First Grade Math - This week we had the unit 6 test.  Now we are working on telling time.

Phonics - This week we are working on vowel teams oa, oe, and ow.

Social Studies - We learned about time lines.  We practiced them using years (2003) and using them with ages (1 year, 2, years, etc.)  We also learned about making choices - wants vs. needs.  We worked on a review of the whole unit.

Religion - This week we are talking about different types of prayer.  (praise, asking, thanks, and sorry)  We learned about the story of God calling Samuel, the story of the 10 lepers where only one came back to give thanks, and the story of the Prodigal Son.

Reading - All running records are finished and we are in our new reading groups.  This week our word work focus is antonyms.

Writing - This week we worked in our writer's workshop notebooks.  We  are learning to edit stories and add details.  In handwriting we continue to work on forming the letters the correct way and write the letters in the correct spaces.

***Our Flat Stanleys were all sent in the mail late last week.  Hopefully they have reached their destinations!  We can not wait for our Stanleys to be sent back to us!  We want to see his adventures! Since we finished reading the first Flat Stanley, we are now reading Stanley, Flat Again.

***The 100th Day of School is Monday!  We will celebrate the entire day with activities centered around the number 100.  We have some awesome 100th day projects that have already come in!

***The kids had a great day at Res.  We celebrated a beautiful mass together.  Throats were blessed in honor of St. Blaise Day.  The CP Carnival was a huge hit!  The middle school kids did a great job of creating games for the elementary kids to play.  While we were waiting to go to the carnival we played board games and watched a Magic School Bus about about a carnival.  Here are a few pictures of the day -

Today the students got to dress up as what they want to be when they grow up.  Here are some pictures of our class this morning.

***Tomorrow is Spirit Day.  The students may dress in FACS or ND clothes.

***Thank you so much for all of your donations this week!  We had donations for our St. John's care packages, money CSW bracelets that benefit St. John's, and money for the carnival benefits the CP Center.  What a great Catholic Schools Week it has been!

Weekly Spelling Lists -

Phonetic List - Vowel Teams oa, oe, ow
goat
road
croak
foe
toe
flow
crow
now
how
cow

High Frequency List - Trick Words/Sight Words Words 111-120
man
too
any
day
same
right
look
think
also
around

***Reminders***

*This Wednesday all students are being dropped off at Res.  The all school mass starts at 8:05.  After mass we will have the throat blessing.  After that the middle school students will be putting on a carnival.  All proceeds are being donated to the CP Center.  Each game costs 25 cents.  Each grade will have a half an hour to play games.  Please send in your child's money for the CP carnival by tomorrow.  Thank you!


*Tomorrow is a dress down day!

First Grade Math - This week we have been working on comparing story problems.  We learned a new problem solving method - comparison bars.  Keep practicing those math facts.  We will have a quiz every Thursday.  This week we are also really excited about place value...because we got to 1000 milk rings!  Wow!

Phonics - This week we learned a few more vowel teams - ee, ea, ey, oi, and oy.  We learned how to mark closed syllables with a suffix s.  We learned the difference between a closed syllable and an open syllable.  We also worked with nonsense words.

Social Studies - This week we have been learning about different types of homes.  We also worked on street maps.  We used the map key to find places on the map.  Tomorrow we will be learning about time lines.

Religion - This week we read in our Religion books about Gods love for us.  We also read about and illustrated various Bible stories.  Last week we worked on the Hail Mary.  This week we worked on the Our Father.

Writing - This week in writer's workshop we learned how to address envelopes.  The students worked on writing an address, the return address, and personalizing the letter that we are sending with our Flat Stanleys.  Our Stanleys will be in the mail today!  Here are a few pictures of working on the envelopes -

The letters - all ready to be sent!

Reading - Our word work focus again this week is synonyms.  This week we will finally wrap up running records.  Next week we will start meeting in our new reading groups.

***MAP Test - The students will be taking the reading MAP test this afternoon.

***Catholic Schools Week is January 30-February 3.  During Catholic Schools Week one of the activities is putting together snack packs for those served at St. John's shelter.  Each class is being asked to provide one item.  The first grade students are being asked to donate pretzels and cheese dip packs or cracker sticks and dip packs.

***CP Carnival - Next week is the CP Carnival.  The middle school students make games for the elementary students to play.  Each game will cost 25 cents.  The students have 30 minutes to play the games.  All of the money collected will be donated to the CP Center.  The students may bring in money ahead of time.

January/February 2017 (All posted on school web page.)

PE

K-2

Good day to all.  I am a little out of sorts with the two cancelled days of school.  I got a little bit behind but am catching up today.  Well, this week we worked on tennis ball throwing and catching.  I am trying to get all to see how the entire body is used when throwing a ball.  They tend to throw it to the floor and then run after it.  Partner will will alleviate some of that but I am trying to get them to figure things out on their own.  They know the answers to some of the questions but now need to build on muscle memory.  We will continue on.  

For a little bit, our cardio Fridays will be jumping rope to ready ourselves for Jump Rope for Heart which at St. Matthew will happen on April 7th.  Each child should have received a magnet (which they were instructed to not put by a computer or a phone) with that date and some direction on it.  I will send home envelopes next week in the weekly communication.  We will all be jumping during their class time.  Please feel free to stop in to jump or help out with the event.  Times Below:

F, April 7
Kindergarten	10:15-10:45
Grade 1	8:15-8:45
Grade 2	8:45-9:15

They should have plenty of room as each class will be jumping on their own.  This will help with the movement while they are jumping for a higher success rate.  We have already worked a few times on their jumping and they are showing an immense amount of improvement.

Weekly Spelling Lists -

Phonetic List - Vowel Teams (ai, ay, ee, ea, ey, oi, oy)
main
say
paid
tree
seat
key
green
join
toy
foil

High Frequency List - Trick Words/Sight Words - Words 101-110
get
through
back
much
go
good
new
write
our
me


***If you haven't yet, please send in a blank stamped envelope and who your child is sending Flat Stanley to.  We would like to send our Stanleys out ASAP.  Thank you!***

A few FYI's -

First Grade Math - This week we have been comparing data with three numbers.  We have been using the words more and fewer.  We will be having a math facts quiz on Thursday again.

Phonics - This week we are continuing to talk about closed syllables.  We learned three new vowel teams this week - ee, ea, and ey

Reading - This week our word work focus is synonyms - words that mean the same thing.  (big, large)  The students are working on the daily five centers and I am doing running records assessments.  We are getting closer to finishing.  :)

Eddie and Aisling working on compound words

 Clare, Dakota, and Kate working on synonyms

Social Studies - This week Monday we learned about Martin Luther King, Jr.  Tomorrow we will be talking about the presidential inauguration happening on Friday.  We are also combining reading and social studies.  We just finished reading the story Flat Stanley.  Today we made our own Flat Stanley.  A letter went home today explaining our project.  Please look for it in your child's folder.  

Here we are working on our Stanleys today -

***MAP - The students will be taking a MAP test tomorrow afternoon.  They will also be taking a test next week. In first grade they are tested in math and reading.

***Next week Monday (January 23rd) will be a Packer Dress Down Day.

***Catholic Schools Week is January 30-February 3.  During Catholic Schools Week one of the school activities is putting together snack packs for those served at St. John's shelter.  Each class is being asked to provide one item.  The first grade students are being asked to donate pretzels and cheese dip packs or cracker sticks and dip packs.

***100th Day of School - The day keeps moving with our snow days.  :)  As of today, the 100th day of school will now be on Monday, February 6th.  Next week I'll be sending home some information about the 100th day of school projects.  

A few FYI's -

First Grade Math - This week we had the unit 5 test.  We worked on the test Monday and Tuesday.  Today we started unit 6.  We are working on interpreting data.  Today the students had to cut out pictures of bugs and sort them in 2 different ways.  (First they sorted bugs with legs and bugs without legs.  Then they sorted the bugs by color.)  Then they had to answer questions about what they had sorted.  Today we also had our firsts math facts quiz.  I am super excited!  Every single student passed the first time!  Woohoo!  Tomorrow they will be getting their next set of math facts to practice.  The next set has problems that go up to 8.  The next quiz will be next Thursday.

Phonics - This week we learned a new concept - closed syllables.  Closed syllables have a short vowel sound and they are closed in at the end of the word with a consonant (or digraph or blend).  This week we also practiced making words with our blank tile cards.  Today we started learning about vowel teams. Our first two vowel teams are -ai and -ay.

Reading - This week we continue to work on adjectives and compound words in  work on writing and word work.  We also started running records this week.  I love seeing the progress that the students have made!  Running record take a while to complete.  I would guess we'll be doing this for another week or two.  After that we can get into our new reading groups.  Here are a few pics of students working in the spelling center this week -

Social Studies - This week we finished the first chapter of our social studies book.  We learned about school communities, school workers, basic maps, the map key, and directions.  

Religion - This week in our Religion book the focus was baptism.  Some of the students knew where they were baptized, some didn't.  If you have a chance, talk with them about their baptism.  :)  We talked about baptism, but then expanded a little bit.  We did go over all seven of the sacraments briefly.  

Writing - This week we got to have work on writing in daily 5 and handwriting, but we didn't get to have writer's workshop because of the snow day.  Writer's workshop is each Wednesday from 2:00-3:00.  We could always use more help editing, typing, and binding books.  If you're ever free on Wednesday at 2:00, you are welcome to join us and help us out.  

Tomorrow is a Packer Dress Down Day!

January 2017    PE K-2 

Happy New Year. I am glad to feel it warm up (relative term). I don’t like those below 0 wind chills. That is just too much when your coat crunches within seconds. We still have our cardio Friday’s. You are welcome to join during your child’s PE class if you want. Feel free. There are some that are struggling with the counting and keeping track. (Example: The other day there was a child that said they had 99 in 15 minutes.) OOPS. During the other class of the week, we are doing to start working on throwing and catching with hands. The throwing with opposition comes easy for some but it is difficult for others. So, we will all work on it. It is important for them to learn to catch with their hands and not always do a basket catch with their arms. We will continue to add spurts of gross motor skills as well. 

Weekly Spelling Lists -

Phonetic List - Closed Syllables
trim
flat
kept
crop
pluck
clip
mask
west
chomp
rush

High-Frequency List - Trick Words/Sight Words - Words 91-100
long
little
very
after
words
called
just
where
most
know