Holy Cross - First Grade

Sunday, October 14, 2018

Spelling Lists -

Phonetic List - Bonus Letters and Glued Sounds
wall
well
fall
fell
tall
tell
ham
ram
pan
fan

High-Frequency List - Trick Words - Words 31-40
but
what
all
were
when
we
there
can
an
your

Reading - We will continue working on Halloween centers in word work. The students are loving the word work centers! I love how much writing they are doing in work on writing! They have improved so much already since the beginning of the year. In the writing center they can make cards, books, sticker stories, stencil stories, hard art stories, and write in their journals just to name a few tasks. While they are working in daily 5 I have a group that I am doing guided reading with. Some of the groups have also been working on sight words. Daily 5 is an awesome part of our day!

Putting the words to a Halloween poem in the correct order

Making a Halloween book

Making a book

Sharing a story they wrote

Halloween crossword puzzle

A Halloween book

Read to Self

Hand art stories - The illustrations

Hand art stories - the words

A whole book of hand art stories

A page of Luke's hand art book

Squiggle

A relaxing reading spot

Sharing from his book

Halloween hand art

A Halloween book

Hand art Macy did at home :)

Religion - Last week we planted our mustard seeds and finished up our mustard seed books. Our seeds are starting to grow! We worked out of our Religion book and took a quiz. On Wednesday we went back over to church with Brother Jacob to finish up our church search. On Friday we worked out of our Promise Paper. First grade will be having mass on Thursday, October 25th. This week we will pick our parts and start practicing for our mass. :)

A beautiful view of Holy Cross from the choir loft

Phonics - We are learning about glued sounds. The glued sounds we will have this week are -all, -am, and -an. A glued sound is a sound that's glued together - also known as a word family. The keyword for -all is ball, the keyword for -am is ham, and the keyword for -an is fan. We will also continue to focus on bonus letters this week.

Math - In math worked on ordinal numbers (first, second, third), addition sentences (3+2=5 and the switch partners 2+3=5), and we introduced wrap ups. Some of the kids got it, some of the kids were a little confused. We'll keep working with them throughout the year. :)

Science - We are still working on weather in science. This week we did an experiment with thermometers and water temperature. We put hot water in one bowl and put a thermometer in it to read the temperature. We put cold water in another bowl and put a thermometer in it to read the temperature. Then we brainstormed what would happen if we mixed the two bowls together. We were right with our guess - the water temperature was between the hot bowl and the cold bowl. We then graphed all three temperatures. This week we also made our own thermometer models.

A fun activity we participated in on Thursday was the apple crunch!

Miles also brought in this huge apple for snack!

Have a great week! :)

Monday, October 8, 2018

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