Brrrrrr

I've been so cold this week, this seems like the only logical title! But, with the cold weather comes so perks! Monday, we had a two hour delay and on Friday the first graders received a special treat for silently reading 20 books, an extra recess outside! Throughout the week we have also continued our Christmas Around the world social studies themes, and creating some fun Christmas projects to go along with it.

On Tuesday we flew to Germany, and while there we learned about their traditional Christmas treat, gingerbread! The students decorated their own gingerbread cookies to take home with them. On Wednesday we flew to Africa, and made some stockings with traditional Kenyan print.

Thursday we took a break on our theme to spread some Christmas Cheer at our local nursing home. The students did a wonderful job at singing Christmas carols, sharing memory verses, and passing out Christmas cards. We even had one student sing a solo! I think we definitely brought some energy to the residents there!

As we're narrowing down to Christmas break, the Kindergarten have been learning their last few alphabet letters during phonics. This week we read words with the letters "x" and "z" in them. First grade are still trucking along with learning grammar rules for long vowels. We've talked about long "u" and silent "gh". We've also are doing a lot of writing, and are implementing writing journals during Bible time.

The Kindergartners have started a big unit in math, money! This week we started talking about pennies and how to count them. First grade is doing a lot of work with hundred numbers, quarters, and centimeters.

Next week is the last week until Christmas break! On Thursday is the Christmas Party, with a book gift exchange. Hope everyone has a fun (and cold) weekend.

All Over the World

 We have continued to travel around the world celebrating Christmas in the classroom! We started our weekly travels to England, where the kids got a kick from the Queen's Guard. While their Christmas is fairly similar to America's, we enjoy learning about Christmas trees, and making a craft.

On Tuesday we took a boat over to Holland to learn about tulips, wooden shoes, and windmills. We also learned about The history of Saint Nick (or Sinterklaas in Dutch) and how he showed Christian love to the less fortunate. We also made Christmas themed windmills.

Wednesday, the first graders traveled to Norway and France to learn about their Christmas. While we had fun making candles and singing carols (a Norway tradition), I think they were most amazed about the Chunnel.

On Thursday we took a trip to Italy to learn about their many cities and structures. We explored Italian cuisine by making Italian Hot Chocolate, which is a thick, rich drink. Many students agreed that it was amazing! Here's the recipe link to try at home!
http://allrecipes.com/recipe/216167/cioccolata-calda-hot-chocolate-italian-style/

On Friday we visited the special country of Israel. The students were amazed that that is where Jesus walked. We then made our own nativity scenes to remember that Jesus was born here.

Phonics in Kindergarten is really moving along. The children are flying through their sight words, and have been enjoying reading many books. In a few weeks we will be done with learning the letters, and start on letter blends!

Reading in First Grade is becoming tricky, but I know they are up for the challenge! We've learned many word families like "igh", "ight", "oat". and "oast". The students also created Christmas poems this week!

Math is also moving along swiftly with addition and calendar work for Kindergarten, and quarters and temperature work for First Graders.

In other news, all the first graders got 100% on their spelling test this Friday! WOOHOO! Keep up the good work!

Coming up...

Next Thursday we are planning on going to Christian Care to spread some Christmas cheer to the residents their. We welcome any parents and siblings to join us!

On December 22nd, we are planning to have our classrooms Christmas Party! I plan on getting with all the volunteers about their duties soon. We also are planning on having a small gift exchange...more details about this coming up!

Two Holidays!

Last week we had a lot of fun celebrating Thanksgiving in school! But, we haven't wasted any time jumping into Christmas this week!

On Tuesday last week, the whole school worked together to prepare a Thanksgiving feast! My class helped prepare the fruit salad by cutting up bananas, pulling grapes off the vine, and dumping canned fruit into the salad. A few students also dressed up as Pilgrims and Indians for the feast. We had a wonderful colony in our school!

Going into the new week, we started our Christmas social studies theme, "Christmas Around the World". In the afternoons, we hop on our "airplane" and fly to a different part of the world to learn how they celebrate Christmas. So far we have traveled to Peru, Mexico, and the Bahamas. We've learned about poinsettias, different types of holiday foods, and Spanish Christmas carols. Another way we celebrated Christmas this week is by setting up our classroom Christmas decorations. The tree is now a popular place to read and do worksheets.

We also has a special treat come in on Tuesday. The fire department put on a program that taught us  about fire safety in the home. It was very entertaining with magic, puppets, jokes, and songs.

The kindergartners have has a busy few weeks in phonics. They learned to read words containing "f", "v", "m", and "o". They also finished a Christmas reader book. It's been so fun to see their progress in fluently sounding out words. In math they have begun the big concept of addition! The class seams to really enjoy it!

First graders have also been busy learning about sneaky "y", who likes to pretend to be a vowel. They have also been reading different stories about Christmas and snow. In math, they are studying the calendar, telling time to the half hour, and just starting to learn some liquid measurements.

Going through the holiday season, I have definitely been thankful for this incredible class this year. They have been such a joy to teach, and I am so blessed to get to know each and every one of them! Thank you for giving me the opportunity to be their teacher!