A few FYI's -

Math - We are working on partners and switch partners.  (Ex. Partners of 5 are 4+1, 1+4, 2+3, 3+2) So far we have gotten up to partners of 8.

Religion - We have been working out of our Religion text and we will have chapter one finished soon.  Our first chapter focuses on Jesus as our friend, the sign of the cross, and Jesus' love for us.
We will also be practicing for our mass.  Please remember to practice your child's reading at home.

Phonics - We have been reviewing all the letters, key words, and sounds.   We are tapping out c-v-c words.  (consonant-vowel-consonant)

Science - We have started our Einstein kit on weather.  So far we have talked about using our senses with weather and we made a weather calendar to track the cloud cover, precipitation, and wind.

Writing - We are working on starting sentences with a capital letter, using finger spaces, using punctuation, and drawing pictures that go along with our stories.  We wrote stories about our weekend activities and we're now working on stories about our favorite food.

Handwriting - We did a brief talk about all of the letters of the alphabet.  We talked about forming the letters the correct way and putting the letters in the correct spaces.  We working specifically on the letters Ll and Tt.

We are still spending a lot of time talking about rules and expectations.  Every day we go over good listener rules, rug rules, walking in the hall expectations, being kind, how to be a great classmate, etc. Every morning on announcement we say, "We are wolves - Welcoming Others, Loving Vibrantly, Encouraging Service as disciples of God."  We took that saying and really talked about what it meant. Then we made a chart called "A Great Classmate"  We brainstormed what a great classmate is, what a great classmate does, what a great classmate says, and what a great classmate isn't.  After that we each decorated our own "We are Wolves" sheet.  They will be laminated for each child.

Reading - We are working on the daily 5!  In first grade we work on reading by using the daily 5 method.  What this means is the children are taught reading in small leveled groups.  But, before we can do that, we have to practice the centers.  We practice, and practice, and practice, and practice.  We call that building our stamina!  We have to keep practicing to get it just right!
The five daily five centers are read to self, read to someone, listening, work on writing, and word work.  So far we have worked on read to self, read to someone, and listening.
Read to self means the students find a good spot to read, by themselves, and read books from their book box.
Read to someone means the students find a good spot to read, with one other person, and read a book together.
Listening mean listening to stories.  The students may do this on the computer.  They use the computer to go on the Brown County Library website.  They use a website called Tumblebooks.
The students may also use ipads for the listening center.  The apps we use are Storia, Raz Kids, Epic, and Scholastic News.
The listening center takes a lot of practice for first graders.  There's putting the headphones in the correct place, finding the volume, using a mouse, finding the app, putting in a password, navigating through the app, untangling headphone cords, etc.
When the students are working in these centers, they need to have either a voice volume 0 or 1.  This takes a lot of practice.  Here are a few pictures of our class building our stamina.