Sunday, December 12, 2021

 Spelling - ank, ink, onk, unk
Hank
sink
honk
junk
tank
wink
bonk
bunk
thank
chunk

Vocabulary A-Z is a great resource for practicing spelling words at home!  Each week I upload the current spelling list into assignments.   
To access the website, students will again go to 
Once there, go to kids login.
*If you haven't logged in before, it will have you put in a teacher username.  The 
teacher username is jsullivan 174.  If you have already logged into Raz for reading, you will have to click change teacher.  From there, you would type in jsullivan 174.
Once in, the student will click on their name.
The password is the apple.  
Press go.
Click on vocabulary.
Click on the assignment.
The students can choose either phonics, spelling, or vocabulary.  All choices have different games with the weekly spelling list for them to choose from.

If you are using Clever, this website is linked to our class Clever page.  The Clever QR code is in your child's Bee Binder.

Reading - We work every day in reading groups and centers during our daily 5 reading block.  In the month of December we have lots of Christmas centers, such as Christmas pictures with sight words, making words our of the letters in Christmas, writing Christmas cards, making Christmas lists, Christmas word searches and  crossword puzzles, putting the words to Jingle Bells in order, putting Santa's reindeer in ABC order, and filling in Christmas words on pictures.  While the students are in read to self, read to someone, listening, work on writing, and word work, our students are meeting with me in small groups reading stories at their reading level.  
Our reading goal is to read at least 20 minutes a day at home.  Sight words, which are in the Bee Binder, are another thing students can practice at home.  By the end of first grade, the students should know 175 sight words.

Raz Kids is a great resource for reading at home.  Each student's page has books at their level.  

To access Raz Kids, you can either go to the website or download the app.  

Once there, go to kids login.
The teacher name to enter is jsullivan100.
Once in, the student will click on their name.
The password is the apple.
Press go.
Click on the purple planet - reading.
Then there are some choices.  
     *If the student would like to read the stories we have read (or will be reading) in our reading groups, they will click on my assignment.
     *If the student would like to choose books on their own, they will click reading room.
       In reading room, they have lots of options on how to choose the books they want to read.  If they want to read books at their level only, they may press leveled books.  Every student has their level entered in the website.  This allows them to read books at their level, as well as 2 levels above and below.

If you are using Clever, this website is linked to our class Clever page.  The Clever QR code is in your child's Bee Binder.





Phonics - We are working on the glued sounds -ank, -ink, -onk, and -unk.  These are very close to the last glued sounds we learned -ang, -ing, -ong, and -ung.  Since they are so close, we have spent 2 weeks working on the difference.  The students have known the spelling words that go with these new glued sounds since last week.  They will have their spelling test on these new glued sounds this Friday.



Math - In math we worked on covering designs with pattern blocks in different ways, +2 addition facts, adding two to even and odd numbers, and recognizing / spelling the number words from 0 to 10.









Religion - We continue to learn about Advent.  This week we light our third candle - joy.  Each day we read a Bible story and add to our Jesse Tree.  Each week we read from our Promise Paper and add to our Advent calendar.  Last week in our Promise Paper we also learned about Our Lady of Guadalupe.  Each day Mrs. Boudwin reads an Advent act for us to follow.  Last week one of our days talked about being "good fruit".  On that day, we learned about The Fruits of The Spirit.  They are love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control.  We also learned a fun song.  You can find that song here - The Fruit of Spirit Song.



Writing - We continue to work on handwriting.  Our goal is to write neatly, write on the correct lines, form the letters the correct way, and use good spacing.  We work in our monthly journals multiple times a week.  Our current big writing project is working on personal narratives.  We have been reading mentor books and brainstorming what we can write about.  Last week we narrowed down our choices into one idea.  We then took our idea and narrowed it down to our small moments.  This coming week we are going to work on the beginning, middle, and end of our personal narratives.

Science and Social Studies - We have been reading out of our Scholastic News weekly.  This week I will pick up our next Einstein Kit from the Einstein Project.  Our next kit is called Solids and Liquids.


Fun Pictures from our Class

Beginning of the walk








End of the walk :)

Most of the kids in our class walked five laps.  Each lap was 852 feet.  Some students walked 6 laps, some walked 7 laps, some walked 8 laps, and Jackson walked 11 laps!  We calculated how far we walked depending on how many laps we walked.




Elves have taken over our classroom :)












Dates to Remember

*Thursday, December 16th is the Christmas concert
*Thursday, December 23rd is and early dismissal day

Have a great week!





























Sunday, November 28, 2021

Spelling - Glued sounds -ang, -ing, -ong, -ung 
bang
ring
song
lung
hang
wing
long
hung
gong
thing

Vocabulary A-Z is a great resource for practicing spelling words at home!  Each week I upload the current spelling list into assignments.   
To access the website, students will again go to 
Once there, go to kids login.
*If you haven't logged in before, it will have you put in a teacher username.  The 
teacher username is jsullivan 174.  If you have already logged into Raz for reading, you will have to click change teacher.  From there, you would type in jsullivan 174.
Once in, the student will click on their name.
The password is the apple.  
Press go.
Click on vocabulary.
Click on the assignment.
The students can choose either phonics, spelling, or vocabulary.  All choices have different games with the weekly spelling list for them to choose from.

If you are using Clever, this website is linked to our class Clever page.  The Clever QR code is in your child's Bee Binder.

Reading - The last few weeks in November we worked on running records and sight word checks during our meet with teacher time in daily 5.  This week we will get back to working in our reading groups.  This week in centers we will be finishing up the Thanksgiving centers and transitioning to centers that focus on Christmas.  In our reading groups we work on stories at each child's level.  
Our reading goal is to read at least 20 minutes a day at home.  Sight words, which are in the Bee Binder, are another thing the students can practice at home.  By the end of first grade, the students should know 175 words.

Raz Kids is a great resource for reading at home.  Each student's page has books at their level.  

To access Raz Kids, you can either go to the website or download the app.  

Once there, go to kids login.
The teacher name to enter is jsullivan100.
Once in, the student will click on their name.
The password is the apple.
Press go.
Click on the purple planet - reading.
Then there are some choices.  
     *If the student would like to read the stories we have read (or will be reading) in our reading groups, they will click on my assignment.
     *If the student would like to choose books on their own, they will click reading room.
       In reading room, they have lots of options on how to choose the books they want to read.  If they want to read books at their level only, they may press leveled books.  Every student has their level entered in the website.  This allows them to read books at their level, as well as 2 levels above and below.

If you are using Clever, this website is linked to our class Clever page.  The Clever QR code is in your child's Bee Binder.


Phonics - We are learning about 4 new glued sounds -ang, -ing, -ong, and -ung.


Math - In math we worked on identifying odd and even numbers, putting all 12 numbers on the clock face, telling time to the :00, counting dimes and pennies, symmetry, and the fraction one-half.  We also did a fun, yet challenging math turkey sheet.






Religion - We have been working a lot out of our Friendzy book and discussing "You First".  We also spent some time working on our safe environment curriculum from the diocese.  In safe environment we talk about being kind, using self control to do the expected behaviors, the difference between tattling and reporting, discussing who is a person you can trust, and making safe choices.
We will start a new virtue and values card this week.  Advent begins this week.  We will discuss our Advent wreath, make our own Advent wreaths, learn about Advent in our Promise Paper, and start working on our class Jesse Tree.



Writing - We work on writing and handwriting daily in our class.  In handwriting our goal is to write neatly, write the letters on the correct lines, form the letters correctly, and use correct spacing.  In writing, we work on adding more details.  We journal often.  Now that we have been in first grade for a few months, the students should be writing complete sentences, as well as using capitals and punctuation in the correct places.  We are starting our first writing unit.  The unit is writing personal narratives.

Dates to Remember

* Friday, December 3rd,  is our walk for South Sudan.
* Tuesday, December 7th, we are heading to NDA to watch their Christmas show
* Thursday, December 16th is the Christmas concert
* Thursday, December 23rd, is an early dismissal day

Have a great week!

Sunday, November 14, 2021

Spelling - We will not have a spelling list this week.  We are on a long unit.  Our focus this week is still suffix s.

Reading - We work in daily 5 and reading groups every day.  Each group works on stories at their reading level.  When the students are not in meet with teacher, they are in one of the daily 5 centers.  Reminder - our reading goal is to read at home for at least 20 minutes every day.  Sight words, which are in the Bee Binder, are another item you can practice at home.  By the end of first grade, the students should know 175 words.

In the month of November, all of the word work centers have something to do with Thanksgiving.  Some of our word work and writing centers are making words out of the letters in Thanksgiving, rhyming turkey words, cloze activities with Thanksgiving poems, writing thankful letters, Thanksgiving sight word activities, word searches, word scrambles, and putting Thanksgiving words in ABC order.







Raz Kids is a great resource for reading at home.  Each student's page has books at their level.  

To access Raz Kids, you can either go to the website or download the app.  

Once there, go to kids login.
The teacher name to enter is jsullivan100.
Once in, the student will click on their name.
The password is the apple.
Press go.
Click on the purple planet - reading.
Then there are some choices.  
     *If the student would like to read the stories we have read (or will be reading) in our reading groups, they will click on my assignment.
     *If the student would like to choose books on their own, they will click reading room.
       In reading room, they have lots of options on how to choose the books they want to read.  If they want to read books at their level only, they may press leveled books.  Every student has their level entered in the website.  This allows them to read books at their level, as well as 2 levels above and below.

If you are using Clever, this website is linked to our class Clever page.

Phonics - We are working on suffixes.  Our first suffix we are learning about is suffix -s.  We are learning about suffix -s as a plural of a word and as an action word.  

Math - Recently we have worked on odd an even numbers, counting coins (dimes and pennies), telling time to the hour and the half hour, counting by 2's, and subtracting a number from itself.  We have also been doing some fun Thanksgiving math worksheets.  

Religion - Our new Friendzy unit is "You First".  We have been talking about putting others before you.  We learned an acrostic for others.
O - Observe
T - Think
H - Honor
E - Encourage
R - Respect 
S - Serve
In our Promise Paper we learned about the parable of the poor widow who gave the smallest amount of money, but she gave more than all the others because she gave all that she had.  Our parable went perfectly with our Friendzy theme of you first!
In our virtues and values, we are focusing on gratitude.

Social Studies - We finished up our weather unit with our visit from Mr. Beylon.  In Social Studies we have been learning about the origin of Thanksgiving.  We also learned about veterans and the branches of the military.  

Buddies - We wrote Thanksgiving stories with our buddies.  They turned out fantastic!





We made turkeys out of our hands and feet!  It's my favorite project!  They are so cute!







Have a great week!