Thursday, April 7, 2016

A few FYI's...

First Grade Phonics - We are learning about vowel consonant e syllables and vowel consonant e syllables with a suffix s.  (Ex. home, homes)

First Grade Math - This week we worked on  odds and evens, doubles, doubles plus one, doubles minus one, doubles plus two, and doubles minus two.  We are also attempting to learn how to play cribbage.  So...much...counting!  :)

Social Studies - We have learned 45 states!  We are so close to 50!  The kids love singing 50 Nifty and The 50 States that Rhyme.

Science - This week we started our organisms kit.  We have brainstormed about living things, talked about how plants and animals are alike and different, observed our four seeds using our senses and took notes about them, and we planted seeds.  (pea, sunflower, kidney bean, sunflower)  Our next task - building a terrarium!

Writing - April is National Poetry Month.  We learned about all different types of poems.  Then we wrote acrostic poems about spring, butterflies, sunshine, and flowers!  They turned out amazing!

Reading - Our word work focus is antonyms and synonyms.  They are rocking these centers!  They are such hard workers!

Religion - We have continued our talk about the Resurrection!  The kids made a really cute art project called Jesus is Risen!  I'll have to snap a picture.  Tomorrow we will be having Divine Chaplet at 2:40.

A few fun pics from the week -














ART
In art class we have been working on 2 different projects. One project is a drawing of a cat or dog on a rug. In this project we are learning to look for the basic shapes we see to help us draw an animal. We are learning about including spatial ideas, like adding a floor line, and showing the animal "on" the rug, the rug "under" the animal, the rug "on top" of the floor, and the wall "behind" the animal. We experimented with different effects, like, crayon resist, and scratching off oil crayon to make our animal look furry.
  We are also working on a still-life collage of fruit in a bowl sitting on a table. We are learning how to overlap items to create spatial effects. We've added spatial ideas like fruit "in the bowl" or "out of the bowl, and how to show fruit piled up "on top" of each other without looking like the fruit is floating in the air. This week we added thinking about how light casts shadows and creates highlights, and are adding these with pastels. This collage is a study for a future still-life painting. 

Each spring our school has an art show to showcase student artwork.
 St. Matthew's art show is scheduled for Thursday evening, May 12th. Artwork will remain on display in the gathering space through the weekend masses.
 Resurrection art show is scheduled for Thursday evening, May 19th. Artwork will remain on display in the gathering space through the weekend masses.
Have a great week. Mrs. Ihlenfeldt

Monday, April 4, 2016

***Please return your report card envelopes.

***A paper went home today about Arbor Day trees.  If you want an arbor day tree, the form needs to be returned by Thursday.



Weekly Spelling Lists -

First Grade - Phonetic List - Final ck
back
pack
neck
pick
sock
duck
tuck
quack
crack
cluck

First Grade - High-Frequency List - Words 151-160
every
found
still
between
name
should
home
big
give
air

Second Grade -Phonetic List - r-controlled a - ar
far
farm
art
park
cards
part
dark
star
hard
arm

Second Grade - High-Frequency List - Words 371-380
state
list
stood
hundred
ten
fast
felt
kept
notice
can't






Tuesday, March 22, 2016

*First grade has math homework tonight,

*Stations of the Cross are tomorrow at 2:00.  Mario, Kate, Clara, and Monika are reading.  Please have them practice one last time at home tonight.

*Due to the short week we will not have a spelling list.

*Field Trip FYI - We will be going to The Building for Kids on May 5th.  (The same day as May Crowning.)  We will need chaperones. Think about if you would be able to help us out that day.  :)

Thursday, March 17, 2016

Happy St. Patrick's Day!


A few FYIs -

First Grade Math - This week we finished up the first grade book!  :)  We have been working on two digit addition.  We learned 4 different methods.  We learned about symmetry yesterday.  Today we're working on adding coins and bills.  Tomorrow we're going to work on two digit subtraction.  Next week we will start the second grade book.

First Grade Phonics - This week we learned a new type of syllable - the vowel-consonant-e syllable.  We also learned all the keywords for the long vowels.  First graders will have phonics homework tonight.

Social Studies - We are continuing to learn about the states.  We are up to 39 states.  You should hear them sing Fifty Nifty!  Amazing!

Religion - We have been working on a book called the ABC's of Lent.  Each day we also color in a day of our Lenten path.  Stations of the Cross have been changed.  They are now going to be on Wednesday, March 23, at 2:00.

Reading - Our word work focus this week is tongue twisters.


Monday, March 14, 2016

Weekly Spelling Lists -

First Grade - Phonetic List - oo, yoo
do
you
zoo
use
room
soon
moon
broom
spoon
stool

First Grade High-Frequency List - Words 141-150
again
off
went
old
number
great
tell
men
say
small

Second Grade - Phonetic List - ew,ow
now
frown
clown
blew
threw
flew
down
grew
drew
towns

Second Grade - High-Frequency List - Words 361-370
special
ran
full
town
complete
oh
person
hot
anything
hold

***Stations of the Cross***
We will be having Stations of the Cross on Thursday, March 24th.  We have two stations.  Our readers are going to be Clara, Mario, Monika, and Kate.  The stations are going home with them today to practice.

Thursday, March 10, 2016