Reading - We are continuing to learn about daily 5.  Last week we worked on the next three components - read to someone, work on writing, and word work.  Each day we learned about the expectations for each component.  Then we practiced - we are building our stamina!  This week we will be learning about the last component - listen to reading.  Then we will be practicing all five components each day during reading.  It is very important to get this routine down correctly!  It sets the tone for reading instruction for the whole school year!  Next week I will start doing running records during daily 5 time.  Once all running records are complete, we can start daily 5 and reading groups!  :)

Read to Someone

Read to Someone

Read to Someone

Read to Someone

 Read to Someone

Writing - This one is a squiggle

 Writing - Another squiggle

Writing - Another squiggle

Writing - Hand Art

 Word Work

 Word Work

Word Work

Religion - We worked on a few more pages in our Religion book.  Our first chapter is about Jesus, our friend.  We read a story out of our Children's Bible - In the Beginning.  It is the story of creation.  This week we will be working on waterfall books - illustrating the 7 days.

Phonics - We continued to work on letters - the letter, the keyword, and the sound.  We had an assessment where I would say a sound and the students had to write which letter makes that sound.  We also had an assessment on writing all of the lower case letters.  Please practice writing the letters with your students when you have some free time.  Many students know what the letters are, but they are not writing their letters in the correct places yet.  We will continue to work on this at school as well.  We have also started tapping out c-v-c words, making c-v-c words on our letter board, and we have started writing sentences using c-v-c words and trick words.  (c-v-c = consonant-vowel-consonant)

Writing - We did our first writing assignment.  The students had to pick which bug they liked the best, draw a picture of it, and write a sentence about it.  We will be following this pattern for a little while.  We will be working on using capital and lower case letters in the correct places, using good spacing, and using punctuation.

Science - We are starting our first Einstein kit - Weather!  We are just starting out.  So far we made a graph of our favorite weather and talked about different kinds of weather.

Math - In math we have been reviewing how to write the numbers.  We started working on story problems - some, some more, and some went away stories.  (adding and subtracting)  We have continued learning about squares, rectangles, and circles.  We learned about numbers and ordinal numbers, as well as the position words last and middle.  We also discussed greater and less, more and fewer.  We began working in a few math centers.

Snack -  Please send a snack to school with your child every day.  I did buy some snacks for our class for when students forget to bring their snack.  There are a few students who have been eating these snacks every day instead of bringing their own.  Please remember to send a snack with your child.  :)

Our door - It turned out so cute!  Here are some pictures of  our terrific ten - the center of the flower!

Have a great week!  :)

The first week of school was busy and a lot of fun!

We made a chain with 180 links.  Every day we take one link off of our chain.  So every day we count up (the days of school) and we count down  (the days left of school).

We made a class puzzle.  Every person had their own puzzle piece to decorate.  After everyone finished their puzzle piece, we put the puzzle together.  We talked about how everyone is an important piece of our classroom puzzle!  

We started Fundations, which is our phonics program.  We have been reviewing all the letters, keywords, and sounds.  We have been practicing which lines to write our letters on.  We call the lines the sky line, the plane line, the grass line, and the worm line.

We started math.  We reviewed numbers.  We made chains of numbers from 1-9 and matched the number cards to them.  We have been reviewing how to write the numbers and which lines to put the numbers on.  We learned about bar graphs, pictographs, circles, squares, and rectangles.

In reading we are working on starting up daily 5.  We learned about the first center - read to self.  We practiced this center - we call that building our stamina!  We also met with our fourth grade reading buddies on Friday.  

Religion - This year we will have a Religion book.  We looked through our book.  We went over to our prayer table.  We learned about the items on our prayer table.  We talked about different types of prayers.  We looked through our Children's Bible, which we will be reading from a lot this year. 

Classroom door - Our classroom door started out as a black, blank slate.  The students created hand prints that we are using for a flower.  The theme - We are each unique and beautiful, but together we are a masterpiece!

We are off to a great start!  Have a wonderful week!  :)

We had a great first morning! One of our activities was reading the book First Day Jitters.  Then we talked about how we were feeling and we made a graph of our feelings.  I also took a first day of school picture of everyone.  Enjoy!

August 2019

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.

B.E.E. Binder - The students will be bringing their binder back and forth between
home and school every day.  The binder 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 on Friday.  Math - The students may have some math
homework if they don’t finish their math work in class.  Reading - Your child should
be reading 20 minutes a night.  Sight Words - The students will be getting a sight
word list that they should practice at home.

Book Orders -I will send out Scholastic Book orders throughout the year. 
The online ordering info will come with your first book 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 if you wish. 
I welcome people to help out with daily 5 and writer’s workshop. We will also have
a few field trips and will be looking for chaperones.

Donations - Throughout the year we may need to restock some of our centers
and supplies.  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!

If you have any other questions, please feel free to contact me.  You can call
school (468-0625) or email me at jsullivan@gracesystem.org.

I’m looking forward to a fantastic year at Holy Cross Catholic School!

Mrs. Sullivan  :)