Advent Program

Good job first graders on your presentation at our 2011 Advent Program. It was very exciting to see everyone dressed up for such a special program!

Getting ready for Christmas break...

Lots happened in our class before we went on break! We completed a fun mitten unit in reading where we compared and contrasted two different books. We read the stories, "The Mitten" and "The Hat." Then, we made mittens to tell the different story elements in the story, "The Mitten," created a venn digram to tell how the stories were the same and different, and made a brochure about the two stories.

The class had a lot of fun in music preparing for the Advent Program. Mr. Tilton had them marching through the halls of our school and outside on the playground singing and playing their chimes. It was a fun melody to hear around the school.

We were sad to say goodbye to Kiley Weatherwax! We made her a fun scrapbook of all her memories this year at Visitation and we wish her the best as she prepares for her new school. We will all miss the Weatherwax family!!!

For Christmas, the students made their parents holiday wreaths. Inside the center of the wreath the students cut out a poem the describes the symbol the wreath represents. We hope the families enjoyed the holiday cheer they brought as much as we enjoyed making them.

St. Nicholas Day

We celebrate St. Nicholas day on December 6th. St. Nicholas is a patron saint of children, sailors, the poor, and the innocent.

As a school, we all put one shoe outside our classroom doors and waited for St. Nicholas to come by our rooms. We heard his bells jingle as we walked past our classroom. When we opened our door, we saw goody bags from St. Nicholas inside our shoes. Then, we said the prayer below.

                                    O God,

Help us to follow the example

of Nicholas, who loved the poor, the weak, and the young,

giving, what he had to those who had little.

May we, too, walk in the

way that leads to life:

loving you with all our heart,

  and our neighbors as ourselves,

 through Jesus Christ our Lord,

Amen

Winter spelling words test on Friday, Dec. 9th.

This weeks spelling words are winter themed. A few of these words will be challenging for the students and they will need a lot of practice writing them.

1. hat
2. cold
3. sled
4. snow
5. mitten
6. tree
7. gift
8. bell

Review the study tips from our last spelling post. There is a lot of fun activities for the students to practice this weeks spelling words.

"The Mitten" and "The Hat"

I found this great idea from another first grade blogger. We read the story, "The Mitten" and discussed the story structure (characters, setting, problem, details, and solution). Then, we made big mittens to display the information we read in the story.


The next day, we read the story, "The Hat." An area we have been working on in first grade is comparing and contrasting stories. These two stories gave us the perfect opportunity to discuss how the stories are the same and different. We learned how to use a venn diagram to display the information.  We also made a fun brochure that told about the two different stories.


During reading stations on Friday, we sorted consonant clusters with l and r. The students put the word hands into the mitten clusters they belonged to.


With the cold weather we have been having lately, these were fun activities for us to do.

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas!