This week is Catholic Schools Week!  What a week it has been!  We are still working in reading groups, working in math groups, working in writer's workshop, etc.  However, we have been making time for all sorts of activities this week! 

Monday - Spirit Day and National Puzzle Day

Tuesday - Super Hero Day and Service to Others - We filled blessing bags for the homeless shelter

Wednesday - Backwards / Wacky Day and Buddy Day - The fourth graders helped us work on our stories in writer's workshop.

Don't Forget - Tonight we have XSTREAM Night!  Come on out to the Resurrection Campus to see what each class has been working on in STREAM.  You can visit the carnival and play some games in the gym that the middle school is putting on.  The third grade class is selling baked goods.  The fourth grade class is selling lip balm that they made during STREAM.  All proceeds from the carnival and 3rd and 4th grade will be donated.  

Friday is Be Me Day!  The students may dress in their favorite outfit or their favorite color.  We will end the day with a dance party in the gym from 2:00 - 3:00!

A few FYI's -

Spelling - There will not be a spelling list this week or next week.  This week is Catholic Schools Week and there are a lot of activities going on.  Next week we do not have school on Friday.  The next spelling list will be the week of February 12th - 16th.

100th Day Projects - The 100th day projects are starting to come in!  They are fantastic!  Thank you for your creativity!  The kids love sharing their projects and they love seeing them displayed!

Reminder - Thursday all the students will be dropped off at the Resurrection Campus.  We will take a  bus back to the St. Matt's Campus.  Also - Thursday night is our XSTREAM night at Resurrection from 6:00 - 7:30.

A few FYI's -

Math - We continue to work in our math groups.  This week the yellow group is working on partners and switch partners up to 10.  the green group is working on ones and tens (using balls and sticks), the red group is working on adding a two digit number and a one digit number by counting on, and the blue group is working on story problems  - figuring out where the missing number is (partner or total), and story problems adding three numbers together.

Science - This week we finished up solids.  We had a lesson where two new solids were introduced - the sponge and a button.  We did all the tests that we did on the other 20 solids - color, shape, hardness, roll, stack, buoyancy, and magnetism.  The biggest surprise?  The button was magnetic.  It was the same color as the brass washer.  The students assumed it wouldn't be magnetic.  They found out brass it not magnetic, but other metals that are the same color are magnetic.  We are starting to work with liquids this week.  Our first two liquids were water and glue.  We tested what happens when we tilt the liquid, when we use a spoon to gather the liquid, how the liquid feels, if the liquid is opaque or transparent, how the liquid reacted when stirred, and what happened to the liquid when it was spread out on paper.  Today we will introduce two more liquids - vegetable oil and green shampoo. 

Reading - This week our word work focus is contractions.  We continue to meet in reading groups and work in daily 5 centers every day.

Writing - This week we worked in our writer's workshop notebooks.  The steps that we have been working on are 1.  Make a plan - web of ideas, 2. Rough Draft, 3.  Edit, 4.  Rewrite, 5.  Publish.  The students are working on starting sentences with capital letters, using complete sentences, using punctuation, and writing on the lines.  When a story is published it is typed and bound.  The students then illustrate their story.  We are starting to have some finished published pieces.  :)

Religion - This week we worked on the meaning behind the words of the Our Father.  The students created their own Our Father books.  We are also getting ready for next week - which is Catholic Schools Week!  We combined reading and Religion and wrote stories of what we love about our Catholic School.

Phonics - We are learning about blends and the difference between a blend and a digraph.  We also learned what a digraph blend is.  (Blend = two consonants that still say their sound - ex. - st, Digraph = two consonants that make a new sound - ex. - sh, Digraph Blend = a digraph and a blend together - ex. - tch).  We are also learning about r controlled vowels.  We call them bossy r.  (ar - car, or - horn, er - her, ir  - bird, ur - burn)

STREAM - Tomorrow we will work on our last STREAM project.  After reading the story of David and Goliath, the task is to build a device that will launch pom poms the distance of one meter.  Next week Thursday you will get to see our projects at our XSTREAM night.  

Next week is Catholic Schools Week!  

Monday - School Spirit Day - Wear your spirit wear

Tuesday - Super Hero Day - Dress as your favorite hero who helps others

Wednesday - Backwards Day - Wear everything mixed up or the wrong way

Thursday - All School Mass at Resurrection.  Uniform day today.  (All students need to be dropped off at Res.  We will take a bus back to the St. Matthew Campus.)

Friday - I am me day - Wear a favorite outfit or color

Weekly Spelling Lists -

Phonetic List - Blends
grab
best
flip
frog
jump
crash
next
drip
block
brush

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

Spelling City -
I introduced the students to Spelling City today.  Spelling City is a website.  To access spelling city you can either go to www.spellingcity.com or you can go to our class sqworl page.  Our sqworl page is www.sqworl.com/grazhj.

To get to our classroom's spelling lists you can search by teacher.  (I think if you go through our sqworl page, our class page will automatically come up.  If you go to spelling city I believe you'll have to find Jodi Sullivan - Resurrection School.)

Once you're at our page, you'll need to find the list that we're working on.  This week it will either be blends or 81-90.  Click on the list.  Then you can click on play games.  You must also click on free games. 

Reading - This week our word work focus is contraction words.  We have multiple centers for the students to work on.  We have six different reading groups - each reading stories at their level.

Writing - This week we had a few students publish their stories.  It was very exciting!  Our writing process is 1.  Idea - make a web  2.  Rough Draft  3.  Edit  4.  Rewrite  5.  Publish and Illustrate.  We also continue to work on handwriting - forming letters the correct way and putting the letters in the correct spaces.  This week we focused on the letter Rr.

Samuel with his book about rainbows

David sharing his story

Math - We have four different math groups - each working at their own level.  We have been working very hard at building stamina!  We are working in our centers at a voice volume 0 or 1, working on cleaning up the centers to switch, and working on transitioning quickly and quietly - tough work for first graders - and we're getting it!  Yesterday the yellow group had a lesson on partners of 5, the green group had a lesson on how tow write out numbers with balls and sticks (place value), the red group had a lesson on greater than, less than, and equal to, and the blue group had a lesson on subtracting by making a ten and showing the equation using pictures.

Religion - We have been learning about different types of prayer.  Prayers of thanks, prayers of asking, prayers of forgiveness, and prayers of praise.

Science - In solids and liquids this week we tested if our solids were attracted to a magnet.  We predicted which solids would be magnetic and then we tested.  We had two surprises.  Number one - the pipe cleaner was magnetic.  We found out there is a strip of metal in the middle of the pipe cleaner.  Number two  - the steel washer was magnetic, yet the brass washer was not magnetic.  The students thought every metal was magnetic.  They found out that brass is not magnetic.

A few groups testing their solids

STREAM - Our last project was building a cart for Moses.  The cart had to have a handle or a way to push or pull it, it had to be able to support a deck of cards, and it had to be able to roll at least one meter.  (A yard stick plus a few inches)  Figuring out how to get the carts to roll proved to be a challenge to some groups.  Watching the ideas roll was fun to see.  

Our final project will be done next Friday.  After reading the story of David and Goliath, the task is to build a device that will launch pom poms a distance of at least one meter.  :)

Osprey Point - Our last two Osprey Point dates are February 28th and April 25th.

Mass - We have two more masses this year.  The dates are February 22nd and April 19th.

ART - First graders have been working on pastel snowmen drawings. We are learning how to shade using a light source. For this drawing, the moonlight was our light source. We realized the side of the snowman and land the moonlight shines on is lighter, and the opposite side of the snowman is darker. We also learned that a shadow is cast on the opposite side of land from the light source. It was fun to blend with our fingers and add our creative details. These drawings are currently displayed on the bulletin board in the art room. They just make me smile! Thank you for all the Christmas gifts. Happy New Year 2018 to you all. 

With appreciation, Mrs. Jeanne Ihlenfeldt

Reading - We are finished with round 2 of running records.  All students have been assessed and reading groups have been rearranged.  We now have 6 reading groups in our classroom.  This week our word work focus is compound words. 

Writing - This week in handwriting our focus was the letter Pp.  We always work on forming the letters the correct way and putting the letters in the correct spaces.  In writer's workshop we worked on New Years papers - Our favorites of 2017 and our hopes for 2018.  We also work on writing every day during daily 5.

Phonics - In phonics we are working on the glued sounds -ank, -ink, -onk, and -unk.

Science - We have been testing our solids.  Two tests that we recently did - We tested if the solids could roll and we tested if the solids would sink or float.

Testing if the solids roll

Testing if the solids sink or float

STREAM - Friday we will work all morning on Project # 3 - Building a cart for the Israelites.  Please keep sending in your recyclables.  :)  

Religion - This week we read about the story of Samuel and how he didn't know it was God who was calling him.  

Math - We have been working so hard in math!  Since after Christmas vacation we have been working on a different way to do math.  We now have four math groups.  Each group has lessons at their math level.  We have four different rotations during math.  The rotations are:

M - Meet with teacher

A - All by myself   (voice volume 0)

T - Technology       (voice volume 0)

H - Hands on          (voice volume 0 or 1)

Each group is color coded.  They move through the rotations together.  It is a lot of work to do it right.  Just like daily 5, we need to make sure we are doing things correctly before we can start.  (Building stamina!)  We have to use the correct voice volume, get to work, work the whole time, stay in the correct spot, clean up quickly and quietly, get materials for the next center, log on to a computer, etc.  - all independently!   All last week we practiced.  This week we started working on lessons as well.  

Weekly Spelling Lists -

Phonetic List - Glued Sounds ank, ink, onk, unk
Hank
sink
honk
junk
tank
wink
bonk
bunk
thank
chunk

HIgh-Frequency List - Trick Words - Words 71-80
no
make
than
first
been
its
who
now
people
my

This morning we spent the whole morning working on our STREAM project.  Our task was to build a tower with recycled material.  It had to be free standing, 5 cubes wide, 10 cubes tall, and it had to include a title or prayer.  The kids worked so hard together and came up with great creations!  Here are a few pictures from the day.

Next week we will be working on STREAM project number 3.  We will be reading the story of Moses and our task is to make a cart for the Israelites.  Please continue to send in your recyclables.

Thank you!

Have a great weekend!

Welcome back on this cold day!  BRRR!!! 

The kids had a great time at the Christmas party!  Thank you to Jess Hoban for planning, to the Seiler family, Kohlmann family, Richer family, Sandoval family, and the Nelson family for volunteering, and to so many of you for donating items for the party!  We have a lot of pictures to share!  Enjoy!