Greetings Jingles!

 Greetings! Welcome back! I hope everyone had a fantastic Thanksgiving break. I loved hearing all of the stories today. There was some excitement this morning in first grade. Our classroom elf, Jingles, has arrived. The children were excited to see him. 

We began our day with Religion. We began by reviewing the season of Advent. We watched some Brother Francis videos on things we can do during this season. Then, we returned to our books. Today we learned that prophets were people who told the people to get ready for Jesus. 

We began a new week of learning in Language Arts; this week (and next 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 practiced finding the same sounds in words. Finally, we learned how to blend and read long i words. 

Our Math class today focused on place value. We used our place value blocks to show various numbers. We then drew the place value blocks to represent the numbers. The children did great with this. 

This afternoon we had our Christmas Concert practice. Things are really beginning to sound beautiful. The children are getting excited for next week. 

After practice, we returned to learning. First, we wrote the steps in planting a seed. Then we practiced saying the Spanish words for colors. 

Have a great night! 

Happy Thanksgiving!

 Greetings! Today was a very exciting day in first grade. We are very excited for our Thanksgiving vacation. 

In Religion class today, we talked about the Advent wreath. Using tissue paper and a paper plate, we made an Advent wreath and added the purple and pink candles. Each student was given a set of flames to add to the wreath during the Advent season. 

This morning we read Turkey Trouble. After reading the story we sequenced all the different disguises turkey used. We then created our own disguise for turkey. 

We also read our Scholastic News about family traditions and talked about our own family's Thanksgiving traditions. 

And, before we knew it, it was time to go home. I hope everyone has a blessed Thanksgiving. Enjoy time with your family, enjoy good food, and enjoy each other. I'll see you on Tuesday! 

Turkey Fun!

 Greetings! Happy Tuesday! I hope everyone had a great day! We had a very fun day in first grade. 

In Religion class this morning, we wrapped up our chapter on learning how the people waited for Jesus. We reviewed the stories of Noah and Abraham. We also began to learn about Advent. We learned that during this church season we wait for Jesus by preparing our hearts. We learned that we do that be helping others and praying a little extra each night. 

We wrapped up another week of learning in Language Arts. We used our oral vocabulary words in sentences and wrote sentences using our sight words. To practice our Phonics skills we participated in a write the room activity; the students just love moving around the room finding, reading, and writing words. We ended class by taking our weekly assessment. 

We continued to look at the numbers to 20 in Math class today. Each student was given a turkey with a number on it. On the feathers, we drew a picture for the number, spelled the number, wrote the number, showed the number in a 10 frame, and wrote the number sentence for it. Here they all are: 

This afternoon afternoon Christmas Concert practice, we had some more Thanksgiving fun. We drew and wrote about what we like to eat on Thanksgiving. We also wrote about what we are thankful for and added that to a turkey craft. They turned out cute: 

Just a reminder that tomorrow is a noon dismissal. Have a good night! 

Thanksgiving week!

 Greetings! Happy Monday! Welcome to Thanksgiving week in first grade. It is a week where we will wrap up learning and continue our celebration of Thanksgiving. 

We began our day with Religion. Today we watched the story of Abraham and Isaac. Afterwards, we talked about how Abraham trusted God and how God saw that faith. 

We continued our week of learning in Language Arts. Today we reviewed our oral vocabulary words, spelled and read long a words and contractions for not, and practiced reading our sight words. To help build our fluency and comprehension, we partner read a story from our decodable reader booklets. We also read a nonfiction piece about telling time. After reading that story we completed pages in our close reading companion. We ended class by practicing finding verbs in sentences. 

In Math class today, we began our chapter on the numbers to 10. We practiced showing the numbers using ten frames, writing number sentences for the numbers, and spelling the numbers using words. 

We ended our day by looking at the First Thanksgiving. We learned that it lasted for three days. We also talked about how the Pilgrims and Wampanoag sang, dance, and gave thanks for the bountiful harvest.  

Have a great night! 

More Thanksgiving Fun!

 Greetings! Today was a great day to wrap up the week. So many students left saying that this was such a fun day. I love their excitement at learning new things. 

At Mass today, Fr. Brian reminded us to always be thankful for what we have and to always thank God each and every day. 

We continued our week of learning in Language Arts. We reviewed our oral vocabulary words, read long a words, contractions with not, and our sight words. To build our fluency and comprehension we partner read a story from our decodable reader booklets. We also read a fantasy story about a boy going to school. After reading that story we wrote about the characters, setting, and plot. 

In Math class today, we took our chapter test on shapes. We will begin our chapter on the numbers to 20 on Monday. 

In Science class today we wrapped up our chapter on living and nonliving things. We will begin our unit on motion next. 

Finally, it was time for Art. Today we completed two projects. The first one related to our Thanksgiving learning yesterday about the Wampanoag Indians. We made flint, or Indian, corn using paint and Q-tips. After that project, we made a Pete the Cat dressed as a Pilgrim. Here are some pictures:

Have a great weekend! 

Pilgrim Fun!

 Greetings! Happy Thursday! I don't know about you but this week has gone fast. It's hard to believe that tomorrow is Friday! 

In Religion class today we learned how God promised Abraham descendants more numerous than the stars because Abraham listened to God and moved to a new land. We talked about how Abraham had a strong faith in God, and like Abraham, we need to have faith in God. 

We continued our week of learning in Language Arts. We reviewed our oral vocabulary words from yesterday and then learned three new words (calendar, occasion, and weekend). We then worked on rereading as we listened to a story about different ways to tell time. Following that we used our letter tiles to spell and read long a words. After that, we learned how to spell and read contractions for the word not. Next, we practiced using our sight words in sentences. We ended our morning by practicing using verbs in sentences. 

After lunch, we focused on building our comprehension skills. We reread Nate the Snake is Late and our decodable reader. We then wrote about what happened in the beginning, middle, and end of each story. 

In Math class today we reviewed everything we learned about shapes. We are ready for our chapter test tomorrow. 

For Gym, we danced to GoNoodle videos. We really enjoyed the songs. 

We ended our day with some Thanksgiving fun. Today we wrote about something we would do if we were a Pilgrim. We also learned about what life was like for the Wampanoag Indians. Here is a picture of our Pilgrim project: 

Have a great night! 

Pattern Fun!

 Greetings! Happy Wednesday! Today was an action-packed day in first grade. 

We actually began our day with Spanish class because we ran out of time yesterday. Today, we reviewed color words by completing our learning cards. 

Then, we jumped back into our routine with Religion class. Today, we talked about how Abraham was obedient to God as he and his wife moved to a new land. We also talked about ways we can be obedient. 

We began a new week of learning in Language Arts; this week our stories deal with time. We learned two new oral vocabulary words (immediately and schedule). We worked on rereading as we read A Second is a Hiccup. Then, we took a break to practice for our Christmas show. After the practice, we returned to our learning. We learned how to blend and read long a words with the magic e at the end. We also learned our new sight words. We finished the morning by learning about verbs. 

This afternoon we partner read Nate the Snake is Late which helped us to practice reading long a words and our new sight words. 

In Math class today we continued work with patterns. Today we made a pattern hat. Here are some of them: 

We ended our day with some Thanksgiving fun. Today we focused on the Pilgrims. We read two stories about life as a Pilgrim boy and girl. We then made a flip book showing what we learned about the Pilgrims. 

Have a great night!