Happy Birthday Johnny!

Friday was Johnny (Chapman) Appleseed's birthday.  We celebrated by making and eating applesauce.  Here are a few students working with the apple peeler/corer/slicer.  Some of the students wanted the recipe- 16 apples, 1c water, 3/4 c sugar, 1 tsp cinnamon, and 16 students excited to help.  Cook for about 5 hours in crockpot on high. Yum!  We love to cook in school and it helps us with our reading and math skills.

It seems the weeks just fly right by with everything that we have to do. Language Arts takes up a good part of our day.  This week we read about friendship and learned about story structure (beginning, middle, and end).  We also finished our first big writing assignment.  It is a narrative about the first day of school.  The students did a beautiful job and have started presenting the stories in class.  Next week you can see it in my "Locker Art" photos. 

In S.S. we learned about our country's symbols through our "Studies Weekly" magazine.  I hope you and your child read it together when it comes home each week.  It is full of great information. 

We are working on subtraction in math and next week we will start on fact families.  A fact family is all of the addition and subtraction number sentences you can make with 3 numbers.  4+5=9, 5+4=9, 9-5=4, 9-4=5

Our Science this week was all about staying healthy.  We learned about food groups and germs this week as well as parts of the ear.  Most students went home Friday with a balanced "meal" on a paper plate. Next week we will learn about parts of the eye. 

The Holy Trinity was a focus this week in religion.  Ask your child what "tri-" means in Trinity and tricycle.  We are also working hard to participate in Mass by learning the responses.  Please encourage your child to follow along with the Mass when you go to church. 

Important dates: 10/3- In service day- no students
                            10/6- Picture Day and "Celebrate Me" project due
                           10/8- Field trip to "Berenstain Bears"- a bag lunch will be needed

Fun Friday!

Every Friday our school counselor, Mrs. Badura, visits us at snack time to do a little activity.  Today she discussed how everyone is unique.

Thank you to everyone who came for "Back to School Night".  I meant to take a photo of all of the parents sitting at their children's desks but I forgot.  This parent came in early and his was the only photo I remembered to take.  :-(  If you did not make it last night please be sure to read over the information that was sent home.  I am always available if you have questions.

These next photos show your children working hard on the note they wrote for you.

One of our favorite parts of the day is group reading time.

On Fridays we like to do "Fun Friday" after our reading test.  We work on centers (activities) that reinforce the concepts we learned during the week.  One of the centers was a My Plate nutrition game where we matched pictures of food to the correct food group.
At the Listening Center the students enjoyed Stuck in the Mud.  We played Addition/subtraction Bingo at the Math Center, worked with pattern blocks at another Math Center, and reviewed the parts of the ear at the Science Center.

Important Dates: 9/24- Mass at 9:40
                           10/3- In service day- no students
                            10/6- Picture Day
                           10/8- Field trip to "Berenstain Bears"

Week 2!

   On 9/11 we read a wonderful book written by a group of first graders.  It briefly described the events of 9/11 and then went on to describe how America was able to move ahead despite the attacks.  One of our own students summed it up beautifully, "We remember that some bad people ran planes into buildings and we celebrate the heroes that helped everyone".  Another student described going to NYC to see the memorial. 

This week we worked hard to learn new strategies like "make-a-ten", "near doubles",  and "counting on" to help with mental addition. Keep practicing those math facts at home, that's one thing that hasn't changed; it's still necessary to practice, practice, practice.  Online games like mathmagician and Mathlines make that practice more fun (see the links at right). 

Locker Art: Each student wrote a little bit about him/herself and drew a portrait.

We learned that the Bible is divided into the Old Testament and New Testament and that the Psalms are in the Old Testament and the Gospels are in the New Testament. 

Almost every Friday we will have Fun Friday centers.  This week they included a math facts game, the book My Lucky Day at the Listening Center, short and long vowel games, and how-to-draw instructions. 

We had a busy week!  Thanks for working hard on the homework.  Next week we will begin with our spelling and vocabulary words as well as our weekly reading test on Friday.  You can find the words on the pages at right.  Under the Educational Websites you can access "spelling city" to practice the words with games. 

Important Dates: 9/15- STAR testing

9/18- Parent Night

9/24- School Mass

The spelling and vocabulary for next week will be available this weekend by clicking on the link to the right.  You can get a sneak peek by clicking on the link for "Spelling City" in the list under Educational Websites.  Use the site to practice spelling and vocabulary all week long.

This week was a great start to our school year.  We are getting the routines down, learning more about each other, and developing skills along the way.  This first photo shows the serious side of or class and...

 this photo shows the goofy side. :-)

The next few photos show us enjoying an ice breaker to get to know each other better.  Each student had to find another student that has a certain attribute (ie: likes pizza), and have them sign the survey.  The students had lots of fun interacting.

This is a math activity where you use a symbol to portray information.   For example, the color of the wheels shows you if the student was here last year.

I have enjoyed this half week with my students and I am excited about the rest of the year.  
If you have not handed back all of the paperwork, please do so ASAP.  If you have not received an email from me it is because I do not have your email address.  Please send me an email at school so I can input your address into my address book.

Enjoy your weekend!