The students are at their tables waiting to greet you!  :)

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.

First grade has mass on September 21st.  Readings will be going home today.  Please practice with your child at home.  We will also practice at school.  However, they need a lot of practice this early in the school year with the readings.  :)  Thank you for your help!

First grade will not be singing in the choir for probably our first two masses.  We will sing in the choir after that.

The parts for this mass are-

Greeters - Joah, Emma, Alex, Aiden, and Gabriella
Carrying the Bible in the procession - Guadalupe
Introduction - Aaron, Dylan
First Reading - Jake, Will, and Samuel
Petitions - Lizzie, Johanna, Lucy, Brady, Canon, Mason, Madison, and Valeria
Bread - Elliot
Wine - Lillian
Leader of the Pack Cards - Suzi
Thanksgiving Prayer - David, Lucy

This week we are starting to get into our routine.  The first few days have been fantastic!!!


Specials Schedule -

Monday - Music - 9:15-9:45
                Gym - 12:10-12:40

Tuesday - Music - 8:15-8:45
                Spanish 9:15-9:45
                Gym - 12:10 - 12:40

Wednesday - Spanish 9:15 - 9:45

Thursday - Library - 12:15 - 12:45

Friday - Art - 12:15 - 1:15


First Grade Mass Dates-

September 21
October 19
December 8
February 22
April 19

First Grade Osprey Point Dates -
October 25
November 29
January 17
February 28
April 25

***Library volunteers - Mrs. Donarski is looking for parent volunteers for our library time.  We have library on Thursdays from 12:15-12:45.  She is hoping to have a few parents volunteer and then they can rotate their schedule.  Please let me know if you would be interested in volunteering in the library.  Thank you!

A few pictures -

The project was to reflect on your summer vacation and draw a reflection of something you did!

These rainbows turned out beautiful!  The students wrote their names on the cloud.  They wrote something about themselves or something that they like on each color of the rainbow.

Our door decoration turned out absolutely amazing!  The students traced, cut out, and decorated their hand prints.  The hand prints were glued together to form this awesome flower!

Tomorrow is a Football Friday!  

When there is a home Packer game, students are allowed to wear their favorite team apparel.  This is considered a dress down day so jeans, athletic pants, and shorts are allowed.  (No sweatpants)

 

We had a great first day of school today!  I'm guessing there may be some tired children tonight. :)

A few of the activities that we worked on today were -
                 
- writing about our first day of school
- going on the playground, learning about peaceful playground, learning games
- drawing a self portrait (there is a sheet that went home for the second half of this project)
- going to the gym for an assembly.  We learned that we are a part of the pack and we are wolves!  We   also learned a really fun song and dance about the fruits of the spirit.
- we read the book First Day Jitters and The Teacher from The Black Lagoon.  We did a fun activity      with First Day Jitters.  We learned about how everyone was feeling about this morning.
- we learned how to take lunch and attendance on the SMART Board.
- we made a chain with 180 links!  That's one link for every day of school!
- we started our first read-aloud of the year - Charlie and the Chocolate Factory.

We used the SMART Board to figure out how everyone felt about coming to school today.  They are very good at using the SMART Board!

We graphed our information.  We found out that 10 people felt excited, 7 people felt worried, 4 people felt happy, and 2 people felt sad.

I think one of the favorite activities was making the chain.  We had 180 strips of paper.  We made 180 links into one huge chain!  Each link represents a day of school.  The team work was fantastic!  

Have a fantastic evening!

                     

Good afternoon!  Are you ready for school tomorrow?  The classroom is ready and waiting for the students! :)

Tomorrow we will start the morning with the blessing of the backpacks.  We will do this in our lines before we go into the building.

One note - We have a student in our class that has a peanut allergy.  When packing snacks or bringing in birthday treats, please do not bring anything into the classroom that has peanuts.  Thank you!

Have a wonderful evening!
See you in the morning!  :)

Welcome to first grade!  :)

My name is Jodi Sullivan and I will be your child's first grade teacher this year.  I spent 17 years at Res and this will be my second year at our new school Father Allouez.  I have spent all of those years in either first grade or first/second grade multiage.  I am so excited to meet you, your children, and your family! We are going to have a fantastic year!

The way I communicate with the families is through this blog.  I absolutely love being able to share our days with you via pictures!  I will update this blog at least weekly to share information with you.  

I decided to do a test run tonight.  I entered the main email for each family.  If you would like me to add a second email, please let me know and I will do that.

Tomorrow when we have open house I will have an information sheet for everyone.  I pasted it onto this blog for you as well.  I'm hoping the info sheet will answer your questions.  If you have more questions tomorrow please don't hesitate to ask.

I did get an email from one parent asking about labeling school supplies as many of the supplies in kindergarten were community.  We will also have some community supplies.  Pencils, wide markers, and glue sticks will be community supplies.  Everything else the students will keep.  Each student has a drawer (that they will share with one other person) for their art box/supplies, so you don't really need to label individual crayons, colored pencils, etc.  Please make sure your child's folders, notebook, and scissors are labeled.

Please browse around this blog to see what things happened in first grade the last few years!

We will see you tomorrow night!

Blessings!

Jodi Sullivan

Here is the sheet that will be at everyone's table spot tomorrow - 

August  2017

Hello!  Welcome to first grade!  Here are a few things to know about first grade.

Snack – The students will have a snack in the morning.  It is not a community snack.  Please pack a small, healthy snack with your child each day.  (Including the first day of school.)

Water Bottles – The students may bring a water bottle to school.  Please make sure their name is on it.

Daily Folder – We have a daily folder for notes, homework, papers, etc.  The students need to bring the folder home every day and return the folder to school every day.  The folder will stay in the students’ mailboxes during the day.

Homework – We will have some homework in first grade.  Here is what we usually have:  Spelling – In a month or so we will start spelling.  The students will get a list on Monday and have a test of Friday.  Math – The students will have math homework 2 or 3 nights a week.  The math homework is a recap of the daily lesson.  Reading – Your child should be reading 20 minutes at night.

Book Orders – I send out Scholastic book orders once a month.  The online ordering info with come with the first order.  If you would rather have me place the order, you may send a check to school.

Blog – I communicate with our families on a classroom blog.  I try to update the blog at least once a week.  I usually post our spelling lists, center activities, weekly updates, homework, pictures, etc.  Each time I post I will send you an email with the link.  The blog address is www.ressullivan.blogspot.com.  I haven’t posted anything yet about this year, but feel free to check out some things that happened in previous years in first grade.

Volunteering – You will have opportunities to volunteer in our classroom.  I welcome people to help out with daily 5 and writers workshop.  We will also have a few field trips and will be looking for chaperones.  We are currently scheduled to have library on Thursday afternoons from 12:15-12:45.  Mrs. Donarski needs to have a parent volunteer during our library time.  Hopefully a few parents will be able to volunteer and we can get a rotating schedule.  If you would be willing to help out please let us know.  Thank you!

Donations – Throughout the year we’ll need to restock some of our centers.  We are always in need of blank cards, envelopes, and stickers.  As we get low on items I’ll post a wish list on our blog.  Thank you in advance for helping us out!

Sqworl Page – Throughout the year we will be working in the computer lab and in the computers/tablets in our classroom.  Some websites that we use frequently I put into a sqworl page for easy access.  Our class sqworl page is www.sqworl.com/grazhj.

If you have any other questions, please feel free to contact me.  You can call school (432-5223) or email me at jsullivan@gracesystem.org.

I’m looking forward to another fantastic year at Father Allouez Catholic School!

Mrs. Sullivan  J