Saturday, December 19, 2015

Christmas Happenings

What a busy week at school!  We had something special going on every day this week!  The kids were real troopers though... Mrs. Ferrell also had some important assessments to complete with them, and they held it together through all of the excitement to get them completed!

We celebrated one birthday and two half birthdays this week (Bailey, Talon and Page).  The kids always love a special treat at snack time, and the amount of sugar this week was plentiful!

We went to the gym on Wednesday for All-School Christmas caroling time, which is always a Hamilton El favorite as well.

On Tuesday afternoon, the kids were invited to the gym for Secret Santa workshop.  Each child made two Christmas crafts to give.  Thank you to our wonderful PTO for sponsoring this event.  Each child was asked to bring in $2.00 to cover the cost of making the crafts, but every child in the school was able to participate regardless.  The photos do not show any completed gifts just in case any of the children are saving their items to give on Christmas morning!










On Wednesday afternoon, Bailey's mom was our WEB mom.  She brought in very special gifts for each child!  If you did not see the creative (and cute) sleighs because pieces were eaten, check out these photos!  Thank you to Bailey's mom for the adorable treats!

Bailey and his Mom pass out the treats


Santa driving the candy sleigh

Side view

Thank you for the special treats!

Finally it was Friday!  We had a wonderfully normal morning, and the fun began after lunch!  We began our afternoon with the gift exchange between the children.  We played 'musical presents' to determine who got to open each gift.  The children were so very excited to receive a new book from a classmate.  There were many 'thank you' and 'you're welcome' comments heard!  

They show off their new books!

We made a cute craft as well.  The kids made a paper bag Santa Claus puppet.  They have really enjoyed all of the art projects we made this month.

Purple Group

Green Group

Red Group

Blue Group

After our craft, we had MORE treats (plus it was popcorn day in the morning)!  Thank you to Mrs. Volkers for providing the cake pops, Mrs. Plockmeyer for the juice boxes, and Mrs. Nykamp for the Christmas fruit snacks.

Keira, Reece and Emily

We ended our afternoon with a gift from Mrs. Ferrell.  Each child received a spiral notebook, pack of crayons and a pack of markers.  I only wish we had more time at the end of our day for them to use them.  They were very excited to draw in their notebooks with their brand new drawing utensils.  





And... our blog would not be complete without "THE FUNNY ONE".  My promise that we can take one funny one is the only way I can get them to smile nicely first!  Have a wonderful break from school!  Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to all!







Wednesday, December 16, 2015

Bailey


This is Bailey!  He is our student of the week.  Bailey's favorite color is GREEN.  He would love to visit Disney World someday.  He loves to watch Ninjago on television.  When he grows up, he would like to be a police officer.  Bailey has a pet dog named Toby.  His favorite book is "Transformers".  Soccer is Bailey's favorite sport. He LOVES to eat pizza.  Bailey is special because he is so nice to others, but the VERY BEST THING about him is that he likes to help people!

Wednesday, December 9, 2015

Sierra



This is Sierra!  She is our Student of the Week.  Sierra loves to eat salad!  Her favorite sport is soccer.  She loves to read the book, "The Day the Crayons Quit!"  Sierra has a guppy fish family for her pets.  She likes to watch Odd Squad on television.  When she grows up, Sierra would love to be an artist.  If she could travel anyplace, Sierra would like to visit New York City someday.  Her favorite color is PINK!  Sierra is special because she is silly and playful, but the VERY BEST THING about her is that she is kind and gentle!

Sunday, December 6, 2015

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas!

Happy holidays!  Can you believe how quickly this school year is flying by?  It's already December, and we only have two more weeks of school before the holiday break!  Because we only have three weeks of school in December, we spent some time each day last week working on making our classroom look festive!  The kids LOVE to create crafts to decorate our room and hallway.  The kids asked (with every single craft mind you) when they could take them home!  Don't worry - all of these wonderful creations will come home before vacation, so save some room to display them at home!

We began the week making Santa Claus faces for our hallway. The kids learned how to make curls by cutting in a continuous circular motion to create the beard!

The Red Star group

The Purple Star group

The Blue Star group

The Green Star group
Here are the completed Santa faces.  I just love how they all have a different look even though they all made the same craft.






We spent quite a bit of time reading various versions of The Gingerbread Man.  The kids really enjoyed hearing so many different variations of the familiar story. We read 3-4 stories about the Gingerbread Man, one about a Gingerbread Bear, another about the Gingerbread Girl, Gingerbread Baby, and even one called The Gingerbread Pirates! We decorated our own paper gingerbread men, and wrote about where their gingerbread man was 'running to'.  We then posted them on one of our bulletin boards. The kids even enjoyed the taste of gingerbread cookies when we finished them!


We created three different types of paper ornaments for our classroom Christmas tree.  Our first was a Santa head made on tag board. The kids traced around their hands, then turned it around an made it into Santa's face by adding a face, color and cotton balls.


Our second paper ornament was an angel.  The kids decorated the robe with Christmas pictures, then cut the angel out, and hung it on the tree!


Our final ornament involved math.  We assigned green triangle pattern blocks as 1.  Blue diamonds were worth 2 (because two green triangles fit on them).  Red trapezoids were worth 3 (because three green triangles fit on them).  The kids used paper pattern blocks to create a design on the front side of the ornament.  They then had to write an addition equation that matched the design on the backside.


The kids also created paper wreaths in class, which are now hanging from our ceiling!

The Red Star group

The Blue Star group

The Purple Star group

The Green Star group

Our wreaths drying on our table

They look wonderful hanging from our ceiling.
Finally, the children thought about someone special in their lives.  We then talked about what would make a very special gift for that person.  The children then wrote "If I were a Christmas gift, I would be a _______  for ______."  They wrote on the shape of an ornament and we hung them up on our final bulletin board.


As you can see, we spent quite a bit of time creating our special crafts last week. When we walk into our classroom, there is so much to look at and enjoy! The kids are very proud of their work and anxiously wait to bring them home for you to display with pride!  

Wednesday, December 2, 2015

Ki


This is Ki!  He is our student of the week!  BLUE is Ki's favorite color.  He would like to visit Washington D.C. to see the president someday.  Ki loves to watch Sponge Bob on television.  When he grows up, Ki wants to be an architect.  He does not have any pets at home, but would love to get a bulldog someday.  Ki's favorite book to read is called "Sharks".  His favorite sport is wrestling.  Ki's favorite food is lumpia.  Ki is special because he is always nice to others, but the VERY BEST THING about him is that he loves learning!

Tuesday, November 17, 2015

Miley



This is Miley!  She is the Student of the Week!  Miley loves the color PURPLE.  She would like to visit the North Pole someday.  Miley's favorite television show is called Lab Rats.  When she grows up, Miley would like to be a doctor.  Miley has a lot of pets at home:  3 cats, 2 dogs, 1 lizard and 1 turtle!  Her favorite book is called Go Away, Dog!  Miley's favorite sport is swimming.  She loves to eat pizza.  Miley is special because she is smart, but the VERY BEST thing about Miley is the fact that she is very friendly!

Wednesday, November 4, 2015

Reece



This is Reece!  He is our Student of the Week!  Reece loves the color BLUE!  If he could visit anyplace, he would visit the moon.  Reece likes to watch Star Wars on TV.  When he grows up, Reece would like to be a police officer.  There are no pets in his home.  Reece's favorite book is "Dear Santa Claus".  His favorite sport is soccer.  Reece loves to eat Spaghetti-O's!  Reece is special because he is a nice friend to others, but the VERY BEST thing about him is the fact that he is SMART!