Weekly Spelling Lists -

First Grade - Phonetic List - Unit 17 - st Blends
best
rest
fast
must
step
still
post
stir
rust
stiff

First Grade - High-Frequency List - Words 81-90
made
over
did
down
only
way
find
use
may
water

Second Grade - Phonetic List - Long a (a-consonant-e, ai, ay)
safe
day
rain
play
ate
stay
save
wait
game
space

Second Grade - High-Frequency List - Words 281-290
didn't
car
morning
I'm
body
upon
family
later
turn
move

If you cannot view the video open it from our blog website.  The website is ressullivan.blogspot.com. I tried it from there and it worked.  :)

Today we were making Advent wreaths.  The students started singing Christmas songs - on their own - not prompted by me at all.  It was so beautiful!  I had to take a video.  Here it is...Enjoy!

First grade has math homework tonight.

Happy Thanksgiving!

A Few FYIs -

First Grade Math - We have been working on place value.  They have been learning about ones and tens using "sticks and circles" for drawings.  We have also used ten sticks.  We are using our math boards to learn methods to add two digit and one digit numbers together.  Today we learned about the symbols for greater than and less than.  (> and <)  The first graders are also learning how to tell time.  Time isn't until the second half of our book and I figured they could do it - and boy are they!  We started with :00 and :30.  Now most of the first graders can even tell time to the :05 - some kids even to the minute!  Also - continue to practice those math facts!

First Grade Phonics - The first graders are learning about basewords and suffix s.  Today we also had a discussion about punctuation while reading our phonics story.  We learned about quotation marks and apostrophes when words are contraction words.

Reading - We have Daily 5 every day.  Each of our groups is working on different things - depending on their reading level.  When not in group, the students are in Daily 5 centers.  This week our writing center has the students making turkeys and writing on them things that they are thankful for.  Our word work center has them making words out of the letters in Thanksgiving, working on Thanksgiving activities such as a word search and a word mix-up, completing a November calendar, and practicing spelling words, among other things.  I downloaded a new app for listening called Epic.  The students love it!

Science - We are getting close to the end of our weather unit - and our solids and liquids Einstein kit arrived this week...so we'll need to start that soon.  This week in science we learned about the water cycle.  We are currently in the middle of an experiment with a puddle.  We have a puddle in a pie tin.  We're recording what it looks like every day.  We're checking to see how long it takes to completely evaporate.  Today we had a lesson about rainy day fabrics.  We tested four fabrics to see which would be the best to wear on a rainy day.  We tested cotton, cotton-polyester, wool, and nylon.  We found out the nylon would be the best out of those four fabrics.

Handwriting - We continue to work on our handwriting skills - writing the letters in the correct places and forming the letters the correct way.  The second graders are super excited because this week we started cursive.   So far they have learned the lower case i and the lower case t.  They are finding out it's a little harder than it looks.  :)

Writing - We are fortunate to have two fantastic grandma helpers.  Mrs. Johnson and Mrs. Kelly have been volunteering in our classroom for years!  They just returned about four weeks ago.  So far when they have been here the writing assignments have been pumpkins stories, Halloween stories, turkey stories, etc.  This week, for the first time, we used our writer's workshop notebooks.  Writer's workshop is the writing process.  The steps are -
1.  Make a web
2.  Write the rough draft
3.  Edit the story
4.  Rewrite the story with corrections
5.  Publish  (Have your story typed, bound, and then you illustrate)

This is a big process!  The second graders are the experts since they worked on this last year as well.  Since yesterday was the first time for the first graders, they were paired up with a second grade helper.  The outcome - amazing!  The second graders were such great helpers for the first graders.  I had to snap a few pics of the kids working together.

At the end of writer's workshop we always share what we worked on.  All of the partners went up to share together.  It was beautiful.  Then, Monika shared.  She worked with our Grandma helper Mrs. Kelly and she asked Mrs. Kelly to sit with her when she shared.  It was so cute.

Reminder - Tomorrow is a Res Spirit Dress Down Day.

Have a great night!

Tomorrow is a Res Spirit Dress Down Day.

First grade has math homework tonight.

Weekly Spelling Lists

First Grade - Phonetic List - Beginning Blends
crab
spin
skip
frog
plum
slam
grab
flip
snap
plus

First Grade - High-Frequency List - Words 71-80
no
make
than
first
been
its
who
now
people
my

Second Grade - Phonetic List - Vowel - Consonant - e
cute
wave
robe
late
mule
tape
joke
fire
base
broke

Second Grade - High-Frequency List - Words 271-280
learn
point
city
play
toward
five
himself
usually
money
seen

Second grade has phonics homework tonight.

Tomorrow is a Packer Dress Down Day!

One of my favorite art projects - Handprint and footprint turkeys.  :)

The first graders have math homework tonight.  They need to finish the back side of a sheet we were working on during class today when we had a fire drill.  :)  The sheet is class activity 4-6.  The sheet is working on doubles, doubles plus one, doubles minus one, doubles plus two, and doubles minus two.  See if they can explain that to you.  :)

Look at this beautiful flag we made out of our hand prints - 

Weekly Spelling Lists -

This week - crazy - all of the first graders are on one list and all of the second graders are on one list.

In first grade the list we worked on was different from all of the lists we've had so far.  It is called - Words Writers Use.  It's common sight words that we use in stories.  They are simple to read, but not as simple to spell.  It's actually a great list to work on for helping the first graders write.

In second grade, all of the words in the list today ended with nk and ng.  The second graders recognized that all of the words were glued sounds - and that is what they are working on in phonics!  All of the second graders will be doing the high frequency list this week.

First Grade - Unit 14 - Words Writers Use
the
I
to
of
was
are
ago
easy
goes
only

Second Grade - High Frequency List - Words 261-270
example
heard
several
change
answer
room
sea
against
top
turned



Today Steve Beylon from Channel 2 came to talk to our class about weather and being a meteorologist.  We took a group picture and he's going to put it on the news on Wednesday morning.  It will be on Action 2 New This Morning at 4:55 am, 5:25 am, 5:55 am, and 6:25 am.  Here are a few pictures from today -

We ended the presentation with some cupcakes I made.  Thank you Pinterest!

First Grade Math - We finished up our unit on word problems.  :)  Now we are working on place value - ones and tens.  We have been using our boards (they have hundreds charts on them) to make numbers using ten sticks and circles.  The first graders have also been doing a great job on practicing their math facts!  A fun game we have been playing is shut the box.  It's great for adding and figuring out partners.  They love it!

First Grade Phonics - We are starting to learn about glued sounds.  Glued sounds are letters that are "glued together" to make a word family.  We learned about the glued sounds -all, -am, and -an.

Science - We are plugging away in our weather unit.  We continue to record the cloud cover, precipitation, and wind daily, as well as the temperature.  Today we had a lesson on if the color of clothing plays a role in how warm you feel.  We learned that black (and dark colors) absorb the sun and will make you feel warmer and that white (and light colors) reflect the sun.  Monday Steve Beylon from Channel 2 will be visiting our class.

Writing - This week in writer's workshop we worked on "Thankful Turkeys"  The students had to write on turkey feathers things they are thankful for.

Handwriting - We continue to work in our handwriting books.  Our goals are always to form the letters the correct way and put them in the correct spaces. 

Reading - Every day we work in reading groups and in Daily 5.  This week in word work the students are putting together a Thanksgiving poem.  This week we did learn three Thanksgiving poems.  We also made a Thanksgiving book.  

Religion - Last week in Religion we went through a chapter on Mary.  This week we went through a chapter on Jesus and the Holy Family.  We have been practicing the Hail Mary and the Our Father with some fun activities I created on the SMART Board.  We also work on our Promises Papers every week.  This week we learned about saints.

Read-Aloud - We are reading Junie B. Jones - First Grader - Turkeys We have Loved and Eaten (And Other Thankful Stuff).

***Tomorrow is going to be a green and blue dress down day.***

First grade and second grade have math homework tonight.  Some students did finish it at school.

***Diary of a Wimpy Kid - Old School

Someone from our class pre-ordered the book Diary of a Wimpy Kid - Old School with the last book order.  The book came today - but it doesn't tell me who ordered it.  If you ordered it, please let me know.

Thank you!

Weekly Spelling Lists -

First Grade - Phonetic List - Short u Words
bus
cut
nut
bug
run
tug
snug
bump
drum
plug

First Grade - High-Frequency List - Words 61-70
into
has
more
her
two
like
him
see
time
could

Second Grade - Phonetic List - Consonant Clusters (Blends)
flat
glass
plant
dress
front
bring
glad
cliff
grand
cluck

Second Grade - High-Frequency List - Words 251-260
sure
knew
it's
try
told
young
sun
thing
whole
hear



***Halloween***
Thank you so much to Kristin Warden, Julie Van Pay, and Katie Skurka for planning our Halloween party.  The kids had a blast!  Thank you, also, to everyone who sent a treat.  That was very kind!

Here are a few pictures from last Thursday -