First Grade Math - This week we have been working on comparing story problems.  We learned a new problem solving method - comparison bars.  Keep practicing those math facts.  We will have a quiz every Thursday.  This week we are also really excited about place value...because we got to 1000 milk rings!  Wow!

Phonics - This week we learned a few more vowel teams - ee, ea, ey, oi, and oy.  We learned how to mark closed syllables with a suffix s.  We learned the difference between a closed syllable and an open syllable.  We also worked with nonsense words.

Social Studies - This week we have been learning about different types of homes.  We also worked on street maps.  We used the map key to find places on the map.  Tomorrow we will be learning about time lines.

Religion - This week we read in our Religion books about Gods love for us.  We also read about and illustrated various Bible stories.  Last week we worked on the Hail Mary.  This week we worked on the Our Father.

Writing - This week in writer's workshop we learned how to address envelopes.  The students worked on writing an address, the return address, and personalizing the letter that we are sending with our Flat Stanleys.  Our Stanleys will be in the mail today!  Here are a few pictures of working on the envelopes -

The letters - all ready to be sent!

Reading - Our word work focus again this week is synonyms.  This week we will finally wrap up running records.  Next week we will start meeting in our new reading groups.

***MAP Test - The students will be taking the reading MAP test this afternoon.

***Catholic Schools Week is January 30-February 3.  During Catholic Schools Week one of the activities is putting together snack packs for those served at St. John's shelter.  Each class is being asked to provide one item.  The first grade students are being asked to donate pretzels and cheese dip packs or cracker sticks and dip packs.

***CP Carnival - Next week is the CP Carnival.  The middle school students make games for the elementary students to play.  Each game will cost 25 cents.  The students have 30 minutes to play the games.  All of the money collected will be donated to the CP Center.  The students may bring in money ahead of time.

January/February 2017 (All posted on school web page.)

PE

K-2

Good day to all.  I am a little out of sorts with the two cancelled days of school.  I got a little bit behind but am catching up today.  Well, this week we worked on tennis ball throwing and catching.  I am trying to get all to see how the entire body is used when throwing a ball.  They tend to throw it to the floor and then run after it.  Partner will will alleviate some of that but I am trying to get them to figure things out on their own.  They know the answers to some of the questions but now need to build on muscle memory.  We will continue on.  

For a little bit, our cardio Fridays will be jumping rope to ready ourselves for Jump Rope for Heart which at St. Matthew will happen on April 7th.  Each child should have received a magnet (which they were instructed to not put by a computer or a phone) with that date and some direction on it.  I will send home envelopes next week in the weekly communication.  We will all be jumping during their class time.  Please feel free to stop in to jump or help out with the event.  Times Below:

F, April 7
Kindergarten	10:15-10:45
Grade 1	8:15-8:45
Grade 2	8:45-9:15

They should have plenty of room as each class will be jumping on their own.  This will help with the movement while they are jumping for a higher success rate.  We have already worked a few times on their jumping and they are showing an immense amount of improvement.