Holy Cross - First Grade

Weekly Spelling Lists -

Phonetic List - Bonus Letters
shell
cuff
miss
hill
puff
mass
bell
mess
toss
chill

High-Frequency List - Trick Words - Words 21-30
be
this
from
I
have
or
by
one
had
not

Math - In math we learned about pennies (what they are worth, the president on them, etc.), addition and subtraction equations, making and reading pictographs, and about the fraction one half. Last week we had a few lessons about apples. We talked about cutting them in halves and we talked about their seeds. Today we continued that - We got into partners and figured out how many seeds were in our apples. Then we made a class pictograph. We also did some taste testing. I bought three types of apples - red delicious, gala, and granny smith. We tried all of the apples and decided on our favorite of the three. We made that into a graph as well.

Some math centers

Phonics - We are finishing up the chapter about digraphs. We are now learning about bonus letters. Bonus letters are words that have

1. one syllable

2. one vowel

3. short vowel sound

4. the word ends with the letters f, l, or s

If all the criteria is met, you double the f,l, or s at the end of the word. (usually) Some examples of words with bonus letters are mass, puff, and chill.

Science - This week we learned about inside temperature vs. outside temperature. We started looking at the temperature every day and we are now making a temperature graph each morning. We made our own model thermometers.

Religion - We have been working out of our Religion book. We have been reading about creation and adding creation pictures in our book. Every Friday we read our Promise Paper. Last week Wednesday Brother Jacob took us on our church search. He took us on a tour of the church and showed us things from our Promise Paper in church. He's going to finish up the tour this week. We read the parable of the Mustard Seed. We then planted our very own mustard seeds. We are also working on making a mustard seed parable book. We also had the blessing of the pets on October 4th.

Church Search

Blessing of the pets

Mustard seeds - They are very tiny

Reading - This week (and for the next few weeks) our word work centers focus on Halloween. We have a making words center where the students have to make words out of the letters in Halloween. We have a word puzzle center that has word searches, crossword puzzles, letter codes, and scrambled words. We have a center where we are making a Halloween book. We have a center where the students are working on their handwriting and writing to the story Jack 'O Faces. We have Halloween poems that the students have to put in order or fill in the missing words. Today was the first day of the new centers and they were a hit! While the students are working in centers (read to self, read to someone, listening, work on writing, word work) I am working with small guided reading groups. In our groups we work on poems and stories that are at their reading level. We learn phonetic tips to reading as well as practice fluency, comprehension, and accuracy. Some of the students have been working on sight words in their groups. Remember all the first grade sight words are in their BEE Binders for them to practice. The groups that have been working on sight words have improved every day! It is awesome!

Practicing spelling words with Play-Doh