Holy Cross - First Grade

Math - The yellow group is working on missing partners in story problems up to 10. The green group is working on comparison bars. Comparison bars are similar to math mountains. They are used in comparison story problems. The red and blue groups are working on 2D and 3D shapes.

A creation made out of 3D shapes

Science - We have been busy! The guppies and snails have arrived. They are now living in our aquariums. We learned facts about both organisms. For instance - guppy males are colorful and guppy females are bigger. Guppies are vertebrates. Snails lay eggs. They are gastropods - which means stomach footed! Today our new shipment arrived - pill bugs and bess beetles. Today we had our pill bug lesson. We learned that pill bugs have gills, not lungs. They have 12-14 legs. They molt. The pill bugs are now living in our terrariums. The next lesson will be about the bess beetles.

An aquarium

Working in our organisms book

Holding a pill bug

One of our volunteers, Mrs. Gordon, is making caterpillars with us. Caterpillars out of grass seed! We put soil and grass seed inside hosiery. Then we divided it into sections so it looks like a caterpillar. We are watching it grow!

The day we made the caterpillars

After a few days - the grass seed is starting to grow

One week - The grass is filling in

I bought a venus flytrap plant for our class. It fits in well with our organisms. :)

Reading - This week our word work center is contractions. We have been busy making contraction caterpillars. In writing two fun centers have been tongue twisters and fantastic facts. We read a few tongue twister books. Now we are writing out some of the tongue twisters on paper plate tongues! In fantastic facts the students are looking through non-fiction books. They choose four facts to write and illustrate. The students are doing these activities, as well as read to self, read to someone, and listening while others are working in their guided reading groups.

We also got to watch a play during daily 5 reading groups. One of our groups worked on a play. It was a lot of work. They started by reading the story in their group. They had to create their puppets. They had to practice, and practice, and practice reading their lines and using their puppets. After all that hard work, the group put on a show! It was called - Do You Live In A Nest?

Social Studies - We did it! We have learned all fifty states and capitals! We have a US puzzle on the Smart Board that we filled in as we were learning each state and capital. We learned a fact or two about each state. We know the song Fifty Nifty nearly by heart. We're learning a new song - The 50 states that rhyme.

Religion - This week we finished our chapter - Jesus Show's God's Love. Tomorrow we will read our Promise Paper about the weekly Gospel - which is actually also about God's love. We'll also be learning about May being the month of Mary.

Writing - This week in writer's workshop we are finishing up some poems. Some kids also worked out of their writer's workshop notebooks. In handwriting this week we reviewed the letters Xx, Zz, and Kk. We are almost to the end of our handwriting book!

Discovery Day - Last Friday we had Discovery Day. Here are a few pictures of one of our sessions - boot camp! :)