Classroom Supply List
(1) box 24 ct. crayons
(5) sharpened pencils
(1) large eraser
(2) glue sticks
(2) 2-pocket folders
(1) backpack
(1) pencil case
(1) dry erase marker
(1) coloring book
(1) disinfectant wipes
(1) tissues

Art Class Supply List
(1) Tote bag to carry supplies
(1) 24 ct. crayons
(1) pull-over art shirt
(1) box colored pencils
(1) box fat, classic colored markers
(4) glue sticks
(4) pencils
(1) eraser
(1) box tissues
(1) pack baby wipes

In addition to learning about the Stations of the Cross, Holy Week, and Easter, we had a lot of Easter fun in first grade! We had an Easter egg hunt, saw the Easter Bunny, and made playdough out of Easter peeps. We also had our Race for Education in April, which was a lot of fun! We all ran for 20 minutes in the gym while listening to music and celebrating our school. Thanks to all those who donated to our Race! Below are some important upcoming dates: 
April 30th: Golf Tournament
May 15th: St. Joes 5K (come run with me!)
May 21st: MegaShambucks Dress Down Day and Party
May 25th: Eighth grade graduation
May 28th: Last day of school; Livestream of closing Mass and award ceremony; Early dismissal at 11:45

There are so many exciting things going on in first grade that it's hard to decide where to start! Our last Flat Stanley mailed today, so we will be anxiously waiting his return while we are enjoying the Flat Stanley books. We "adopted" a calf named Adele from a Pennsylvania farm. We receive updates and pictures of her regularly and we did a virtual tour of her farm. It was a perfect opportunity to do a science experiment: we used food coloring and dish soap experiments to see how much fat is found in different types of milk.
We have two pet tadpoles, Baby Yoda and Sara. We're enjoying learning about the life cycle of the frog and other local animals. We did our "egg project" this week, where the students hide things in plastic eggs, write descriptive sentences about what they hid, and then read the sentences to their classmates who have to guess what's in the eggs. It's a great way to practice sentence writing and public speaking. And the last pictures are the students enjoying ice cream sundaes at the Mega Shambuck party!! 

Hands-on learning is so much more fun! Below is a slideshow with lots of pictures of us over the past month learning hands-on. The pictures include a snowball battle, spelling words with letter tiles, Scholastic News on the Epson projector, dice math, number building with interlocking base ten blocks, "CH" train, measuring units, and graphing goldfish.  We also read a book about everyday superheroes written by our new Vice President, Kamala Harris. 
Upcoming Events: 
March 17th: MegaShambucks Dress Down/Party; Report Cards distributed
March 19th: Feast Day of St. Joseph
March 31st: Early Dismissal
April 1st to April 5th: Off School for Easter Break

Catholic Schools Week was definitely different this year because of COVID and snow, but we made the most of it. We celebrated our Catholicism by doing many acts of kindness and service. In first grade, we collected hand sanitizer to be added to gift boxes for the elderly and shut-ins. We made cards for our local policemen, policewomen and our clergy, and we made gifts to thank our parents for sending us to Catholic school. We had a truck convoy to celebrate all of the service personnel who keep our country up and running during COVID. We celebrated Mass as a school (using livestream), we played BINGO as a school using walkie-talkies, and we had many fun dress down days. 

As many of you know, I unfortunately contracted COVID, and luckily, was not at school during my contagious period, thanks to the snow storm. However, when I returned, the students had fun writing stories about where I may have been over my two-week quarantine. I attached the stories below, along with pictures of the Wacky Dress Down Day, our bingo winners, and our door, which we decorated for a door decorating contest. Enjoy the students' creativity - I know I did! 
Upcoming Events: 
March 2nd: End of Second Trimester; Read Across America Day
March 17th: MegaShambucks Dress Down/Party; Report Cards distributed
March 19th: Feast Day of St. Joseph
March 31st: Early Dismissal
April 1st to April 5th: Off School for Easter Break

We learned a lot about Martin Luther King, Jr. over the past few weeks. We talked often about how he dreamt of something that would make the world a much better place, and then he acted on that dream. The first graders each came up with a dream of their own to make the world a better place. Also, below are pictures of some morning activities and some of the love monsters the students made in art class. 

Catholic Schools Week is this week. Here are some of the fun things to remember: 
Monday, Feb. 2: Wear spirit wear or gym uniform
Tuesday, Feb. 3: Pajama Day; HSA will provide soft pretzels to students; No homework!
Wednesday, Feb. 4: Heroes wear many hats - wear a hat with your gym uniform; Kid's Heart Challenge; Truck Convoy
Thursday, Feb. 5: Team day - wear a jersey or your favorite team's colors
Friday, Feb. 6: Wacky Dress Day - Look silly!; Bingo party

Our students have returned after break and jumped right back into learning! We are focusing on informational texts and finding text evidence in reading. In math, the students are learning place value, which helps students with adding, subtracting, and understanding numbers with two or more digits. We have been playing games and using money and manipulatives to help it be less abstract. We are learning more digraphs and working on two syllable words with long vowels in phonics and words with long vowel/sneaky e combinations in spelling. We are learning about how Jesus chose the apostles and how we should be apostles, spreading God's good news through our words and actions in religion. Below are pictures including Christmas fun and our students reading at Mass. 

​Upcoming Dates:
January 30th - February 5th: Catholic Schools Week
February 12th: Red, white, blue free dress down day
February 15th: Snow make-up day (we will be in school in person)

The classroom is decorated for Christmas, we are learning about Advent and the first Christmas in religion class, and we are starting some Advent service projects this week. Christmas is a joyous time in first grade! In other subjects, we are learning fact families, digraphs and final stable syllables, and our spelling list this week is made up of words with "th" digraphs. Below are some pictures of the students in computer class, in indoor recess, enjoying Friday Morning Videos, and decorating for Christmas. 
Upcoming Dates:
Dec. 14:  Wear Christmas attire to film Christmas show
Dec. 16:  School Mass for K - 2
Dec. 18:  $1 MegaShambuck Dress down day 
Dec. 23:  Christmas party; Red & green dress down day; Early dismissal 11:45
Dec. 24 - Jan. 3:  Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!
Please remember this page is in blog format, so you can scroll down to see old posts.  

The first graders and I would like to thank everyone who donated to the Adopt-a-Classroom fund for first grade. We got several boxes full of goodies from Amazon, including a new art easel for the classroom. It is so important in first grade for me to teach using many different strategies to reach everyone and to help everyone have a deeper understanding of things, so all of these things that make it possible for us to learn in different ways are so important! Following the thankful theme, we have done lots of things this past week in celebration of Thanksgiving, including writing thank you letters to our parents and making lists of things we're thankful for and then putting those things in alphabetical order. 
Nov. 24:  Early dismissal at 11:45
Nov. 25-30:  No school; Happy Thanksgiving!
Dec. 2:  Report card distribution; Secret Santa shopping 
Dec. 4:  Free MegaShambuck dress down day
Dec. 16:  School Mass for K - 2
Dec. 18:  $1 MegaShambuck Dress down day 
Dec. 23:  Classroom Christmas party; Red and green dress down day; Early dismissal 11:45
Dec. 24 - Jan. 3:  Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!
Please remember this page is in blog format, so you can scroll down to see old posts.