Math - In math we have started working on some story problems.  (some, then some more and some, some went away)  We have been working on counting up and counting down.  We learned how to use the hundreds chart to add 1, subtract 1, add 10, and subtract 10.  We continue practicing the doubles facts, and are also working on the +1 and -1 facts.  We have learned about times of day.  (morning, afternoon, evening, and night)

Phonics - We have added more trick words.  Our latest trick words are as, has, to, and into.  We have added quit and much to our vocabulary words.  We are now working on words that have digraphs.  Digraphs are two letters that you put together that make a new sound.  The digraphs we are working on are sh, ch, th, wh, and ck.  

Spelling - Next week we are going to start spelling!  We will get a spelling list on Monday and the test will be on Friday.  We will have a new list most weeks.  If we don't have a list, I will be sure to let you know.  The students will be able to practice their spelling words at school during daily 5 centers, but they need to be practicing their words at home.  We use a website called Raz Kids.  It has a spelling section called Vocabulary A-Z.  I will be uploading our lists into Vocabulary A-Z for the students to practice their words.  They are able to use the website at school and at home.  Raz-Kids has two sections - reading and spelling.

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

The website is https://www.raz-plus.com/

The app is Kids A-Z.

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.

The student can click on the purple planet for reading or the yellow plant for spelling.  (It says vocabulary)
     
     *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 the student would like to practice their spelling words, they will click on vocabulary.  Their assigned spelling list will pop up.  Click on the list.  From there you can choose phonics, spelling, or vocabulary.  Whichever one is chosen, it will bring you to games that use the spelling list.

The students will be introduced to Vocabulary A-Z either today or Monday.

    

Our first spelling list is Digraph Words.  The list is-

such

thin

fish

rich

thud

shop

quick

dock

thick

shock

Science - We are continuing to learn about weather.  We are learning about the water cycle.  

Religion - We learned about Baptism.  We learned that it is a sacrament - and that there are 7 sacraments.  We have started our Promise Papers.  The Promise Paper is a weekly newspaper for kids.  It teaches about the Sunday Gospel each week.  There are stories and activities that center around the Gospel.  The theme this last week was about sharing.  We are continuing "Better Together" in Friendzy.  Our new virtues and values theme is kindness.

Reading - We continue to build our stamina in daily 5.  Today I finished running records.  :)  That means each student now has a starting level.  The next "meet with teacher" job is to assess where the students are with sight words.  By the end of first grade, the goal is for each student to know the first 175 sight words.  The sight words that we use come from the Fry List.  A list of the 175 is in your child's bee binder.  They may use the bee binder at home to practice sight word recognition.

In daily 5, I change the word work centers every few weeks.  We have been working on ABC order.  The students are loving it!  They need new challenges, though, and starting next week our focus is going to be rhyming.

The students in the writing center and the word work center often want their pictures taken, so I have a ton to share with you.  :)

Holy Cross Garden - We have been doing a lot of harvesting!  We have been eating tomatoes, peppers, and green beans!  This week we harvested 3 cabbages!  The students were able to taste test the cabbage 2 ways.  One way was in cole slaw.  Another way was boiled cabbage with butter and salt.  We tallied our results -

Cole Slaw -

Students that tried it - 9

Students that liked it - 6

Students that didn't like it - 3

Boiled cabbage with butter and salt -

Students that tried it - 9

Students that like it - 6

Students that thought it was ok - 2

Students that didn't like it - 1

Have a great week!

Holy Cross Mission Statement

Holy Cross Catholic School guides each student in developing academic, emotional and physical excellence while spreading the Gospel message as Jesus did, since 1868.

 Math - We have continued to work on doubles.  When we started the doubles facts we had trouble with the "big doubles".  Now more and more students have those "big doubles" memorized!  We have worked on pattern blocks, using a balance, counting backwards from 20, some then some more story problems, patterns, and using wrap ups for the first time.  

Phonics - We have continued working on c-v-c words.  We are starting to get "trick words".  Trick words are sight words - or words that you may not be able to tap out.  So far our trick words are a, and, the, is, his, of.  We have gotten our first vocabulary word.  Our vocabulary words are words that have something to do with our topic.  Since our topic is c-v-c words, our first vocabulary word is fix.  

We have a book called our student notebook in fundations.  All of our trick words and vocabulary words get written in our student notebooks.  We have to find the correct section of the book, and then use our ABC skills to find the correct letter so we know where to write our words.

In fundations we have been using our white boards to practice our c-v-c words and sentence writing.  We are practicing only using a capital letter for the beginning of the sentence, using spacing between our words, writing our letter on the correct lines, and using punctuation to end our sentences.

Science - We are continuing to learn about weather.  We have been learning about thermometers.  We are learning how to read thermometers.  We learned that in the United States we measure temperature in Fahrenheit.  We compared the inside temperature to the outside temperature.  We have just started graphing our temperature daily.  We also keep track of our cloud cover, precipitation, and wind daily.  We have a weather station at Holy Cross that we utilize daily to check on the weather.

Social Studies - Our latest Scholastic News was titled "Friends Go Together".  We learned about how to be a good friend.

Religion - We have continued our Bible stories.  We have read Adam and Eve and Noah's Ark from our Children's Bible.  We completed activities on these Bible stories in our Promise books.  This last week we also started our new Friendzy books.  Our first theme of the year is "Better Together".  Each unit has a theme square and one or two Bible verses.  This week we celebrated the feast of the Holy Cross.  Our virtues and values theme is still self control.

Working in our Promise Books

Friendzy

Reading - Learning to read is a huge part of first grade!  Before we can get into reading groups at each students level, we have to learn about and practice all of the components of daily 5.  This week we finished up learning about the five components - read to self, read to someone, listen to reading, work on writing, and word work.  Now, we need to practice, to build our stamina!  We need to work on independence before we can successfully launch the program.  The students have been working so hard on this!  I have taken A LOT of pictures of this process the last 2 weeks.  I am SO VERY PROUD of how hard the students are working at this!

Read to Someone

Listen to Reading

Work on Writing

Word Work

We enjoyed some veggies from our school garden!

Have a great weekend!