Saturday, December 31, 2011

Christmas Caroling & Christmas Party!!!!

On Friday, the whole school got together and sang Christmas Carols together.  It was a nice fun time to get together and sing! :)
Everyone :) 

Again...

Zachary & Lee...so cute! 

Party Time... Step 1: make a fun craft... We made wreaths from pipe cleaners and little light bulbs and the ring off of milk jugs. :) 

Abigail making her wreath ornament :) 

Madison's mom helping her group...

Group 1 working hard on their craft.

Joe is all finished...(Looks good)

Now, step 2: fun game 
They played a relay game where they were divided into two teams.  One team was Santa (notice the santa hat) and the other team was Reindeer (notice the antlers).  The person with the hat or antlers, got a piece of candy from the container sitting in front of them using a spoon...then they had to race across the carpet (without dropping the candy) and drop the candy piece into the stocking (a parent was across from them holding the stocking)...then the child would race back to their group, place their hat onto the next person in line...and do it all over again until no more candy was left in the container :) 

They got really into it :) 

Special thanks to Madison's mom and Landon's uncle for holding the stockings! :) 

Look at how animated they are :) 

Step 3: Do a book exchange.  
Mrs. Sonen read The Gingerbread Girl book to the class, every time she said the word "run" each child had to pass their wrapped book to the right... once the book was finished, whatever book was in your hand, became your book....they actually ended up with the book they brought..but some kids decided to switch with someone else...which was perfectly fine too :) 

Mrs. Sonen reading the story. (notice how sweet they are sitting and listening) :) 

Passing the books :) 

Unwrapping & exchanging... :) 

Step 4: FOOD TIME :) Let's Party!  Yumm for all the goodies, cupcakes, hot chocolate, candy, chips...the list goes on...:) Nice and filled up just in time to go home :) You are welcome, parents! :) 

MMmmm looks tasty!

They are all so quiet with goodies to munch on :) 

Enjoying the goodies!

SPECIAL THANK YOU TO Mrs. Sonen and all of the other parents who came, helped, or sent in items.  We seriously would not have had such a successful party without your help! :) 

How we spent our Christmas....Themed Days :)

In order to make learning a little more fun during this holiday season...since keeping the children focused is VERY HARD to do at this time of the year, we have themed days.  I love being able to teach the kids with these fun activities that enhance their learning while at the same time... make it SUPER FUN!!!! :) Enjoy taking a look at what we did this week!  Monday- Snowman Day, Tuesday-Reindeer Day, Wednesday- Gingerbread Day, Thursday- Grinch Day, Friday- Polar Express Day/ Christmas Party!
Snowman (building a snowman with marshmallows, hershey kiss, little chocolate chips, icing, and pretzel sticks) YUMMY :) 

Mmmm

Zachary is putting on his finishing touches. 

Finished product...so cute :) 

Is it good, Joe?

Emma is enjoying her snowman. 





Looking yummy, Lee :) 

A class full of reindeer!  After learning many different facts about reindeer, the kids wrote two facts (one on each antler) and made a hat!!! 

You KNOW we have to have a silly picture :) 

We also made reindeer food.  We put them into these cute "reindeer" heads (made from toilet paper rolls) to take home so we could put them out on Christmas Eve for Santa's reindeer!

Elijah taking a bit of his gingerbread man.  

We graphed what part of the gingerbread man everyone bit off first....I believe the "head" won!

Group 5 graphing their gingerbread bites. 

Karlye is estimating/measuring a large gingerbread man with tiny gingerbread men (nonstandard units). Fun stuff! :) 

Cute Grinch heads!  Each child made their own grinch head and wrote about when they feel "grinchy." 

Hallway display of their finished "grinches"

2nd board display

Hank & Karlye played a grinch rolling dice game...they would roll the dice and whatever "number partners" they landed on, they would put that set of addends under the total it went with...person who got three columns filled first, wins! ;) 

Madison & Sophia playing. 

Drake & Destiny playing. 

Russell & Brendan playing. 

Genavieve & Abigail playing. 

Leah and Jay playing. 

Lee & Kyle playing. 

Kimberly & Timothy playing. 

Zachary & Joe playing. 

Ethan & Landon playing.  (We are going to miss Landon...Friday was his last day)

Gabbi & Emma playing.