18.25 Days left... but who's counting???

      Hi everyone! Hope you're enjoying this weekend.  Rumor has it there are a few families camping this weekend- hope you're not roughing it too much!  My kind of camping involves a 5th wheel trailer, air conditioning, a shower, a refrigerator, coffee maker, and my travel chaise lounge, ... but I've said too much!  Anyways, hope you all have fun! 

     The Firsties started off this week at our Monday morning assembly by singing the Star Spangled Banner to the school- they did a great job!  I realize I should've informed everyone about this little performance, but it was a little last minute... sorry everyone!  I have a feeling there was a parent or two that may have video taped it... 

     The Firsties finished up their fabulous American Symbols presentations, and boy was I impressed!  Mrs. Doyle has kindly offered to hang the posters up in the library, so hopefully we will have them on display later this week.  The kids were wonderful speakers, I could tell they practiced reading their sentences, and, most importantly, I can tell that they took a lot of pride in their project!  What a great start to a long list of classroom presentations they all have ahead of them (in future grades!)  Here are the last groups of students who presented, along with their silly glasses that I added for fun:

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      I will be working on grading their worksheets over the next week, and you should see those in their blue test folders next time around! I am very impressed with their posters and presentations, and I'm sure the worksheets will be equally impressive! 

    This week we continued to read stories about fish.  Two weeks ago we read Fishy Facts- a book filled with facts about fish in the sea.  Last week we read Enzo the Wonderfish, a fictional story about a little boy who teaches his pet fish some tricks.  This week we read Swimmy, a great story that teaches the Firsties how important it is to work together to solve problems.  

     

We added a little art to our centers this week by recreating a scene from the story:

     I love talking to the Firsties about the lessons we can learn from stories... they always come up with an answer that I would have never thought of, and yet it completely applies to the story!  Sometimes the simplest responses are the best!

     We also had some fun practicing our subtraction facts with a little Subtraction Jenga!  Each piece of the Jenga game has an addition and a subtraction fact written on it.  Whatever piece the student pulls out of the tower must be answered correctly if they want to add it back to the top of the tower.  Otherwise, they must eliminate the piece from the tower.  The kids love this game, and it is very easy to make your own version at home!  It can be used for vocabulary, spelling, sight words, multiplication, you name it! 

We also had fun reviewing our money counting skills with a little Math Money Bingo!  All Catholics love a good Bingo game, right?!?  = )

Sorry Christian- I couldn't help myself!  Hope you get a kick out of that!

We also worked on some patriotic room decor...

     Thank you to everyone for helping us honor Mary this month!  The May Procession was a lovely way to begin a month for Mary.  We love your homegrown roses that you've brought in so far for Mary!  Please continue to do so if your garden is bursting with beautiful blooms! Thank you!  As part of our tribute to Mary this month, we changed our most important rule from What Would Jesus Do? to What Would Mary Do?  We are hoping this inspires acts of kindness among all of our Firsties...

  We are also learning about the many, many saints that the Catholic Church honors.  We decided that we would all love to be saints one day, so, in order to inspire us to act like saints, we made some self portraits of ourselves as saints!  The Firsties enjoyed adding the word "saint" to their name!  The portraits are priceless!  Be sure to look for those when we send them home sometime at the end of the month = ) 

     Finally, these last few weeks of school are still days filled with learning.  We are definitely noticing a change with the students' behavior... it is difficult to hang on to that excellent behavior so late in the year, with summer dreams dancing in my their heads!  It's been a while, but the kids are close to filling the famous Popcorn Jar!  I shouldn't say close... they technically filled it Friday by having wonderful behavior during their Meet the Masters lesson with Mr. Marchis and Mrs. Alikian!  However, now we are seeing WHEN the party will take place!  We are aiming for Tuesday, but that depends on their behavior on Monday... can they do it? Yes they can!!! If Monday goes well, we will be watching Finding Nemo, part entertainment, but also part learning!  It is related to their Science curriculum of observing animals in their natural habitats!  In fact, we will be filling out a "treasure hunt" sheet to find specific undersea animals throughout the movie!  Looking forward to it, so come on Firsties! Work together, and remember, "Just keep swimming!" 

This week we will:

• complete our Meet the Masters lesson on Monday
• attend mass on Tuesday 
• parents will hopefully attend our PTG meeting on Wednesday evening, and
• We will all enjoy a three-day weekend in honor of Memorial Day!  Plan on no-school on Monday the 27th!  

Have a wonderful weekend everyone!

Take care! 

~Ms. Hudson