Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas from our class 
to you and your family!!!
If the music doesn't play,click the speaker icon in the top left corner

Would you rather be...

We had a lot of fun and great discussion on if we'd rather be one of Santa's reindeer or one of his elves. 
Check out our elves and some of the great opinion writing that we did. 

Which would you rather be? We'd love to hear back from you!!

We have an elf!

We have had an unusual visitor in our class for the past few day, an elf named, Sonic. Each day, our elf finds a new place in our classroom to hide. Today he left us an interesting message as you can see in the picture. We decided that he was trying to tell us, "I love notes" (post-it notes that is) We talked about the difference between writing a letter to someone and just jotting them a note. We also figured that Sonic wanted us to write to him as there were 19 post-its on the board and there are 19 of us in the room so we all wrote him a note and placed them under the tree that Sonic brought us earlier in the week. Ask your child about where he put the tree. We think our elf is a good elf, however, everytime he does something nice for us, there is always another side to it. For example, he left us the notes which we thought was very nice, however, he put them all over the SMARTboard which meant that we couldn't use it right away this morning. Hmmm... what do you think? Nice elf? or Naughty elf?

Feliz Navidad

As part of our curriculum, we learn about holidays around the world. We learn about Kwanzaa, Hanukkah, La Posada, and Christmas. As part of our study of La Posada, Senora Crown helped us learn how to sing Feliz Navidad. Enjoy!

Reindeer Applications

Here are our applications to be one of Santa's reindeer. If you click on the "i" under the images, you will also be able to see what each child wrote. Enjoy! 

Tech the Halls

What a great week! There's nothing better than the excitement of fifteen 6 and 7 year old the week before Christmas! The energy level and silliness is at an all time max. 

Today we let off a little of that silliness with a fun Christmas craft. As you can see from the pics, there was a lot of fun being had with "trying on" Santa's beard and mustache. As part of our Tech the Halls project, we talked about making lists and then wrote our Christmas list on our, "All iWant for Christmas" iPads. Our techy Santas turned out cute and the kids thought there were quite funny.

We hope that you will be able to make it to our Holiday sing-a-long this coming Thursday.There are 2 performances scheduled- 9:00 and 1:15. 
If you plan to take your child home after the afternoon performance please stop by our room to sign them out and be sure to take a look at all of our writing in the hall.

Without going too far, as I know our kiddos are reading the blog too, may I just say, please give your kiddos an extra big hug this weekend. We are all sooooo blessed to have our precious little ones in our lives!

Polar Express Day

What a fun day! We enjoyed various Polar Express Activities today as we travelled from classroom to classroom. In our room Mrs. Luedke and I taught the kiddos how to play a game called, Roll-a-train. We also treated the kids to hot chocolate! Some of the other activities included: hearing the original Polar Express story by Chris Van Allsburgh, playing "The conductor says", and making a ticket to ride the Polar Express tomorrow. Kiddos also sang Christmas carols, made an ornament and a gift bag during some of their rotations.

Christmas Festivities

Hello all,
Just a few odds ‘n ends for you as our Christmas festivities draw near. Your child will also be bringing this information home in their D.O.G. binder on Monday evening as many of you stated that paper copies of our newsletters, etc are beneficial.


First, a reminder that our Winter Around the World concert is THIS Thursday. There will be a rehearsal from 9:00-10:15 on Thursday and the official program will begin at 1:15. You are welcome to attend either performance.


Next, if you would be able to supply an ingredient for our classroom holiday party treat, it would be greatly appreciated. We are in need of:

* Juice boxes

* Vegetable

* Fruit

* 1 box of sugar cones 

* 1 tub of green frosting

* 1 bag of gum drops

* 1 package of M&M’s (mini or regular)

* 1 bag of Skittles

* Other candies that could be used for tree decorations

Third,as an entire first grade, we will be enjoying a Poar Express Day. We will be rotating to each teacher's room where we will enojoy a learning activity centered around the story. On Thursday, as part of our party, we will watch the movie together. If your child would like to, they are welcome to wear their pagamas to school. More info to come soon.

Last, don’t forget about our holiday book exchange. Students should bring a wrapped, $4.00 or less book to school for their gift no later than next Monday, 12/20. For those that ordered their books from the book order, I will send them home as soon as they arrive so you can wrap them and attach your gift tag.

If you have any questions, about any of the above information, please don’t hesitate to call, jot a note, or send an email.

Thank you and Merry Christmas!

Snowy Day Fun

Looking for something fun for the kids to do this afternoon while they are cooped up in the house from the blizzard?? If so, try this site out. You can decorate a gingerbread man. The address is: http://sprintsweets.com/
Enjoy!

Rudolph stories

Attached below you will find our Rudolph projects. Unfortunately the print is too small to read on a picture so we hope that you will find the time to swing by our hallway sometime between now and the end of December to enjoy our creations first hand. The kids are very excited to share with you!
Enjoy!!

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Parents, here is a site that you will defiinitely want to check out for your children. This is one you will want to check out alone before going on with your child.  http://www.portablenorthpole.tv/home

Holiday math and more...

We had a lot of fun creating this project yesterday. Students had to arrange the green tree pieces from smallest to largest and then decorate their tree however they wished with ornaments, lights, presents, etc. Today we used our project during part of our math time to graph the items on our trees.

In social studies, we have started learning about Christmas around the world. Today we talked about Christmas and some of the traditions associated with it. We even decorated a tree online. You can do it yourself at home if you follow the link below.

http://www.funranch.com/games/tree/

We will be learning about Hanukkah tomorrow and talking about the various customs associated with that holiday. Over the next couple of weeks we will also be discussing Kwanza and Los Pasodos.