First Grade News

Dynamic Catholic Education Centered in Christ

I hope you all enjoyed the mid-winter break with your first graders. I had a very relaxing and enjoyable break. I also enjoyed meeting
with many of you at conferences. It is fun to discuss all the gains your
children are making.

Mrs. Donohues
Class
February 20, 2015

It is hard to believe that we will begin March already. I am ready

to experience some warmer weather! Picture it: Warm sunny beaches,

cool drink at your side, waves gently rolling onto shore. You get the
picture. I guess for now I will settle for Calgon take me
away!!! Have a good weekend!
Blessings,
Kelly

Reading/Writing/Spelling
Our Word Wall Words this week were: end, had, night, our, where. Next
week our Word Wall Words are: red, now, cloud, any, many. Please continue to work on
these at home.
We just finished a readers theater called Twinkle Twinkle Pretty Stars. The students
had a lot of fun with this. It goes along with our Science unit. Next week we begin another
story in our reading book called The Shoe Town. This story is a little more challenging so
we will be reading it several times. We will choral read, popcorn read, and partner read. We
will also work on sequencing the story.
March 2nd is Dr. Seuss birthday. We will have fun that following week with many of Dr.
Seuss books. Monday, March 2 we will start the celebration with a Green Eg gs and Ham
Breakfast. More information will be coming home later. We will need some help with this :) .
A special visitor will be coming to our classroom sometime that week, I think.
Soon I will begin pretesting the students on spelling words. I dont want to overwhelm them. Their words come from the Word Wall Words. Each student will have an
individualized spelling list. When the pretesting is done I will gather together the words that
each student does not know how to spell and begin making individual spelling lists. More information will be coming at a later date.

Science/Social Studies

Math

In Science we are learning about

the biggest star, the Sun. We are
talking about how the Earth orbits
around the Sun and many other interesting facts.

In math we are working with

shapes. We will be comparing, distinguishing defining attributes from nondefining, and developing problem solving
strategies.

In Social Studies we continue to

discuss the calendar and when certain
events occur.

Religion
We are focusing on Lent , as I am sure you
are. We are talking about personal choices and
how we have to choose to do the right thing. Lent is
a time to reflect and think about those choices.
We will also begin Session 17 in our religion
book. In this session we will discuss that in Baptism
we become members of Gods family.

Book Collection
As a service project the First Grade classes
are collecting new or gently used books during
the entire month of March for Family Haven. If
you have any books you wish to donate to this worthy cause, please send them with your child to
school with a note labeled Family Haven.

Page 2

Important dates
Feb. 23: Non-uniform Day
March 2: Green Eggs and Ham Day
March 2: Dr. Seuss Birthday

Phonics
In Phonics we are learning about final
blends: -nd, -st, -nt, -mp, -sk, -sp, -ld, lk, -ft, -lp, -lt, -pt, -ct, -lb, and lf. (and,
best, mint, bump, risk, lisp, held, silk,
lift, help, tilt, kept, act, bulb, elf).

Fishers of men

I just had to use this cartoon. I love it when the baseball season starts! Go Twins!
First Grade News