A Dynamic Catholic

Education Centered in Christ

First Grade News

Fabulous First Graders

Mrs. Donohues Class

December 5, 2014

December has once again crept up on us. With that being said, please remember to
dress your first graders for the weather. It gets cold out at lunch recess. The first graders
are welcome to bring their slippers to change into now that it is boot season. They can even
leave a pair here at school. Just make sure they have regular shoes on Mondays and Fridays
for gym and make sure their slippers have a rubber sole so they dont fall down in the hallway!
I hope everyone had a wonderful Thanksgiving with their family. We had so much to be
thankful for this Thanksgiving. We had all our children home with their fianc, husband and our
little grandson Will. It was a wonderful day!
December is a very busy month in the classroom for us here at St. Thomas. This year
we are getting together everyday, at the end of the day, with the second and third graders
and sit around a Jesse Tree. We listen to the scripture for the day, hang up that days ornament on the tree and sing Oh Come Emmanuel.
This Advent season I thank the Lord for the St. Thomas family and all the prayers and
kindness that has been shown to my family and me. I thank all of you!
I truly enjoy coming to work every morning!
God Bless!
Kelly Donohue

Guest Readers

All School Mass

During this Advent season we

would enjoy having anyone come
to our classroom to read a favorite Christmas book. We
are available to listen to stories for the next two weeks on
Mon. thru Fri. from 9:0010:00. If you would like to read
to the class one of your favorite
Christmas stories please call,
drop me a note, or e-mail.

Friday, December 19th

kellydonohue@stthomasgr.org

Gifts Coming Home

In the next few

weeks your first grader
will be bringing their speFri. Dec. 19th at 9:55 we will cial Christmas gifts home
be attending Mass with the rest of that they made in class. I
the school. If anyone can sit with will let you know when you
us during Mass to help us focus it can expect them so you
would be appreciated. Please be in can keep an eye out for
our classroom by 9:50 so you can
them. Enjoy!
walk into church with us. Thank
you!!!

Reading/Writing

Christmas Movie
Friday, December 19 we will be going to gym at 1:00 for a Movie party. The
students will be watching Polar Express.
Popcorn will be served. Students may bring
their pillow pets. This will be our class
Christmas Celebration. What a neat way
to end the last day before Christmas
break! Thank you Home and School!

Birthday Cake for Jesus

If anyone would like to bring in
cupcakes or a small cake on Friday,
Dec. 19 to celebrate Jesus Birthday,
that would be great! I thought we would
sing Happy Birthday and have it for
snack. Please let me know if you are able
to do this. We have 17 students in the
class.

Math
We are working on putting together 10 and some more to make
the numbers from 11 to 20. Students
build place-value understandings and
use the Make Ten strategy to become
more efficient at solving addition combinations to 20.
After we return from
Christmas break, we are going
to start work on addition
facts. First graders need to
memorize all their addition
facts from 0+0=0 to 9+9=18. We will
start with adding zero and work our
way up. We are also going to start
having timed tests to see if they have
immediate recall.
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First Grade

Our Word Wall Words this week were: when,

they, was, by, his. Next week the words will be:
Jesus, God, it, go, in.
For our Guided Reading we read the stories
about the Gingerbread Man. We compared different
stories about the Gingerbread Man and made stick
puppets so we can retell it. The last weeks of school
we will be reading Christmas books and doing comprehension activities with them. In phonics we are working on our digraphs. This week we learned wh and
the voiced th sound as in the word thin.

Science and Social Studies

Our main focus this week and next is different world Christmas traditions. We celebrated St.
Nicholas Day this week. Next week we will learn
about Germany and make paper lanterns.
In science we have been discussing weather.
We have been talking about
the different seasons and
how they differ from one another.

Important Dates to Remember

Dec. 8: Immaculate Conception Mass at 12:30
Dec. 10: Library Books Due
Dec. 15 Non-Uniform Day
Dec. 17: Library Books due
Dec. 17: Family Gift due (Unwrapped)
Dec. 17: Christmas Vespers
Dec. 18: Field trip to deliver Christmas gifts
Dec. 19: All School Mass 9:55
Dec. 19: Movie and Popcorn in gym 1:00 Polar Express

Religion

Movie and Popcorn

We will be talking about the Jesse

Tree, Advent and Christmas. After
hearing the Old Testament stories of
Adam and Eve, Noah, etc., we will make ornaments that represent each of these
stories to put on the Jesse Tree. We will
continue with these each week until the
last day before break.

The Home and School have

graciously sponsored a movie afternoon on the last day before break. The
students will see The Polar Express and will
get popcorn. Students may bring their pillow
pets if they have one. This will be our class
Christmas celebration. We will be doing fun
things throughout the day in our classroom to
celebrate the birth of Jesus.

ICCF Christmas
Mrs. Lake and myself have been working with The Inner City
Christian Federation (ICCF) here in Grand Rapids for a few
years now. Each year we receive the name of a family that we
can help by making their Christmas a little brighter. We have
just received the name of our family. I will be inviting all of
you to go on sign-up genius and sign up to buy something for
that family. You will send the unwrapped gift to school with
your child. The students and I will wrap the gifts. We would
appreciate any donations of wrapping paper or gift tags if
you have extra . Our classes are hoping to deliver them to
ICCF if it works out. Our students really enjoy doing this and
its a wonderful way to welcome Jesus and be Fishers of Men!

Fishers oF Men
Volume 1, Issue 1

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