Fall Fun!

Wow!  October is only a little over half over, and we've already had so much fun!  At the beginning of the month we went to Mulberry Farm and had a lot of fun meeting and petting animals!

We got to try catching chickens.  They can be really tricky!

Most of us were able to catch one at some point.

We pet ducklings!

We fed goats...they knew why we were there!  The moment we stood at the fence they stuck their noses out!

Some of us became good friends!

We had a lot of fun that day!

We learned about sound waves and how they move through things in science!

We also had fun making Crinkle-Leg Spiders!  Ms. Hermus did this craft when SHE was in kindergarten!

We thought our spiders made good hats, too!












Just a few reminders as well:

This Thursday and Friday, October 25 and 26, there is no school.  Have a fun fall break!  The following week, on November 1st (Thursday) we will be having All Saints' Day mass.  You are welcome to attend!  Our school masses are always at 8:15 am.

I also have a Public Service Announcement:

If your student has trouble keeping his or her shoes tied, please go over this at home!  We just don't have time to go over it during the day, and keeping our shoes tied keeps us safer, especially on the playground and up and down stairs!

Have a great day!

Ms. Hermus

Now that we're settling in...

...I want to give a few reminders, and give you a few updates about what we're doing in class!

Please remember that your student needs a signature in his or her planner AND their reading calendar.  Reading minutes should be recorded on the calendar in his or her green folder; not their planner.

Also, it's getting quite chilly out, so please make sure your child has a jacket before they leave.  Also, it may be a good idea to leave an extra sweatshirt in their locker in case the building gets chilly!

I know that currently we have an icky-smelling water situation.  We are getting that fixed later this week.  After the problem is fixed, I am going to ask that water bottles stay home for a while, unless your child has a cough or cold.  They are becoming too distracting, and with the cooler temperatures, they aren't as needed.

While we are still getting used to some routines here, we have been doing A LOT in first grade!  Here's a little taste of what we've been up to:

We traced each other's faces to make our own self-portraits to put in our grapes on the bulletin board!

We learned about hypotheses and we hypothesized about whether different classroom objects would sink or float...the scissors do BOTH!

We studied the properties of solids and liquids and had to decide if Oobleck was a solid or a liquid.

(If your student is asking to make Oobleck, it's corn starch with food coloring.  Then add water until you get to a solid/liquid consistency.)

We practiced counting "hops" in math.

We learned that watercolors won't stick to crayon, and painted our own "Crayon Relief Leaves" using warm colors for the leaves and cool colors for a striking background.

We learned about gases and how they move.  We observed how different tools can make different-sized bubbles!

...And of course, we've had a chance to be silly!!!










If you'd like to see more pictures, click on the link in the left column to see more fun and learning from this year!

Ms. Hermus

Reading Calendars and Planners

Hello!  We now have a couple of days in, and we're getting settled in.  I just want to take a minute and go over how the planners and reading calendars work.

Your student's planner needs to be signed each night.  Whether a parent, babysitter, or older sibling (who may be in charge for the evening) signs the planner is all right.  The signature means that you're aware of your student's homework for the evening.

The reading calendar is to keep track of your student's reading.  Each night, a parent, babysitter, etc, needs to write in the day how many minutes your student read, and initial the box.  I check both the planner and the reading calendar the next day.  

We talked today in class about how it's the students' responsibility to ask to have their planner signed and calendar initialed.  I just ask that you help them to remember!  In class I leave them responsible for packing their backpacks, but I also check their backpacks at the end of the day in order to make sure they have everything.  This is a GREAT way to help your student build responsibility, while saving them the grief of forgetting things.  They will build the good habits they need so that by the end of the year, they will be taking care of their own things very well.  

If the writing on your student's calendar is confusing, it's just an example (ex:) of what the box should look like.  Please make sure to initial and write the amount of minutes read.  

Please email me if you have any questions!

Ms. Hermus

Welcome to First Grade!

Welcome to the 2012-2013 school year! I am very excited to come back, and I'm sure the students are excited for the school year to start as well (even if they don't show it)!

For those of you who do not know me, I want to give you an introduction to myself. I am originally from the Fox Cities, and have lived in Appleton for just about my entire life. I grew up in Catholic schools, starting with pre-school at St. Bernadette, moving on to middle school at St. Joe's, heading to Xavier for high school, and finally going to college at St. Norbert in De Pere for Elementary Education, Spanish, and Music.

This will be my third year teaching first grade at St. Edward. Before that I taught multi-grades and multi-classes at St. Edward and Spanish to the 6th, 7th, and 8th grades at St. Mary in Greenville. Preceding that I ran the aftercare program at St. Bernadette.

Outside of school, I enjoy knitting, sewing (my new hobby), reading, being creative, and being active. I belong to St. Bernadette Parish in Appleton, and direct the Renewed Spirits choir there, as well as accompany some of the masses.

If you explore this blog a big further, you will notice links to Ms. Hermus's Sqworl and to Pearson Successnet. Let me explain those a bit further.

A "sqworl" is like an online favorites list. You can make folders in which to put links to websites that you like. The advantages include the fact that you can access this from any computer, so you can find your favorites anywhere, and, as a teacher, it's very handy if I want all the students to be able to access the same site, because instead of putting it on each favorites section of each computer, I just put it on once, and I'm done!

One disadvantage is the url. The url you get with your sqworl is incredibly difficult to remember. I myself always to go this blog first, then click the tab. This way is much easier!

Included in my sqworl are enrichment games for math and reading, as well as many websites that I use to help in my lesson planning. If you notice, there are many sites named for countries, and these are sites that I use to teach about many different countries in social studies class.

Pearson is the company through which we get our reading series. The students each have a login and will nearly daily go on the computers in the classroom to do some of their reading work right on the company's website. Some of the books they will be reading in class will also be on there, as well as some other activities. More information will be coming home in the first few weeks of school about how to use this, including your student's login and password.

If you need to get a hold of me, you may email me at ehermus@stedwardk5.org. You may also call the school and ask for me, but emailing is best. I do my best to reply promptly to emails.

I look forward to working with you, and especially your students, this year!

Ms. Hermus

The Final Stretch...

It's that time of the year!  The time of the year when we are all getting antsy, we are wrapping things up, making sure we have final assessments done, that we have finished all of our projects, and that we have no loose ends to be left.  It's a very bittersweet time of year:  we're excited for three months off, but we're sad to be leaving each other.  I have enjoyed having each of your students this year, and am very glad that I get the chance to have them again next year in social studies!

I have a few housekeeping items for the upcoming week:

- Blue folders are going home today for the FINAL TIME.  They do not need to come back signed.  I will have a few items that will be going home next week, but those will go home in the green folder.

- Green folder still need to be coming back to school each day, signed.  Your student's reading calendar is due on Thursday, May 31st.  Friday can be a hectic day, and there's a good chance things won't be able to be turned in that day.  I do expect everyone to continue to read each night up until that Thursday, though.  I sincerely hope that his has become a habit that will continue through the summer.  It's such a good habit to have!

- If anyone has paper bags they could donate, that would be great.  Living alone, I don't accumulate many paper grocery bags, but they are very handy to send home with the students the last week of school.  I will most likely be sending extra stuff home each day next week so as not to overburden them on Thursday.  Having paper bags on hand will be great for the big items.

- Tuesday afternoon is Field Day.  Please send your child with a water bottle, either empty or one that we can fill.  It will be a hot afternoon!  Sunscreen would also be beneficial.

-Wednesday is our field trip day, unless we are rained out.  We are going to the NEW Zoo!  Your child will need a disposable lunch, as we are not going to carry around containers and lunch boxes all afternoon, and we don't want to lose things.  Please pack a healthy lunch that is easy for travel, such as a sandwich.  Forks and spoons are fine, as long as they are disposable.  It may be easier to stick with finger food, though.

Thank you, and enjoy your Memorial Day Weekend!

Ms. Hermus

Weekly Upd ate

This week in math we started our unit on shapes, which is an introduction to geometry.  Today we talked about symmetry, and the students are doing a wonderful job with it!  We are working hard to finish everything we need to accomplish in math this year.  Soon we will be working on adding and subtracting 2-digit numbers!

In reading this week we focused on the long i sound using ie and igh.  They did a wonderful job using those two chunks to make words!  We also practiced with kn and wr, which are two sounds that can be difficult to spell, since we don't hear the k or the w.

This week we ended our last country in Social Studies.  South Africa is our last country, and we started "practice prezis."  The students will be making their own prezis to review the countries we learned about this year, but since most of us are new to the program, we're doing a "practice prezi" first to get comfortable with the software.  I know that some students have been using the software at home, and Jack even taught me how to find pictures on the program itself!  If you are interested, Prezi.com is a website that offers the opportunity to make presentations.  It is something like powerpoint, but with about 10 cups of coffee.  It's very easy to pull in pictures and video clips to make your presentations more interesting.  If you got to prezi.com, you can sign up for a limited, but free, membership, or you can pay a bit per month for more space.

We have been talking about a few miracles in religion, and we are currently finishing a project about the 10 lepers.  It is a wonderful story that not only teaches us about Jesus' power and mercy, but also the importance of giving thanks!

In science class we have been talking about how we change and grow.  While we were looking at our baby pictures, we noticed that we're not only bigger, but some of us have hair colors that changed, or our faces used to be more round, among other things.  We also talked about what we couldn't do then that we can do now, such as walk and talk, but also ride a bike, swim, and play basketball.  We're always learning and growing!

There will be no blue folder coming home this week.  Look for a very full blue folder next Friday!

Thank you, and enjoy the beautiful weekend!

Ms. Hermus

Announcing: That Goat Has GOT to Go!

On Monday, April 23 at 2:00 pm, the first grade reading class will be performing "That Goat Has GOT to Go" in a readers' theatre style.  Parents are invited to come and see this once-in-a-lifetime show!  It will be performed in the first grade classroom.

Thank you,
Ms. Hermus

It's Great to be Back!

We are so excited to be back at school after Easter Break!  This week in reading we aren't doing our normal routine.  Instead, we are practicing a play!  We are very excited.  We want to tell you what it's about but SHHHHHHH!  It's a secret!  We're not quite sure when we will be performing it.  It will most likely be not next week, but early the following week.  We will let you know in hopes that you can come and see us!

We were practicing money before break, and now we are learning about time.  So far we can tell what the hour and the half hour are.  We're still learning and need a little more practice.  If you can practice with us at home, we'd really like it.

Our current country in Social Studies is Mexico.  Yesterday we learned how to dance the cha-cha, and today we got to try some arroz con leche.  Some of us liked it, and some didn't.  The recipe is on the back of our Mexico books that will be coming home soon.  Tomorrow we hope to try making quesedillas!

Today in religion we read the story of Jesus' First Miracle!  This was at the Wedding at Cana.  Jesus turned the water into wine.  We are making a craft so we can pretend to do the same.

In science we are learning about one of Ms. Hermus's favorite science topics:  the sun, the moon, and stars!  We learned about constellations today, and don't think they make very good pictures.  They are kind of confusing.  We will be making our own next week.  Hopefully we'll understand them better then.

On Tuesday we finally broke our cascarones!  We filled them with bird seed before Easter Break.  We took them outside on Tuesday and broke them over each others' heads.  We know that we shouldn't usually break eggs over each others' heads.  This was a special case.

We have a request as well.  Today we learned about Orion's Belt.  We would love the chance to see it this weekend!  We know that the stars don't come out until after we're in bed on school nights, so we thought this weekend would be a great chance to see it for ourselves!

The Easter Bunny brought us scented bubbles!  We got to take them outside on Wednesday  and try them.

March 22nd Update

This is the first week that the ENTIRE CLASS is helping me write this blog!  Here's what we have to say:

This week in literacy we practiced contractions using the word "not."  For example, do + not = don't.  This week we also read our first play and are writing our own plays!  We're excited to read more plays after Easter.

In math, we are learning about money!  Money is fun.  So far we have practiced counting quarters, dimes, nickels, and pennies.  Next week we are going to practice using our money skills in a "store" in our classroom!

We just finished learning about Ireland in Social Studies.  Mrs. Klitzke came in and talked to us about her home country!  She brought us Irish Brown Soda Bread.  It was so yummy!  Here is the recipe she sent me:

Irish Soda Bread

1 cup whole wheat flour

½ cup self raising flour (any white flour will do) plus extra for rolling out dough

1 level teaspoon baking soda

½ stick butter

½ cup sugar

1 egg (beaten)

¼ cup of  milk (warmed up cream will yield softer bread )

Mix flour & baking soda.

Add in sugar & mix

Mix in butter to breadcrumb consistency

Mix in beaten egg and add enough milk (or cream) to make soft doughy consistency

Roll out to ¼ inch height (approx) cut out scones or use cookie cutter to cut out

Bake at 425 for approx 10 mins – just a very light golden brown.

This yields approx 15 cookie size “scones":

We also used some new skills on the website prezi.com to create a presentation about Ireland.  I already put up the url, but here it is again as a link:  Ireland Prezi  We can finally find it if we search!  We found that it just took a few days, and some patience.

Speaking of patience, we are finishing up our unit in religion class on the Fruit of the Spirit!  We are completing this unit by making collages of all the fruits.  We are finding pictures in magazines that show examples of the different fruits.

AND speaking of fruits, in Spanish we are working with food words!  We have been playing "vaya a la pesca" (Go Fish) and our favorite game, matamoscas (Kill Flies - the Flyswatter game).  Soon we will be putting together our own menus using the words we have learned.

Just like every spring in Wisconsin, the weather has been CRAZY!  It is the perfect time to study weather in science class!  We enjoyed making kites to observe the wind, and learning about the water cycle.  We also made a cloud in a jar!

We loved flying our kites!

It was a beautiful afternoon to be outside!

Ireland Prezi!

Our class has been using a new website called prezi.com.  They are really excited!  We can use it to make presentations.  We made one together in social studies about Ireland.  Soon I'd like us all to be able to use the program.  It's amazing how many steps they can remember to help me make it!  Here is a link to the one we made about Ireland:

http://prezi.com/zhs_p_gzprtj/ireland/

I'm sorry if you have problems connecting to it.  I'm having trouble finding it while searching, but I'm working on that right now.  The kids are so excited for all of you to see it, though, so I wanted to get it out here in case it worked!

I apologize for the lack of blue folders last Friday.  I had all the work corrected, but I ran out of time to get the work in the folders.  That work will go home this Friday with this week's work. 

This week we are going out of our reading books and doing a short unit on Dr. Seuss!  Dr. Seuss's birthday is Friday, March 2nd.  This year he would be 108 years old!  We started off the week by reading Fox in Socks and finding rhyming words.  We made lists of rhyming words and are using those to write poems.  Another book we've read is Hooray for Diffendoofer Day!  This book was started by Dr. Seuss, then finished by Jack Prelutsky and Lane Smith after he passed away.  The pictures are wonderful mixes of Dr. Seuss's own illustrations and Lane Smith's wonderful paintings.  In the same style, we are cutting out pictures from magazines and drawing pictures around them.  They look wonderful!

We are running low on dry erase markers.  The ones I use on the board last me about half a year, since I use many different colors on the board.  The students each have one in their desks, though, for use each day, and those run dry faster.  We could use about twelve more dry erase markers to get us through the year.  If anyone can do that, please let me know. 

Happy Catholic Schools Week!

Jack, McKenna, and Tayten work hard on a Birthday Box

Happy Catholic Schools Week everyone!  It has been a week packed full of activity!  On Monday we had Hawaiian Day and did the Leukemia Hop and made Birthday Boxes.

Tayten in Action!

On Tuesday we went roller skating at Skaters' Edge.  We weren't all sure of our skating skills, but we did a great job!

Reid dressed Michael as a snowman!

On Wednesday we dressed as some of our favorite book characters, played Minute to Win It, and had a read-in!

A wonderfully behaved first grade class!

On Thursday we dressed in our St. Edward clothing to show our school spirit!

A very SILLY first grade class!

Upcoming Events Update

I recently realized that I haven't updated the "Upcoming Events" part of the page recently.  I have now fixed that.  It is up-to-date!

Welcome Back!

We have started a new calendar year, and we've already been having a lot of fun being back at school!


Instead of our usual literacy work, we have been doing a unit about Jan Brett.  We have used her books The Hat and The Mitten to compare and contrast using a Venn Diagram, and we have made text to text connections between her books, such a the fact that they usually have drawings in the side panels that hint to what is going to happen, there are often animals, and many take place during the winter.  We also wrote a book ourselves called The Pants, which we wrote in a Jan Brett-style.  We modeled it after The Mitten and will soon have it displayed in the hallway.  Each student took a page and illustrated it, using strategies such as the side panels to tell not only what is going on in the story now, but what is to come.

While watching an interview with Jan Brett we got the idea to draw pictures for her and send them to her.  We are very excited to see if she writes back!

Jack and Michael work hard on their pictures for Jan Brett.

We continue with our subtraction work in math.  We learned that we can use a number line to add as well as subtract.  We just have to count the other way!

Since we returned to school we have been talking about Scandinavia in social studies.  We have learned that Denmark, Sweden, and Norway are the three main countries in Scandinavia, and that although they have different languages, they are very similar!  Next week we will learn a little about the Vikings.

First and Second Grade playing the Danish game "Whales" in Social Studies.

We have started a unit on the Fruits of the Spirit in religion class.  We had a lot of fun using Kool-Aid to paint scratch and sniff pictures!  We are talking about "love" right now, and how we know that others love us and how we show our love for others.

We have been learning about sound in science class.  We had fun experimenting with different types of materials to see how well sound could pass through them.  We also started talking about shadows, and enjoyed the last day of "spring" weather outside finding shadows on the playground!

We are learning about clothing in Spanish.  Today I told the students to put certain items of clothing on paper dolls, and they did a wonderful job!

Thank you!

Thank you Woelfel Family for taking Tailey the frog home over Christmas Break!

Last Week's Update

What a crazy time of year!  Things are going by very quickly now that we are heading toward Christmas and Christmas break!

Last week the entire K-5 practiced together for the Christmas program for the first time.  It is wonderful!  It is very touching and funny at the same time.

Last week we spent time writing Christmas descriptions, reading, and working on editing in Literacy.  I saw some great writing, and I had the chance to read one-on-one with each student!  This week we are focusing on giving things to others, instead of receiving gifts, so we are writing about three things we want to GIVE people and why.


We have been working on adding three numbers together in math!  This means we're doing problems such as 6+2+4=12.  First, we look to see if there are two numbers that add up to make 10.  If there aren't, then we look for a double, like 4+4.  If not, then we just chose two numbers to add together first, then add the third number to that to find our answer!  We've been enjoying this very much!

We are doing a mix of Germany and Christmas traditions in Social Studies right now.  We have been talking about Christmas trees, and Mrs. Smith brought in a Stollen for us to try!  It is somewhat like cake, but it is different than what we're used to.  Some of us really liked it, and some of us didn't.  We are currently doing a sheet where we are looking for different facts about Christmas trees on a few websites that I found.  What is great is that through my sqworl (see the link at the top of the page) I could set aside websites that I had checked so I knew they would be safe, and the kids could easily go on that site and use them!

This week in religion we are reading the book "Mary's First Christmas."  It's a wonderful book I found at a used book sale earlier this year.  It's the story for Christmas from Mary's perspective.  What is neat is that Mary is telling the story to Jesus when he's a little boy, so it gives us a chance to see what Jesus' life may have been like when he was little!

We just finished our chapter in science about types of matter.  When Christmas Break is over we will be working on sound.  I have a few science experiments set aside to do, including listening to spoons!

I am looking for a home for Tailey for Christmas break.  He doesn't need much.  Just about 4 pellets a day.  Please let me know if you can take him!

No Blue Folder

Hello,

As you probably heard from your students, I was gone for a day and a half this week.  I tried to get caught up today, but just didn't have the time to put the blue folders together.  I apologize for this, and will send them home on Monday so they are not overloaded next time they go home. 

Thank you,

Ms. Hermus

Weekly Update!

In literacy we have been focusing on the long o and long u sounds, as well as different digraphs (ch, sh, wh,etc).  We have also touched on contractions, and will continue to do so.  Our descriptions of our classmates are just about finished, and those who have finished are going on to describe something about Christmas!  I'm very excited to read these!

We finished our chapter on subtraction in math, and so we are back to addition.  This time, though, we are going into higher numbers.  We concentrated on the sums of 10 for a few days so we could use those to help us with 11s and 9s.  If we know that 5+5=10, then we can use that to tell us that 5+6=11 and 5+4=9!

We have been learning about Germany in Social Studies.  This week we are making small window boxes.  Many Germans have window boxes in their windows because their yards are either too small or they do not have one in which to garden.  We are using milk cartons and popsicle sticks to make the outside, and soon we will make flowers to put inside!

This month in religion we are talking about Advent, Christmas, and Angels.  Yesterday we watched a video about St. Nicholas.  Did you know that he was originally from Greece?  His parents were very generous people and he learned his generosity from them!

We have been talking about water and different types of matter in science.  We talked about water in all three states, and we also did an observation about sinking and floating.  Our favorite activity was making bubbles!

During Advent, one of our bulletin boards is an Advent Calendar.  Each day we put up a new Christmas symbol and learn the Spanish word.  Toward the end of the month, we will play Advent Bingo with these words!


It is wonderful that the students are coming with their snow pants and boots already.  We do not have snow on the ground, but it is getting cold and those extra layers help keep them warm at recess!  As a reminder, students who take the bus should wear their snow clothes to and from school.  It is easier for those who ride in cars as well, since it's less to carry.

I hope you are having a blessed Advent season!

Just a note...

There will be NO blue folders going home this week with student work.  I will send them home next Friday, with next week's work.

I have added a Book Recommendations page to the site.  You can find it on the left panel.  These are books that I've read that have helped me work with the students in my classroom not academically, but as individual people.  I wanted to share them with you!

Ms. Hermus

Weekly Update November 18th

We have had another action-packed week in First Grade!!!  We continue to work on our long vowel sounds in reading, and this week we focused on the long i sound using the "sneaky e" that we learned last week!  Along with the long i, we worked on ch and wh words.  We also wrote descriptive paragraphs.  We each wrote about one other friend in the classroom, first making a web of information, then writing a paragraph with the information!

We have been working on subtraction in math and expanded our knowledge of "related facts."  Now we not only know that 2+3=5 and 3+2=5, but 5-3=2, and 5-2=3!  We will soon be putting this together to learn about entire fact families!  We are also practicing deciding whether a problem requires adding or subtracting!

We just finished our unit on Australia, and our books will come home tonight.  We played a game called Down, Down, Down, in which we have to try to catch a ball, and if we don't catch it, we have to put a different body part on the ground until we are on our bottoms.  We also made bullroarers, which are an Australian instrument (although they aren't made with spoons in real life) and we tried ANZAC cookies.

Here we are playing "Sheep Dog Trials."  The balloons were sheep, and we had to "herd" them into their "pens" on the other side and back to their teammates.  They could only use their cardboard paddle to move the ballroom!  They did a great job!

In religion we have been talking about the new mass parts, and we have been reading a few books.  One was "If I Only Had a Green Nose".  This one is about being happy with yourself, without trying to fit in to the newest fad.  God made us the way we are because that's how he WANTED us.  We shouldn't try to change how we look just because others are doing so.

We took our animal test in science, and we have been studying habitats.  We are having a great time making dioramas of habitats!  They are looking fantastic, and I am very excited to display them! 

Ms. Hermus