Just a reminder that our class party is Monday, December 19.  Please be sure to have your son bring in a gift for a boy and your daughter bring in a gift for a girl.  I sent a note home in reading folders last week if you were signed up to bring something. 

Wednesday will be a pajama day.  If your child would like to wear his/her pajamas to school, they may.  We will be having a sing-a-long in the morning and will curl up for a good Christmas movie in the afternoon.  Our Holiday vacation starts December 23 and goes until January 2.  We will see you all back to school on Tuesday, January 3.  I wish all you and your families a very Merry Christmas and a Wonderful New Year!



Gingerbread Houses

Thursday we made Gingerbread houses and was it ever fun!!  The class was excited from the moment they walked in the door!  There was definitely a sugar buzz all day long!  It definitely couldn't have happened without the help of our volunteers.  Thanks so much for taking time to help us!!  Here's a peek at what we did:

                            

Letters for Christmas

What a busy week!!  We started out on Monday with Mrs. Hill helping us with our project for the hallway.  It looks great.  Each student designed his/her own hat and gloves and then made their face to put with it.  We wrote letters to either Santa, Mom and Dad, or Grandma and Grandpa and glued them to the front.  This is how they turned out:

The Christmas lights add just the right touch!!



Dear Mom, Drake would like Legos



Dear Santa, Can you bring me a fake car?  Love Regan



Thanks Mrs. Hill for helping us create these!!!



Meet Violet

  

This week was pretty exciting!!  We have a new classroom visitor!  Her name is Violet.  We adopted a Scout Elf from the North Pole!  We took a class vote and named her Violet.  She flies to the North Pole every night and reports to Santa on our GOOD and BAD behavior.  Every morning she hides in a new place in our classroom.  One night she messed up our Word Wall.  She turned the words upside down and moved the letters all out of order!  She must be one of those elves who likes to play tricks.  I wonder where she will hide this week and if she will do any other naughty things herself.  Some of us wrote letters to Santa to have Violet deliver right to the big guy himself!  We certainly are having a lot of fun with our new elf friend!

                        Paige and Violet                                                             Michael and Violet

Elizabeth and Violet

This week we will begin our Christmas projects!!  I'm super excited but it becomes quite a busy time!  I need each child to bring in an empty toilet paper roll for one of our projects.  If you get a chance to read this before Monday, I'd love them on Monday....if not, I would like them as soon as you can get one!!  Thank you!

Be sure to look at the newsletter for information regarding the Christmas Program and the Christmas Party.  The Program is Monday, December 12th at 7:00 p.m.  Please have your child here no later than 6:45.  Our classroom party will be on Monday, December 19th in the afternoon.  Please be sure to have your gift for the exchange here on or before this day!

New Classroom Happenings!!

I hope that you all had a great Thanksgiving weekend!  I know that I did.  I love spending the time with family and doing some shopping and holiday decorating.  It also gives me some time to catch up a little at school where I have fallen behind.  I have made some big changes in our classroom!!  The class is going to be very surprised when they walk into the door in the morning.  They are going to wonder if they are in the right classroom!! Here are some pictures of the updates that I made!!  

                                                                                                                                        



This is the new writing center.  These tables are nice and low to the ground so the students should love sitting down by them to do some writing!



This is the new Buddy Reading Station.  Pairs of students can choose to read on either side of the book case. 





This is the new place to sign out for the bathroom.







This is our Word Study Area.  The students will love that they won't have to take the activities back to their seats!!



I put up the Chirstmas tree in the Gazebo.  Here's what the Gazebo looks like all lit up!  Do you think they will like it??  I'm almost positive they will!



I apologize for not sending home our Thanksgiving art projects, but I just couldn't let them go!!  I didn't want to see an empty hallway!!  We had a lot of fun with Ms. Grogan making our holiday turkeys.   Here's how they turned out:

Last week we discussed what it was like to be a pilgrim boy and a pilgrim girl.  We made a Venn diagram comparing what it was like then to what it is like now.  Our list didn't even fit into our diagram.  I had to stop the class because we ran out of room!!! They did an amazing job comparing themselves to pilgrim boys and girls.  We then made pilgrim boys and girls and wrote what we would do if we would have been a pilgrim.  Here's how they turned out:

The halls are once again empty.  However, we will be writing letters to Santa that we will display in the hall and we will be making Christmas carolers out of empty toilet paper rolls (which each child will need to supply! - more information to follow).  I can't wait to get started on all of our projects!!  If there is anyone who would like to help, please let me know.  I would still like to have at least 2 more people to help with the Gingerbread houses on December 9.  Let me know!!

Reading Celebration

We were able to celebrate learning all our Beanie Baby strategies on Friday with Mrs. Brinks' class.  They came in and we read the book Pumpkin Pumpkin by Jeanne Titherington, chorally (all together as a class).  During the story we stopped and explained the different strategies we used to figure out the tricky words on the page.  We got to be the teachers for a change!  After they left, we got to read to beanie babies.  We also got to take a book home to keep called My Favorite Book.  What an exciting reading celebration!

These ladies introduced Tryin' Lion.  ALWAYS be brave and NEVER give up when you are figuring out tricky words.

This group taught Chunky Monkey.  When you come to a word you don't know, break it up into chunks.  For example in our book we came to the word spr-out, sprout!

This group introduced Strechy Snake.  When you come to a word you don't know stretch out the word and then blend it together.  For example:  p-l-a-n-t-e-d, planted.

This group taught us Lips the Fish.  This beanie means get your lips ready to read.  For example when you come to a tricky word always say the first sound.

Helpful Kangaroo was taught by this group.  When you come to a tricky word and you have used all of your strategies and you still can't figure it out, mark your page with a sticky note and ask someone else for help.

This beanie baby strategy is Eagle Eye.  This means when you come to a word you don't know, look at the picture for clues.

Last, but certainly not least, don't get the first grade forgetfuls, use Wise Old Owl and when you come to a tricky word and think you have it figured out ask yourself Does it look right?, Sound right?, and Does it make sense?

I was so VERY proud of them and all the hard work that they did to present these Beanie's to the kindergarten class.  No one was too shy or embarrassed.  I can't wait until our next reading celebration!!

 

Parent Teacher Conferences

It was so nice to see you at conferences!!  I'm glad that I got to meet with you and talk about your child with you.  I really enjoy having them in my class this year!