Show Time!

 Greetings! Happy Thursday! Today was such an exciting day in first grade! Didn't the students do such a nice job? They were so excited all day; they kept singing their songs. I loved it! 

In Religion class today, we wrapped up our chapter on Mary saying yes to God. Next week, we will focus on the Nativity story. 

In Language Arts class, we read The Gingerbread Man. After reading the story, we completed pages in our Reading/Writing Companion that focused on key details from the story. 

In Math class today, we reviewed subtracting within 20. Tomorrow, we will learn how to solve word problems. 

In Social Studies today, we learned about different bodies of water and landforms. We focused on rivers, plains, and mountains. 

After our afternoon performance, we watched Twas the Night Before Christmas. They have never seen this one and just loved it. 

Have a wonderful night! 

Dancing Fun!

 Greetings! Happy Wednesday! Excitement is building for our play tomorrow. We had our dress rehearsal today. The children did such a nice job and sang beautifully. I can't wait for everyone to see it tomorrow! 

In Religion class today, we talked about how Mary went to visit Elizabeth after the angel Gabriel left her. 

In Language Arts class, we reviewed our oral vocabulary words, practiced reading words with soft c and soft g, practiced reading and spelling words with inflectional endings when the final e is dropped, and practiced reading our sight words. To help us build our fluency, we partner read a story from our decodable reader booklets. We also spent time working on our writing skills. We finished our how-to paragraph on planting a seed. We also wrote sentences using the correct verb tense. Finally, we wrote about what we would do if we had a pet reindeer. 

In Math class today, we practiced telling whether a number sentence was true or false. 

For Gym class today we broke out our dancing shoes. We danced to hits like "YMCA", "Hokey Pokey", and "The Chicken Dance". We also danced to lesser known tunes. 

We ended our day with a special Social Studies class. Today, we reviewed the continents and oceans. 

Have a wonderful night!  

Secret Santa Shopping!

 Greetings! Happy Tuesday! I hope everyone is doing well and is enjoying their week. 

We began our day by visiting the Secret Santa Shop. We had lots of fun shopping for presents and wrapping them. A huge shout out to all of the volunteers. They made our shopping trip go smoothly! 

In Religion class today, we talked about how the angel Gabriel visited Mary and told her that she would be the Mother of Jesus. 

In Language Arts class, we reread The Nice Mitten. After reading the story we wrote about what makes it a folktale and what the moral of the story is. We also reviewed past and future tense verbs. We sorted verbs based on their tense. Finally, we began to learn how to write a how-to paragraph. Today, we wrote the first two steps in planting a seed. 

In Math class today, we learned to use related facts to help us subtract. We reviewed fact families and practiced writing them. By knowing the fact family, this can help us subtract. 

Have a great night! 

Honoring Mary!

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

We began our day with Mass to celebrate the Feast of the Immaculate Conception. We welcomed Fr. Harris today as our celebrant. He reminded us that we need to seek forgiveness to restore our grace. 

We continued with our week of learning in Language Arts. We began by reviewing the oral vocabulary words we learned last week and then learned three new words (timid, foolish, eventually). Next, we used our letter tiles to spell and read words with soft c and soft g. Following that, we learned how to read words with inflected endings when the final e is dropped. Finally, we practiced using our sight words in sentences. 

In Math class today, we learned how to subtract by breaking a number into tens and ones and then subtracting. At times, we found this way confusing and reverted to just counting backwards. Remember to use the strategy you like best! 

Have a great night! 

Elf Writing Fun!

 Greetings! Welcome back after our flexible instruction day. Many thanks again for helping with everything yesterday. 

At Mass today, Fr. Brian encouraged us to wait with joy for the coming of Jesus. 

We began a new week over learning in Language Arts; this week we are reading folktales. We began by learning two new oral vocabulary words (hero and tale). Then, we reviewed reading soft c and soft g words. Following that we learned our new sight words (any, from, happy, once, so, upon). After that, we read The Nice Mitten which helped us practice reading soft c, soft, g, and our sight words in sentences. Finally, we learned about past and future tense verbs. 

In Math class today, we started to learn subtraction strategies. We used our number lines to count back to solve problems. 

Then, it was time for some Writing fun. We made an elf and wrote about what we would do if we were an elf. 

We ended our day with Art class. Today, the students dipped pom-pom balls in paint to decorate a Christmas ornament. I will post pictures once the paint has dried. 

Here is a picture of our classroom Christmas tree. 

And here is a picture of Jingles. He brought the students candy canes today. 

Have a great weekend! 

Pizza Anyone?

 Greetings! Happy Wednesday! I hope everyone is enjoying a relaxing evening. 

In Religion class today, we talked about how Mary was born without original sin and the gift of grace. This is why we call her immaculate. 

We wrapped up a week of learning in Language Arts. We used our oral vocabulary words in sentences. We wrote sentences using our sight words, and we took our weekly assessment. We even had time to learn how to blend and read words with soft c, soft g, and dge. We will be working on these words more tomorrow. 

In Math class today, we learned that we can add in either order and still end up with the same answer! 

For Gym today, we continued to work on our kickball skills. We are getting much better at running the bases! 

We ended our day with some Christmas fun! The children got to decorate our classroom Christmas tree. They did a great job! 

Jingles must have been hungry yesterday. Today, he brought us a Domino's pizza! 

Have a great night! 

Hello December!

 Greetings! Welcome to December in First Grade. This is one of my favorite months to spend with the children. I love preparing for the holidays and hearing about their elves. Their excitement is contagious! 

We began our day by going to church for Adoration. We spent some quiet time praying to Jesus asking him to help us draw closer to him during Advent. 

In Language Arts, we answered questions using our sight words. We also practiced reading long i words and plurals. To help us build our fluency, we partner read a story in our decodable reader. We also read a nonfiction story about plants and sequenced how plants grow. Finally, we practiced using present tense verbs in sentences. 

I'm sure the students told you that our classroom elf has returned. His name is Jingles. Each day, we will be writing in a journal describing where Jingles is or what he is doing. Today, he was hanging on the whiteboard. 

In Math class today, we continued learning addition strategies. Today, we learned the doubles and doubles plus 1 facts to help us solve addition problems. 

Have a great night! Stay warm!