weekly assessment. We also practiced using pronouns in sentences. 

This afternoon in Language Arts we read a short nonfiction piece about origami. We then folded paper to make a dog. We had fun doing this. 

This afternoon we honored Mary during our May Crowning prayer service. Our second graders did a beautiful job in leading the prayer service. 

Have a great night! 

Party Time!

 Greetings! Happy Wednesday! I hope everyone had a great day! 

In Religion class today, we reviewed Apostolic succession. We talked about how Jesus began the church and turned the keys over to Peter who became the first pope, and how the Apostles became the first bishops and helped the church to grow. 

In Language Arts, we reviewed our oral vocabulary words, read words with three letter blends and inflectional endings, and read our sight words. We also practiced using our vocabulary words in sentences. To help build our fluency and comprehension skills, we partner read a story from our decodable reader booklets. We also read Lissy's Friends. After reading the story, we discussed its theme. 

This afternoon in Language Arts we practiced using pronouns in sentences. We also wrote our first narrative paragraph. Yesterday, we read Owl Moon. Today, we used the events from the story to help write our paragraph. 

In Math class today, we learned how to tell time to the half hour. We used our clocks to practice showing times and our whiteboards to write the times. 

We ended our day with a party! Today, we had a fiesta complete with a pinata and confetti eggs! We had a blast! 

Have a great night! 

Cinco de Mayo!

 Greetings! Happy Cinco de Mayo! I hope everyone had a wonderful day and maybe enjoyed a taco or two! 

In Religion class today, we talked about the marks of the church. We learned that the church is one (only one church), holy (founded by Jesus), Catholic (for everyone), and Apostolic (grown by the Apostles). We created a poster to help us remember them. Here is a picture of our poster from today and of the cross we made yesterday to help us remember the seven sacraments. 

We continued our week of learning in Language Arts. We began by answering questions using our oral vocabulary words. Next, we used our letter tiles to spell and read words with three letter blends. Then, we reviewed adding inflectional endings onto words. After that we practiced using our sight words in sentences. Following that we learned our new vocabulary words (difficult and nobody) and practiced using them in sentences. Finally, we worked on our comprehension skills; this week we are focusing on theme. We reread A Spring Birthday. Then we wrote about what makes the story realistic and what the story's theme is. 

This afternoon in Language Arts we practiced using pronouns in sentences. We also took time to wrap our Mother's Day gifts. The students were so excited to do this! 

In Math class today we reviewed telling time to the hour. The students completed a write the room activity where they walked around and wrote the time shown on various clocks. 

Here are pictures of our latest Art projects. Enjoy! 

Have a great night! 

May the Force Be With You!

 Greetings! Happy Monday! May the force be with you! 

In Religion class today, we talked about how Jesus wanted his grace to be passed down. We do this when we celebrate the sacraments. We looked at each sacrament and talked about how we receive God's grace. 

We began a new week of learning in Language Arts; this week we will be reading about traditions. We began by learning our new oral vocabulary words: effort, tradition, ancient, drama, and movement. Then, we worked on retelling as we read about traditional cultural dances. Following that, we learned how to blend and read words with three letter blends, words like split, scrape, three, and shred. After that, we learned our new sight words (before, front, heard, push, tomorrow, your). We ended our morning focusing on our fluency skills. We read A Spring Birthday. 

This afternoon we attended the annual 8th Grade Spring Showcase. We enjoyed watching the various skits performed by the 8th grade class. 

We ended our day with Gym class. Today, we headed outside and enjoyed the sunshine! 

Have a great evening! 

Welcome to May!

 Greetings! Welcome to May in first grade. This month is just going to fly by! 

At Mass this morning, Fr. Brian reminded the children to keep pushing and not to slow down as the year is coming to an end. He encouraged us to be workers like St. Joseph, working humbly to build up the kingdom of God here on Earth. 

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 then worked on our Mother's Day projects. The writing just made me smile. I just love the innocence of children. 

In Math class today, we started our chapter on time. We practiced telling time to the hour. The students really enjoyed using clocks to show various times today. 

In Science class, we talked about how we can use the stars to help us. We just need to find the North star to help guide us. 

We ended our week with Art class. Today, we created birdhouses from construction paper. They turned out cute. I'll post pictures next week. 

Have a wonderful weekend!