Greetings! I hope everyone had a good week after that snow storm last weekend. I was amazed to see how much of the snow melted this week. It comes and goes.
In Religion class this week, we talked about our parish. We learned that we join our parish to worship God. We also talked about how a pastor leads and cares for a parish.
Language Arts class was full of fun this week. We began the week by reading Frog and Toad Together. The students just loved this story. They were debating whether or not this was the best story we read this year.
Towards the end of the week, we started a new story and learned new phonics skills. We learned how to blend and read r-controlled er, ir, and ur words and practiced reading contractions. We also learned some new sight words. In addition, we talked about what it means to draw conclusions. In Grammar, we are learning the verbs of be (am, is, are, was and were).
In Math class this week, we began the week practicing adding two two-digit numbers without regrouping. We used dimes and pennies to help us solve these problems. At the end of the week, we began to learn new facts: the doubles plus 1 facts. We learned that to solve these problems we double the smaller number and add 1. We will continue to practice these facts next week.
For Gym class this week we played kickball. In Social Studies, we talked about the continent, country, and state where we live and made a flipbook to help us remember these locations. In Science class, we began our study of teeth. We learned that it is important to eat healthy foods to help our teeth stay strong.
Finally, it was time for Art class. The students were so excited to make their penguins. They did such a good job. Take a look:
Enjoy your weekend!
Greetings on this snowy Saturday morning! It took some time for the snow to fly, but this storm made up for lost time. I hope everyone is safe, and I am sure the children are loving every inch we received!
Our week was a short week in first grade, made even shorter with a two hour delay. In Religion class this week, we talked about how we belong to a parish and how our parish is like our family. We also discussed that when we worship God we praise and thank him.
In Language Arts class, we blended and read words with inflected endings and r-controlled ar words. We also practiced new sight words. In addition we worked in our literacy centers to help us build our fluency and comprehension skills. On top of that we learned about verbs for now and for the past. Finally, we learned about paragraphs; we will begin writing paragraphs next week!
During Math class this week, we used a ruler to draw line segments, learned how to add two two-digit numbers using dimes and pennies, and solved a problem by drawing a picture.
For Social Studies this week, we learned about Martin Luther King, Jr. We learned about his life and why we celebrate it every January. We also talked about what we can do to make the world peaceful. In addition to that, we discussed the difference between a city, suburb, and town.
Below are pictures from last week and this week. Enjoy! Happy shoveling!
Greetings! I hope everyone is doing well and is having a nice weekend. Well, this past week we finally had winter weather. We had our first early dismissal and our first two hour delay of the season. Let's hope that we don't have too many more of those!
In Religion this week, we talked about how the pope leads and cares for the Church. We also discussed ways that the Church serves others.
During Language Arts this week, we learned to blend and read words with the inflected ending -es. We also blended and read r-controlled -or words. In addition, we practiced our new sight words and worked on telling the theme of a story. This week we read Jan's New Home. The students really enjoyed this story and did a fantastic job answering questions from it. We also practiced using verbs without s in sentences and wrote the steps in blowing a bubble.
In Math class this week, we learned how to divide a square in half several different ways. We also learned new math facts: the subtracting 2 facts. To practice these facts we used our student fact cards and our wrap-ups. We ended the week learning how to make tally marks.
For Gym class this week, we danced to some favorites: YMCA, The Birdie Dance, and Hokey Pokey. The students smiled the whole class!
Just a reminder that there is no school on Monday!!
Happy New Year! I hope everyone had a fantastic holiday. The students were quite excited to tell me all about their Christmas and what Santa brought them. It sounded like they had a nice holiday break.
We began the New Year by attending Mass to honor the Holy Name of Jesus. We remember that Jesus' name is one that is to be respected and honored.
In Religion class, we wrapped up our study of the Holy Spirit helping the church to grow. We then talked about the leaders of the church. We learned that Jesus picked Peter to be the leader of the Apostles. We also discussed how bishops lead the church today.
Language Arts class was full of new learning this week. We learned how to decode and read final ng, nk words and compound words. We also learned new sight words. We put this new knowledge to work as we read Ruby in Her Own Time. As we read this story this week, we focused on the plot of the story. In Grammar this week we focused on verbs that add -s to them, and in writing we wrote the steps in building a snowman.
To add more fun to Language Arts, we baked up some art projects. We made cupcakes full of compound words. We also made 'synonym' rolls when we talked about synonyms. Look at our tasty treats:
During Math class this week, we focused on several new skills. First we practiced spelling the numbers 0-10. We played a version of Hangman to help us do that. Next, we learned about pairs and how two things make a pair. Then, we created a bar graph and answered questions about it. We also practiced adding two two-digit numbers using dimes and pennies. We ended the week identifying ordinal position to the 26th.
For Gym class this week, we played our favorite 'Alligator, Alligator'. In Social Studies we talked about the weather and seasons. We drew pictures of something we do in each season. During Science class we talked about the three phases of water and how it can change from a solid to a liquid to a gas. This discussion led us to learn about evaporation.
We ended the week with Art class. We made snowmen. They look so cute!
Enjoy your weekend!
Merry Christmas! This week was full of Christmas activities.
In Religion class our focus was the Christmas story. We read and discussed the story. We then made our own manger scene. The students did such a wonderful job coloring, cutting, and putting their scene together. Here are a few examples of how they turned out:
We ended the week by finishing a candy cane ornament. We turned the candy cane upside down and learned about the legend of the candy cane. They turned out great. Sorry, I forgot to take pictures.
In Language Arts this week we read three Christmas stories. We read How Santa Got His Job. After reading it, we put in order the different jobs Santa had and identified the different characters in the story. Next we read The Polar Express. After reading this story, we sequenced the events in it and then made Christmas bells. Joyful noise could be heard throughout the primary floor. Finally, we read The Gingerbread Man. We then completed a paper where we drew ourselves as gingerbread boys and girls, drew our house, and wrote what we would run away from.
During Math class this week, we learned how to measure using nonstandard units. To measure different objects, we used linking cubes. We will soon be using rulers to measure things.
Before we knew it, it was time to go home for the week. I wish all of you a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year! See you in 2016!
~Miss Chalich
Greetings on this snowy day! I will say that I missed the cold weather and snow; now it feels like Christmas. We had a busy week in first grade. The students are getting excited for Christmas. I love seeing their excitement this time of year.
In Religion class this week we learned about the early church. We talked about how the church began on Pentecost and grew with the help of the Holy Spirit. We also discussed things the early church members did together like pray, eat, and share. It did not take us long to see that they did the same things we do today with our families.
Language Arts class was full of learning and practicing this week. We practiced reading our sight words, words with the vowel sounds of y, and CV words. We reviewed reading long e: e, ee words and VCCV words. We put our decoding skills to the test as we read An Egg is An Egg. While reading this story, we discussed how things change over time. In addition to all that reading, we talked about action verbs in Grammar. We practiced identifying verbs in sentences. We even created our own Action Hero and wrote action verbs to describe what our hero does. During Writing class this week, we wrote the steps in decorating a tree.
With Christmas just around the corner, we have taken a break from our reading anthology to read Christmas stories. On Thursday, we read Santa's Stuck. After reading this funny story about Santa getting stuck in a chimney, we wrote about what we would do if Santa was stuck in our chimney. We then added a few pieces to create a craft project. On Friday, we read How the Grinch Stole Christmas. We then illustrate a way we would make the Grinch grin. Here are pictures from our projects:
Math class was full of learning this week. We began the week by learning new math facts: the adding 2 facts. We discovered that adding 2 to a number is just like skip counting. To help us solve these facts, we used linking cubes to complete our fact cards. We then practiced these facts using a wrap-up.
For Gym class this week, we went back to the gym. We talked about eating healthy foods. The students were divided into teams. Each team was given a hoop full of healthy foods (bean bags) and unhealthy foods (small balls). Their job was to trade an unhealthy food for a healthy food. They enjoyed this activity. In Social Studies, we talked about natural resources.
On Friday afternoon, we attended the Handbell Concert. The students did a beautiful job playing Christmas music. After the show, we returned for Art class. This week, we made Santa Claus. Have a look:
I hope everyone has a nice weekend. See you next week!
Greetings! I hope everyone is enjoying this beautiful weather. It is so hard to believe that it is December and Christmas is only two weeks away. This was the first time that I ever was able to have Gym class outside in December. It was just too nice on Thursday to stay inside.
We did and learned many things in Religion class this week. We began the week by watching a video on the life of St. Nicholas. On Tuesday, we went to Mass in honor of the feast of the Immaculate Conception. We then spent the rest of the week talking about Pentecost, the day the Holy Spirit came to Jesus' followers.
Language Arts was quite busy this week too. We finished one story and began another one. At the beginning of the week, we reviewed long vowels: e, ee and syllables VCCV. We read and discussed Honey Bees; the students loved reading and learning about bees. Finally, we practiced finding nouns in sentences. At the end of the week, we practiced new phonics skills. We learned how to blend and decode words with the vowel sounds of y and CV words. We also practiced comparing and contrasting while reading. Our focused also switched in Grammar; we began our study of verbs. This week we are exploring action verbs. For writing this week, we wrote the steps in planting a seed.
During Math class this week, we practiced drawing lines of symmetry and identifying one half of a whole. We also practiced counting by odd numbers; we do this everyday as part of our math meeting. Then we learned how to number a clockface and show time on a clock. We ended the week by solving a problem by looking for a pattern.
In Science this week, we talked about solids, liquids, and gases. We sorted objects based on their state of matter.
We ended the week with a fun Art period. We decorated a classroom Christmas tree. We then made a Christmas tree using strips of green paper. To add some sparkle to our tree, we added white dots of paint to make it look like snow.
Below are pictures from this week. The first two are from art class: one are the peppermints we made last week and one is of the Christmas trees. The third picture is from phonics class. As we were practicing reading CV words, students were given a word and they sorted the words based on the vowel sound.
Enjoy your week!
