May post

 

 

May First Grade Calendar

• May 5th - Afterschool math club - 3:00 - 3:35

• May 5th - cinco - de- mayo

• May 6th - First grade author visit book orders go home***

• May 6th - Afterschool math club - 3:00 - 3:35

• May 7th - 8:00 a.m. May Crowning and Rosary *

• May 9th - 7:00 a.m. - Cafeteria - Mother's Day Muffins

• May 9th - Spirit Day

• May 9th - Art and Talent Show

•  5:30 - view student art throughout the school

• 6:00 - HSA / SAC Meeting

• 6:30 - talent show

• May 11th - Corpus Christi Colors - NCEA Pastor Appreciation Day

• May 13th - Our Lady of Fatima - movie, writing, art project

• May 16th - Assembly schedule - 1:45 - 2:45 year book signing

• May 21st - Last regular school day

• May 22nd - Field Day at Grace Center - no school**

• May 23rd - Last Day of School  -FUN DAY!!

* May 7th is the crowning of Mary. Please send in a flower with your child so that they may place that flower in front of the statue of Mary at the front of the church.

 

 

**Field Day at the Grace Center: Students will not be coming to school on Field Day. Field Day is a fun day at the Grace Center. There are many fun activities and lunch is provided. Drop off times are between 7:45 a.m.- 8:00 a.m. and pick-up time is 2:30 p.m. - 2:45 p.m. Please make sure your child has a water bottle, hat, and has sunscreen already applied. Parents may stay to enjoy all the fun activities. I will be with your child during this time.

 

*** First Grade will have a visit from author, Mary Peirce Bale (date to be determined).  Mrs. Bale has written many children's books. Her books will be in our classroom the week of May 5th. Students will have a chance to read and review her books throughout the week. An order form for her books will go home on May 6th.  If you decide to order any of Mrs. Bale's books please return the order form on or before the author visit (tentatively the week of the 12th). Mrs. Bale will fill the orders and personally sign the books during her visit.  Mrs. Bale's author visit is about 40 minutes and includes an interactive story, fun quizzes, question and answer time, and book signing. 

 

*email will be sent on date and time of Mrs. Bale's visit

 

 First grade has been doing author studies throughout the school year. As we study an author each child writes a letter to the author and tells that author something they liked about one of their books. Each author that we have written has written back to first grade. Last week we received a letter from Louis Sachar. The children get so excited when the letter from the author is opened and read. We also made a Good Luck banner for the Colorado Rockies and they also responded to the first graders with a card and stickers.   This experience has not only taught them how to write a formal letter, but has them excited about books, writing, and those who write the books we read. With that said our author visit should be exciting for the first graders. 

 

 Research Project

WOW!! The first graders just finished a research project on an animal of their choice and their habitat. They did an awesome job!! They are currently going down to pre-school, pre-k, and kindergarten and reading their paper and showing their habitats that they created.  The students habitat and research papers are currently on display outside our classroom. Please come by during the Art and Talent Show and view their research.

 

 

 The next three weeks

• Religion
• The Rosary
• Our Lady of Fatima
• The Ascension of the Lord
• Science
• Our Plate - food pyramid
• Matter
• Social Studies
• The thirteen colonies
• Cinco-de-Mayo
• Revolutionary War
• Paul Revere
• Ben Franklin
• Language Arts
• vowel diagraphs
• Abbreviations
• poetry
• adjectives
• suffixes - ly,  ful
• Math
• Measurement
• Shapes
• Fractions

 

Thank you so much for the opportunity to be a part of your child's life. I have enjoyed this year and the class as a community. You should all be very proud of your children, they have brought me so much joy. I am truly sad to see the year come to an end.  For those who are moving I pray for your safe journey and that your child grows in their new school and community. May God watch over everyone's personally journey this summer and always. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

march blog

 

 

 

March

• March 2nd   - Dr. Seuss birthday
• March 3rd   -  Dr. Seuss's birthday celebrated in first grade
• March 5th   -  Permission slips in digital locker for partition in St. Patrick's Day Parade
• March 5th   -  No school / Ash Wednesday / Lent begins
• March 6th   -  Father Mark visits first grade
• March 9th   -  Daylight savings time begins - turn clocks back
• March 11th -  St. Patrick's Day permission slips are due back to front office
• March 14th -  Quarter ends
• March 15th -  Colorado Springs St. Patrick's Day Parade
• March 17th -  St. Patrick's Day
• March 18th -  Report cards go home
• March 19th -  Feast Day of Saint Joseph - Donuts for Dads - 9:00 in cafeteria
• March 20th -  Spring begins
• March 24th -  Spring break 24th - 28th

 

 Religion

First grade is finishing a unit on Mary Mother of God. Daily the first graders have been writing a chronological order of events about Mary's life. On March 6th Father Mark will visit and answer  questions on the Bible and Catholic teachings and traditions. The students have been coming up with wonderful and powerful questions. Lent begins on March 5th. We will have daily reflections for the 40 days of Lent. On Monday and Friday of Lent the students will pray the Rosary during whole school morning gathering. The students will receive a Rosary book and will learn to say the Rosary in class. On March 17th the first graders will learn about Saint Patrick.

 

Language arts

The first graders are enjoying their reading and writing time. They just finished a fun writing activity on the Olympics. If you are in the school, please visit their Olympic writing which is displayed outside our classroom.  Their writing is developing and demonstrating the importance of idea, organization, voice, word choice, and convention. I am very proud of their detail to writing. They are reading across the curriculum. For the past two weeks we have been reading about the solar system and breaking down words such as, atmosphere, diameter, astronomers, telescopes, international, temperature, carbon dioxide, and orbit, just to name a few.  I have been so proud to watch their inference skills at work. Their chunking, syllabication, and phoneme awareness has made me proud! 

 

 

 

Dr. Seuss Day in First Grade - Monday, March 3rd

 

 

Math

We will finish topic 7 this week. Topic seven reviewed counting and number patterns.  The following is done on a daily basis outside our normal math lesson: telling time, counting money, and timed math facts. Center activities also have math enrichment (measurement, clocks, math facts, money).

 

 

Science

 

With all the school delays/closings and other activities we have finally finished our solar system unit. Their solar system book should be going home the first week of March. Students will have a post test on the solar system on Friday, March 7th. A study guide will go home on Monday, March 3rd. We all had a great time reading, writing, and drawing the solar system.

 

During March the students will be studying about living things and their environment. This unit will tie in some of their solar system learning. We will look at the ocean, ocean plants and ocean life. As the ocean is studied we will look at the tides and the gravitational attraction of the moon and the sun on the ocean.

 

We will also be looking at the inside of the Earth as we make the crust, mantle, core (inner and outer) with play-doh

Social Studies

During March we will look at Early civilizations. We will discuss crossing the land bridge, prehistoric animals, Mesopotamia, Egypt and early Christianity.  

 

READ!  READ!  READ!

Please continue to read with your child. The first graders should read every day at home. I am currently building an A.R. library in the classroom, for those who finish more than one A.R. book during the week.  This library will give students the opportunity to check out a new book inside the classroom.

 

 

**On Line Educational Game

Below is a fun website with many educational games. As always please review games before your child plays. Just click on the website and have fun.

http://interactivesites.weebly.com/addition.html

Happy Saint Patrick's Day!!

January / February

 

  

 

The following is the schedule for Catholic Schools Week

·         Sunday, January 26^th- Corpus Christi Catholic School Open house – There will be an open house after the 10:00 a.m. and 12:00 a.m. masses

·         Monday, January 27^th-today students and teachers will be involved in a community service project. First grade will be going across the street to the assisted living center. The children will bring joy to those living at the facility by sing and presenting the patients with a craft they have made. There is no lunch served in the cafeteria. Please pack your child a sack/cold lunch.

·         Tuesday, January 28^th- “Fiesta Theme” – Students may dress in fiesta attire. At 1:45 students will participate in dancing, food and other fun activities.  The fiesta dancers will also perform. Parents please join us at 1:45 in the gym. Inside dismissal.

·         Wednesday, January 29^th-students may dress down in red, white and blue clothing. The American theme is celebrated as the students make valentines for Vets. Students will also be making thank you cards for our volunteers. At 2:00 p.m. there will be a flag ceremony and school blessing in the gym. All families are invited to attend.

·         Thursday, January 30^th-Celebrating Vocations – Our religious visitors will be visiting the classroom to speak and read stories. Students will make thank you cards that will be sent out to Priests, Deacons, Sisters and other religious lay employees in our Diocese.

·         Friday, January 31^st – ½ day – All Schools Mass- There will be hot chocolate served during morning drop-off. Today we thank staff and volunteers. Students will attend mass at St. Dominics and return to Corpus Christi for a 12:00 p.m. dismissal.

·         Saturday, February 1^st – HAS Spaghetti Dinner and Basket Raffle – 6:00 in the school gym.

  

Reading Fluency

 

The students are working hard on all their decoding skills. We are adding controlled "R" to our "detective reading/writing skills. Over the next couple of weeks we will be emphasizing on compound words, controlled "R", contractions, chunking, and abbreviations.  Also they are learning to pause at periods and commas, and inflection of voice while reading. Please continue to read with your child every night and help them with their decoding skills.  

 

A.R. (Accelerated Reader)

Each week the students will be choosing an A.R. book (at their level). Please make sure your child keeps their A.R. book in their backpacks so that they may read at school as well as at home. A.R. tests will be held on Tuesday. There will be some weeks where A.R. test will take place on Wednesdays. 

 

 

Barb Coughlin

I am so excited to have Barb Coughlin, retired first grade teacher, to help once a week from 8:45 a.m. -10:45 a.m. Mrs. Coughlin will be working with reading groups, as well as individual and small group help in fluency, comprehension, phonemic awareness, and vocabulary. Also coming in on the same day is Ryan Gayton. Ryan will be helping students with their A.R. tests.  I will be working with students one-on-one with reading and writing.   

 Martin Luther King – Ruby Bridges

We celebrated Martin Luther King by reading books and listening to his famous speech, "I have a dream....". While talking about the difficult times in which Martin Luther King lived, we also discussed a brave first grader girl named Rudy Bridges. Ruby Bridges  was the first black child to attend an all white school during the time of segregation. Ruby Bridges was a first grader who experienced bullying, racism and even threats to her life. The students were so taken with her story that they asked to write to her. On Friday, January 17th the children wrote Rudy Bridges letters. I will be mailing those next week. I was so proud of them for wanting to tell her that she was brave and very special. They also had questions for Ruby Bridges, and are hoping she will address those questions and write back.

 

 Family History / Descendants

This month we had fun looking into our ancestry. Thank you all for sending in the family photos. Please take time over the next two weeks to visit our first grade family tree, and map of the world showing where our class ancestors descended from.  We enjoy looking at our tree and map everyday as we come and go through the hallways.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

February 11th

Our Lady of Lourdes

 

 

 

February 13^th – Parent Teacher conferences 3:00 p.m. – 7:00 p.m.

February 13^th – Valentines Parties 1:45

February 14^th parent/teacher conferences 8:00 a.m-12:00 p.m

February 17^th Presidents Day – no school
 

     Field Trip 

This month the students will have their first field trip. Both first grade classes will join the first graders from St. Peter’s as they get a wonderful opportunity to learn about space. We will be going to Mitchell High School where the science teacher has prepared age appropriate discussion and movie on our solar system. Please be looking for more information during the first week of February.  

Solar System

We will start our unit on the solar system during the last week of January and continue this unit for approximately 2 ½ weeks.  The field trip to Mitchell High School will come at the end of our solar system unit. The students should have some great questions for the science teacher 

Story Teller

We will have a professional story teller visiting our first graders on February 11^th (tentatively).

 **More to come in February

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

December

 The true joy of Christmas is the love of Christ,

shared with family and friends.

May you find His peace, love and joy

now, and in the coming New Year.

 

 

 

 

  For unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given: and the government shall be upon his shoulder: and his name shall be called Wonderful, Counselor, The mighty God, The everlasting Father, The Prince of Peace.    Isaiah 9:6     

 

 

December in review

Religion

•  Advent
• The birth of Jesus Christ our Savior
• Story of Saint Nicholas (December 6th)
• The Immaculate Conception of the Blessed Virgin Mary (December 9th)
• Our Lady of Guadalupe (December 12th)
• Mexican legend of the Poinsettia

Language Arts

   Writing

• Conventions
• Narrative writing
• Lessons in editing / proofreading /drafts / revisions /
• Researching and inquiring for writing
• Story mapping

• spelling words - (please continue to revisit all spelling words and word families throughout the school year - this is a great way to build vocabulary, word recognition, and correct spelling of words)

                Spelling words year-to-date 

              **80 words before Christmas**

   Reading

• Word families / letter sounds / spelling words
• Content knowledge / reading comprehension
• Fiction / non-fiction
• Setting/plot/characters
• Inflection
• Segmenting / syllables
• Word detective skills (words inside of words, segmenting, letter sounds, diagraphs, blends and other phonic rules)
• Reading groups
• AR books

 

Math

• simple addition and subtraction
• doubles / doubles rap
• doubles plus one
• doubles plus two
• flash cards (addition and subtraction)
• math story problems

Social Studies

• Review the settlement of the Americas
• Pilgrims and the freedom of religion

Science

• Introduction to matter

Interactive website - free learning games

The following is a website with many games. Scroll down to the bottom of the website to find topics. I just played math line. This game teaches children what two addends make a sum (5 + 5 =10). Explore and have fun. I have reviewed about 10 of the games. This website looks age appropriate and fun. I recommend parents preview each game and help your child get started.

 **just click on the following website - have fun!!!

http://www.knowledgeadventure.com/games/fort-frosty/

November

October Review

• Science - The Body

The Circulatory System
The Skeletal System
The Muscular System
The Digestive System

• Religion

All Saints Day
The Catholic Church - Items found in the church
Objects used during Mass - examples (chalice, paten, cruets, pall, altar, altar cloth, ciborium, corporal, tabernacle, stoup, wine-Blood of Christ, bread-Body of Christ)

•   Language Arts

Reading Street - weeks 3-4-5
Narrative writing
Vowel games
Spelling words - 60 to date
Nouns - verbs - adjectives
Author Study - Mo Wilems, Kevin Henkes and  Shel Silverstein

•  Math

addition
subtraction
10 frames
addition/ subtraction sentences 
terminology - sum, addends, parts of a whole, parts I know, solving for the unknown 

 

• Social Studies / Geography

Christopher Columbus
address / city / state / continent / planet - ME ON THE MAP
Safety with strangers

Welcome to November

 

Thank you to our Veterans!!

 Veterans Day

by Cheryl Dyson

On Veterans Day we honor all,

Who answered to a service call.

Soldiers young, and soldiers old,

Fought for freedom, brave and bold.

Some have lived, while others died,

And all of them deserve our pride.

We’re proud of all the soldiers who,

Kept thinking of red, white and blue.

They fought for us and all our rights,

They fought through many days and nights.

And though we may not know each name,

We thank ALL veterans just the same.

 

 

November in Review

 

We are enjoying working together as a first grade family. The first graders have settled-in and know the first grade routine. This month we will continue review on how we walk in Jesus' foot steps; that we all help and love each other. We will finish our unit on objects and items found in the Catholic Church, with emphases on the objects/items used at the altar during Mass. We will celebrate the feast day of Saint Francis Cabrini on November 13th. Saint Francis is the first American Saint.  We will also study early exploration and settlement of the Americas. The first graders will learn the story of the Lost Colony, Sir Walter Raleigh, Virginia Dare, and the First Thanksgiving. As always we will have a full morning of Reading Street (language arts) and our daily math lessons.  As we get closer to Thanksgiving we will discuss being thankful for all our blessings. 

 

 

October

GOD, FAMILY, STUDENT and TEACHER

First grades academic and spiritual success is due to the encompassing of God, family, student and teacher in the success of the student academically, socially and spiritually.  The student is continually encouraged to grow in emotional development, right judgment, academics, and  spiritual values through love, patience, confidence and the teachings of Jesus Christ.  To achieve academic and spiritual success teacher modeling along with question/answer time teaches students to have good study habits, organizational skills, and to understand and develop time management. Each student is modeled and taught how to work independently and to problem solve tasks at hand through encouragement and love.

First graders know that I am here to help and guide them

 through a fabulous first grade year!





 
 

October's educational websites to enrich your child's learning -

 

Click on one of the links below to have fun while learning

http://www.bbc.co.uk/bitesize/ks1/literacy/phonics/play/popup.shtml
 

http://www.funbrain.com/brain/MathBrain/Games/Title.html?GameName=BumbleNumbers2&Grade=1&Brain=math

  A glimpse into the next two weeks......

• Math - Subtraction
• Science - The Body
• Letter sounds -  f, b, g, i, d, h, o
• Religion - The Mass - items found in the Catholic Church