Spelling - We will not have a spelling list this week.

Reading - We continue to work on word families.  All of the students have been tested on sight words.  Almost all of the students have done running records.  Just a few more to go!  Wow!  The improvements that they have made since August are absolutely amazing!  :) 

Macy working on a word family house

Yaretzi practicing spelling words

Luke working on a word family neighborhood

A few pictures of reading buddies this week

 

Math - This week we continued to work on adding two digit numbers using dimes and pennies.  We are also working on doubles plus one and doubles minus one.  (Ex.  If 8+8=16, then 8+9= 17 or if 5+5=10, then 5+4=9)

Phonics - We have a new set of vowel teams that we are working on - oa, oe, ow.  The keywords are oa boat, oe toe, ow has two sounds and two keywords - ow snow and ow plow.  We learned how to tap out words when they have five sounds.  

Writing - The students continue to practice writing in writer's workshop.  Our steps are 1.brainstorming, 2. rough draft, 3. edit, 4. rewrite, and 5. publish.  The students love creating, writing, and illustrating stories!

Typing - Something pretty cool we did for the first time on Friday - typing!  The students are always amazed at how you can type fast and without even looking!  I told them with a lot of practice, they will be able to do that too.  I introduced them to a website called dancemat.  The website link is https://www.bbc.com/bitesize/articles/z3c6tfr   This website is great at teaching kids how to type.  It's from the BBC - so the animals that are talking have a British accent. :) It starts with teaching how to place your fingers on the keyboard.  The first step is teaching home row.  Then each lesson adds a few more letters.  Friday we worked on home row.  The kids loved it!  It was so fun to watch them soak this up!

Religion - This week we will be able to get back to our book.  Friday we read about the Gospel from our Promise Paper.  It was pretty cool - the Gospel message was about kindness.  Abbot Gary's message at Friday mass was about kindness.  We read two books about kindness on Friday.  Sometimes it's amazing how things all tie in together.  :)  All last week during our Religion time we practiced for our mass - and boy did the kids do an amazing job!  I am so proud of them!

A few random pictures from the week -

Calla looking like a squirrel

 Snowy fun at recess 

 More snowy recess fun

Have a great week!  :)

Weekly Spelling List -
All of the students will be working on the same list this week.

Phonetic List - Vowel Teams - oa, oe, ow
goat
road
croak
foe
toe
crow
flow
now
how
cow

Reading - This week we continue to work on word families in word work.  Two reading groups worked together to create a puppet show.  I am doing sight word checks this week.  I'm just about finished.  Then I will start another round of running records for the end of this trimester. 

Religion - This week we will be practicing for our mass on February 22nd.  Please practice with your children at home as well.  We went over to church today to practice.  We will go to church again tomorrow - and possibly one last run through on Wednesday.  This is first grade's last mass of this school year.  

Phonics - We are learning about the long o vowel teams.  Our new vowel teams are oa-boat, oe-toe, ow-snow and ow-plow.  The last vowel team , -ow, has two sounds we are learning.  We are finishing up our unit on closed syllables.

Writing - The students continue to write!  :)  After working on the steps of writing, they love to share their work!

Math - We are working on adding two digit numbers together.  We have been using dimes and pennies.  We have been making store receipts and going shopping.  :)  Then we've been adding the totals together.  So far our book has us adding two digit numbers vertically without carrying.  We have also shown, though, how to carry a number over when adding two digit numbers.

On Valentine's Day we did a fun graphing activity in math with candy hearts.  The activity was a hit!

Science - Our solids and liquids unit is halfway over.  We have moved from solids to liquids.  So far we worked with water and glue.  Tomorrow we will be adding shampoo and vegetable oil.  We will be exploring the solids with our senses (except taste!)  We have learned about transparent vs. opaque liquids.  

Social Studies - Today was President's Day.  We read a Scholastic News about George Washington and Abraham Lincoln.  We learned a few facts about presidents and the White House.  We have a poster of all the presidents that is currently a very popular item.  :)  We also have multiple president / White House / Washington DC books that are a hit right now.  

Read-Aloud - We are currently reading the book Flat Stanley.

Here are a few more fun photos from the week!

Have a great week!

February 22nd Mass

Greeters - Macy, Michela
Introduction - Miles
First Reading - Owen, Eli
Responsorial Psalm - Calla, Luke, Finley
Petitions - Harper, Kenzy, Yaretzi, Owen, Calla, Macy
Bread - Bennett
Wine - Michela
Memorare - Bennett

Well - it was another weather week!  There isn't a lot to report.  Hopefully this week we can get a full week in.  :)

Spelling - This week we will not have a spelling list

Reading - Our word work focus is going to be word families.  We have all sorts of centers to work on this - matching centers, sorting centers, creating centers, etc.  Two of our reading groups are working together to create a puppet show play.  Here's a preview -

Math - Last week we worked on +2 and -2 equations, odds and evens, tally marks, and of course all sorts of 100 activities! One of our favorites - rolling dice to get up to 100.  We predicted how many rolls it would take.  Then we used tally marks to keep track.  It took us 30 rolls.  Another fun one we did was flipping a quarter 100 times and keeping track of how many times we get heads and tails.

Writer's Workshop - We continue to work on writing.  The students are getting better about starting with capital letters, using punctuation, and using capital/lower case letters correctly.  

In this picture you can see Luke working so hard on his story!  He filled up an entire notebook page - and then went on to the next page!  When we publish stories, I type on the bottom of the page so the students have room to illustrate.  Luke's typed story was 23 pages!  WOAH!  It was just a few short months ago that these first graders were writing a word or a phrase - Now they are writing sentences, paragraphs, and pages!  It is an amazing transformation to see!

Religion - We are going to have Mass again on February 22nd.  We will be picking parts this week.  After parts are picked I will send readings home for students to practice at home.  Our current virtue we are working on is trustworthiness.  Due to our days off and late starts we haven't been working out of our Religion book as often as we usually do.  We should be able to get back to our book this week.

Valentine's Day - We will celebrate Valentine's Day on Thursday, February 14th.  Your students can bring their valentines in any day between now and Thursday.  We will be making valentine bags at school.  They do not need to make one at home.  We'll exchange valentines at the end of the day on Thursday.

Muffins With Moms - Muffins with Moms has been rescheduled for Wednesday, February 13th.

Weidner Center - February 18th - We are going to the Weidner Center on Monday, February 18th.  Please remember to return the permission slip.

Building and creating - One of our favorite things on the 100th day was building with 100 items.  We had Legos, Duplos, Lincoln Logs, Tinker Toys, blocks, cubes, cups to stack, marshmallows, etc.  I kept the items in our classroom and the students have loved to continue building throughout the week.

Have a great week! :)