After lots of Christmas fun and hopefully a relaxing Christmas break, we have returned to school ready to jump right back into work! We are learning about animals migrating, hibernating, and adapting. We are doing fact families in math and final stable syllables in phonics. We are doing writing practice using adjectives and details. And most importantly, we are reading! Students should be reading at least 50 minutes a week for their reading logs. At this point in the year, the students should be doing a large majority of the reading, if not all the reading. Students should also be memorizing their math facts with answers up to 20. Here are some important upcoming dates:
January 5th: Open house from 10:00 am to noon for new families
January 9th: School Mass at 8:30
January 16th: Progress Reports
January 21st: No school for Martin Luther King, Jr. Day
January 27th to February 1st: Catholic Schools Week (more details will be sent home soon)

We had two great mystery readers this month. The first read The Invisible Boy by Trudy Ludwig. The book is about a boy named Brian that no one notices in school and is left out by everyone, until a new boy comes to school. The book explains how small acts of kindness can make someone else feel full of color, complete, included and loved. Then the students had a snack and did an exercise practicing how they can "fill" one another with color. The second reader this month read Dino-Christmas by Lisa Wheeler, a story that walks us through a dinosaur Christmas, complete with a snowball fight. Our readers then gave out a sports ball to all of the students, since Dino-Christmas is part of a series of books about dinosaurs playing sports. They also provided indoor snowballs for all of us to have a very big snowball fight in the gym. It was tons of fun! 

Also, below, are pictures of our candy canes left by St. Nicholas in our shoes, Christmas show pictures, and more Christmas fun. Please see the previous post for the December schedule of events. 

Mrs. Oliver has started a wonderful new behavior reward system at school. Each student gets a mega-shambuck at the beginning of the trimester. If they have any "bucks" left on their mega-shambuck card at the end of the trimester, they get to go to the mega-shambucks party. The first trimester's party was a country-western theme, complete with line dances, snacks, drinks, and even square dancing (Mrs. Bortner taught the students square dancing in gym). It was so much fun! We also met with our fourth grade prayer partners in November and made a blessings trail mix, watched Peanuts Thanksgiving, and got to know one another. Here are some things we will be doing in December:
December 5th: Report card distribution
December 6th: St. Nicholas Day
December 10th: Christmas Program at 6:30 in the social hall
December 21st: Early dismissal at 11:45 to start Christmas break; We will have our classroom Christmas party this day if anyone would like to send in a snack, please let me know. 
January 3rd: Welcome back to school! 

We had some great mystery readers help us celebrate Thanksgiving. First, our guests read How to Catch a Turkey by Adam Wallace. The story is about a turkey running loose in a school before Thanksgiving and he gets himself into some funny situations. They then shared some turkey lollipops with everyone. The readers got many laughs from this story. Our next mystery reader read a nonfiction selection called Thanksgiving is... by Gail Gibbons. The book told us all about Thanksgiving, it's history, the way we celebrate it today, and how we should be thankful for all our blessings. Our reader then gave each student a kit to make their own turkey and a snack. They loved making a craft to take home! We, in first grade, are thankful for our mystery readers! 

First grade has been learning a lot and having a lot of fun! We enjoyed Halloween games, treats, and a movie on Halloween day. We registered to vote and voted for the governor of Pennsylvania. We celebrated our fundraising success, with our top 3 sellers getting prizes. In addition to all of the fun, we're learning a lot and I can already see a huge improvement in reading levels across the whole class. We're reading and spelling words with digraphs, blends, sneaky e, and suffixes. We're working on sentence writing, using interesting details. We are studying nouns, verbs, and adjectives. In math, we have moved back to addition, this time with answers from 10 to 20. In social studies, we've been learning about Columbus and early America. We will continue learning about early America with our study of Thanksgiving. Here are some important upcoming dates:
November 12: Veterans Day Mass and program
November 16: End of First Trimester; Dress down for a donation of $1 or more for hurricane relief
November 20: Early Dismissal 11:45; Dress down for a donation of $1 or more for hurricane relief
November 21 - November 26: No school - Happy Thanksgiving! 
November 27 - 29: Secret Santa shop
November 30: Mega Shambucks Party (so far, all first graders are still eligible for the party!)

We had some great Halloween mystery readers in the past few weeks. First, we enjoyed Corduroy's Best Halloween Ever by Don Freeman. In this adorable story, Corduroy and his friends are preparing for a Halloween party but Corduroy is having a hard time deciding what costume to where. Our next reader read The Ghosts go Haunting by Helen Ketteman, where ghosts and witches and other scary creatures haunted a school. The verses in the story were written to the tune of the Ants go Marching, making it a fun read! After the books, our guests shared snacks and bags of treats for the students. The students are really enjoying the mystery reader program so far!
(Please scroll down to see important dates coming up and previous posts.)

We have been having a lot of October fun in first grade! We learned about Christopher Columbus, We had two great assemblies, one about fire safety and one about saving energy. We are learning blends and digraphs in phonics, subtraction in math, and about talking and listening to God in religion. In learning about fall, some of the students told me they never tasted pumpkin before, so last week we had pumpkin week, where we had 8 different pumpkin treats throughout the week. Thanks to all the parents who provided treats!  Here are some upcoming events:
October 26: $1 Dress down day
October 29: Voter registration - the kids will register to vote for the Pennsylvania governor at recess
October 31: Halloween party; Dress down in orange and black
November 1: All Saints Day Mass 8:30
November 5: Kids will vote for Pennsylvania governor
November 12: Veterans Day Mass and program
November 20: Early Dismissal 11:45
November 21 - November 26: No school - Happy Thanksgiving! 
November 27 - 29: Secret Santa shop

We had our first mystery reader and the kids loved it!! Our guests not only read us a story, but they acted it out with lots of props too! The students all loved when they acted out the part of the story when an animal fell off a skateboard! The story, Pete the Cat and His Magic Sunglasses, by James and Kimberly Dean, is an adorable story about a cat that wakes up in a grumpy mood. With a little help from a friend and a pair of "magic" sunglasses, he finds that his good mood was inside him all along! Our readers brought "magic" sunglasses for everyone to share, even a giant pair for me!

First Grade has been learning a lot the past few weeks. We have been working a lot on the daily routine and the beginning of the year testing. We have finished Lesson 1 in our reading series, we have done our first 16 lessons in phonics, and are about two-thirds through Chapter 1 in our math book. So far, we have learned several consonants and the short and long sounds of a, i, and o. We are working on addition using blocks and counters. We have been studying the calendar each day, reviewing the days of the week, months of the year, and the seasons. We also learn about money each day at the class calendar. This past week we started learning about our solar system. In religion we have learned that God loves us, the story of Creation, and how to take care of the world God made for us. We have even explored some of God's creation (some pictures are below). We have played games, sang songs, and even danced. This class is well-behaved, curious, and excited to learn. 

Dear Upcoming First Parents,

It is my pleasure to welcome you and your child to first grade at St. Joseph School!  My name is Stacey Biggins and I am the 1st grade teacher.  This will be my seventh full time year at St. Joseph’s Catholic School and I could not be more excited to teach this wonderful upcoming first grade class! I also look forward to meeting all of you at first grade's Back to School First Grade Parent meeting on August 16th, 2018 at 6:00 pm.

As you prepare for first grade, please refer to our classroom’s supply list below. I have also included a list of supplies for art class that your child will need in addition to the supplies needed in the classroom. Please label your child’s supplies with a Sharpie marker or name labels.  It is very helpful to have every marker, crayon, glue stick, etc. labeled as students will manage their own supplies.  It is also helpful if you can send replacement supplies in from time to time, mostly new pencils. When you send your child to school, please have the art supplies in the art tote already, so they do not get mixed up with the classroom supplies.

Classroom Supply List
1 box of crayons (no higher than 24 count)
5 sharpened pencils
1 large eraser
2 glue sticks
2 two-pocket folders
1 backpack or school bag
1 pencil case or box
1 coloring book 
1 container of disinfectant wipes
1 box of tissues
 
Mrs. Fagnani’s Art Supply List    
1 tote bag (approximately 12 x 16)
1 box (24 count) of crayons
1 art shirt (pull-over)
1 box of colored pencils
1 box of fat classic colored markers
4 glue sticks
4 pencils
1 eraser
1 box of tissues
1 package of baby wipes

Copy books and journals will be provide by the school. Should you have any questions, comments, concerns, or suggestions, please feel free to contact me at any time! You can reach me by calling the office at 717-632-0118 or emailing me at sbiggins@sjshanover.org. May God bless you and keep you and your family safe for the summer!

With anticipation for a very blessed school year, 
Mrs. Stacey Biggins