Math - We have continued to work on doubles.  When we started the doubles facts we had trouble with the "big doubles".  Now more and more students have those "big doubles" memorized!  We have worked on pattern blocks, using a balance, counting backwards from 20, some then some more story problems, patterns, and using wrap ups for the first time.  

Phonics - We have continued working on c-v-c words.  We are starting to get "trick words".  Trick words are sight words - or words that you may not be able to tap out.  So far our trick words are a, and, the, is, his, of.  We have gotten our first vocabulary word.  Our vocabulary words are words that have something to do with our topic.  Since our topic is c-v-c words, our first vocabulary word is fix.  

We have a book called our student notebook in fundations.  All of our trick words and vocabulary words get written in our student notebooks.  We have to find the correct section of the book, and then use our ABC skills to find the correct letter so we know where to write our words.

In fundations we have been using our white boards to practice our c-v-c words and sentence writing.  We are practicing only using a capital letter for the beginning of the sentence, using spacing between our words, writing our letter on the correct lines, and using punctuation to end our sentences.

Science - We are continuing to learn about weather.  We have been learning about thermometers.  We are learning how to read thermometers.  We learned that in the United States we measure temperature in Fahrenheit.  We compared the inside temperature to the outside temperature.  We have just started graphing our temperature daily.  We also keep track of our cloud cover, precipitation, and wind daily.  We have a weather station at Holy Cross that we utilize daily to check on the weather.

Social Studies - Our latest Scholastic News was titled "Friends Go Together".  We learned about how to be a good friend.

Religion - We have continued our Bible stories.  We have read Adam and Eve and Noah's Ark from our Children's Bible.  We completed activities on these Bible stories in our Promise books.  This last week we also started our new Friendzy books.  Our first theme of the year is "Better Together".  Each unit has a theme square and one or two Bible verses.  This week we celebrated the feast of the Holy Cross.  Our virtues and values theme is still self control.

Working in our Promise Books

Friendzy

Reading - Learning to read is a huge part of first grade!  Before we can get into reading groups at each students level, we have to learn about and practice all of the components of daily 5.  This week we finished up learning about the five components - read to self, read to someone, listen to reading, work on writing, and word work.  Now, we need to practice, to build our stamina!  We need to work on independence before we can successfully launch the program.  The students have been working so hard on this!  I have taken A LOT of pictures of this process the last 2 weeks.  I am SO VERY PROUD of how hard the students are working at this!

Read to Someone

Listen to Reading

Work on Writing

Word Work

We enjoyed some veggies from our school garden!

Have a great weekend!

 We have been busy the last few days getting used to first grade!  We are learning new routines, reviewing classroom expectations, and enjoying being back with our friends!  Here are a few things we have started to learn about -

Math - We have been learning about doubles (5+5, 8+8, etc.), ordinal numbers (first, second, third), graphs, some + some more story problems, and reviewing shapes (squares and rectangles).  We learned a fun song called the Doubles Rap!

Reading - We are learning about Daily 5.  Daily 5 is a tool to differentiate reading for the students.  The components of Daily 5 are read to self, read to someone, listen to reading, work on reading, word work, and meet with teacher.  The students are learning how to work in the Daily 5 centers with the goal of independence.  When that happens, the teacher is able to meet individually or in small groups with children at their level.  This past week we have been practicing read to self and read to someone.  The more we practice, the more we are building our stamina!

Phonics - We have been reviewing the letters, keywords, and sounds of all the letters and the digraphs.  We have been reviewing the correct way to form our letters, as well as which lines the letters go on.  We are tapping out and writing c-v-c words.  (consonant-vowel-consonant)

Science - While we are waiting on our new science curriculum, we are working on a weather unit.  We have learned about precipitation, wind, and using our senses to learn about weather.

Social Studies - We have worked through our first two Scholastic News papers.  The theme for our first one was "School Rules".  The second for the second one was "Good Work".

Religion - We started our Bible stories with the story of Creation.  Our Children's Bible has beautiful illustrations.  We have started working on our Promise Paper book.  Our first virtues and values card that we are working on is Self Control.  We are practicing the sign of the cross.  

Writing - We are starting to work in our journals.

We made a class puzzle

We made some rainbow / cloud art.  We wrote things about ourselves on the rainbow.

A picture after church

Calendar

We celebrated 3 birthdays this week!

Have a great weekend!  :)