We started our first Author study in First Grade this week focusing the incredible talents of Faith Ringgold. Author Studies are a powerful teaching tool. The goal is to make a connection between the author’s life and the stories he/she have written. This shows children that authors are real people, develops motivation to seek out other work by the same author and hopefully inspires children to write. The students learned about Faith Ringgold’s life and saw many examples of her art. One of Mrs. Ringgold’s inspirations was jazz music. The students listened to Duke Ellington while working and determined they liked jazz music too! Faith Ringgold is known for her amazing story quilts. One such quilt is Tar Beach which is also a Caldecott Medal winning children’s book. Tar Beach was inspired by a childhood memory of Mrs. Ringgold’s. We read the book together and each student chose a memory to create his/her own story quilt. The Madeleine School’s science teacher, Ms. Yuhas visited the classroom to share another one of her talents with the First Graders. She is an amazing quilter! We were able to see many quilts Ms. Yuhas made as well as hear the stories behind the quilts
Every morning in the First Grade classroom, the students practice their handwriting for 15 minutes. Research suggests that proficient writing skills improves letter recognition and supports reading development. Each day we work on posture and pencil grip to create good writing habits that will support legible writing. Writing legibly is one of the keys to academic success and is becoming second nature to these students!
In Religion this week, the First Graders learned that the sacrament of Baptism is a welcoming into the Catholic Church. The water of baptism symbolizes new life and we are reminded of our baptism every time we make the sign of the cross with holy water. The students learned to recognize God’s holy presence in our lives as grace.
Next week is Catholic Schools Week with the theme “Faith, Academics, Service”. The Madeleine will be focusing on Saint Mary Magdalene. We will have many Friendship Family activities this coming week as we celebrate our patron saint including sitting with our family groups during Thursdays All School Mass.
Coming up:
January30th – February 3rd – Catholic Schools Week
Thursday – All School Mass and Hamburger Hot Lunch
Friday – No School Inservice
Sunday – School Mass 9:00am
