Month: January 2024

Concepts Covered This Week:

Religion:

• We listened to the Gospel where we learned that Jesus calls followers.
  • We continued to learn about the sacrament of Baptism.
  • We discussed how we receive the virtues of faith, hope and charity in Baptism.
  • We made class cards for our parish priests. We thanked them for being pastors and ministering to our Catholic community.
  • We made a special poster for The Lighthouse Mission.  They are the organization that we are thanking during the assembly on Wednesday.

Language Arts:

• We practiced reading and writing many words with short vowel sounds and beginning or ending blends.
  • We practiced reading and writing contractions.
  • We read stories about learning to read.  These stories had many of our high frequency sight words.
  • We used these words to write sentences about learning to read and other school activities.
  • We practiced writing sentences with a naming part and telling part.

Math:

• We continued to use vocabulary words associated with graphing; greater than, less than, equal, difference.
  • We practiced making and reading bar picture graphs, bar graphs and tally mark graphs.
  • We used these graphs to solve real world problems.
  • We continued to fill in our January calendars and weather graphs. We answered questions and compared columns on our weather graph.
  • We counted to 85, representing the number of days in school by using dimes and pennies.  We traded 5 pennies for a nickel this week.

Social Studies/Science:

• We learned about animals that hibernate.  We watched some interesting videos and read a nonfiction book. 
  • We learned that there are different kinds of hibernation.  In first grade, we decided that any animal that sleeps through a part of the winter is a hibernator.
  • We learned that hibernators need to prepare to hibernate long before winter arrives.
  • We selected a hibernator to learn more about.  Please see the information in the attached page to learn more about the “at home” part of this project.
  • We continued to discuss feelings. We noted that our bodies can give clues to others to tell how we are feeling.

Specialist Classes- Physical Education/Art/Music/Spanish/Library:

• In art we crafted a vibrant blue truck and enhanced the visual appeal by incorporating contrasting red hearts.
  • In music we continued our unit discovering the instruments of the orchestra and listened to the excerpts of Peter and the Wolf, by Sergei Prokofiev.  This week we listened to The Bird (played by the flute), The Duck (played by the oboe), and The Cat (played by the clarinet).
  • In Spanish, we practiced winter clothing vocabulary by playing a dice rolling game to dress a snowman. We also review numbers and colors with a color by addition worksheet.
  • ln Physical Education, we continued to work on soccer skills.
  • We did not have Library this week.

Mrs. McClurg’s First Grade

Concepts Covered This Week:

Religion:

• We listened to the Gospels of the Nativity.
• We discussed some of the important events that happen during the Christmas Season.
• We shared ways that we welcomed Jesus at Christmas.
• We discussed things that changed in our classroom and church during the Christmas Season
• We learned that Jesus’ family is called the Holy Family.
• We spent quiet time in the church during Adoration.  Some of us heard God’s voice.

Language Arts:

• We practiced reading and writing many words with the short sound of “u”.
• We identified many words with “l” blends.
• We practiced reading and writing proper nouns.
• We practiced reading stories with high frequency sight words.
• We used these words to write sentences about actions humans and animals can do, either separate or together.
• We identified some things, actions and describing words in sentences.
• We wrote out cards to cheer up Mrs. Creech. 

Math:

• We learned some new math vocabulary words associated with shapes, sides, curves, sphere, cube, cone, rectangular prism, and cylinder.
• We named and identified the number of sides and surfaces of 3-D shapes.
• We combined 3-D shapes to make new shapes. We did this with the same shapes and different shapes.
• We used blocks and pictures to find smaller shapes within a 3-D shape.
• We began to fill in our January calendars and weather graphs. We are using a different type of bar graph this month.
• We counted to 74, representing the number of days in school by using dimes and pennies.

Social Studies/Science:

• We reviewed the things that animals need to survive food, shelter, water, and air.
• We learned that animals in do three things to survive in the winter; they migrate, hibernate, or adapt.
• We began to learn about migrating animals.  We defined what it means to migrate and watched a video showing many different migrating animals.  We recorded what we learned in our science journal.
• We practiced reading body clues to help us identify how others are feeling.  We also practiced some techniques to calm ourselves when we are worried.

Specialist Classes- Physical Education/Art/Music/Spanish/Library:

• In art we collaboratively assembled colored paper to craft a captivating winter collage scene. After elevating our artwork, we added intricate details using puffy paint.
• In music we actively listened and followed musical cues to move and dance to “Seven Jumps”.  We also began a unit on Peter and the Wolf, a composition written as an introduction to the orchestra by the composer Sergei Prokofiev.  We learned about the 4 instrument families: Strings, Winds, Brass and Percussion
• In Physical Education, we used cooperation, communication, and teamwork to demonstrate different ways to move the equipment.
• In Spanish, we learned winter vocabulary words and practiced colors with a wintery color by number. We’ve also been practicing a song about feelings in Spanish and have been learning the Glory Be prayer in Spanish.