Christmas on Candy Cane Lane

A BIG thank you goes out to Mrs. Friedrich for all the hard work she put into the program for last Thursday night.  She is an amazing music teacher and we are so very blessed to have her at our school.  The program was wonderful.  I am so very proud of all of our first graders.  They had a fantastic performance.  Thank you to all of the parents that spent time creating such amazing costumes for the performance and for working with your children on their parts.  I took a lot of pictures, so many that it was difficult to go through them all.  I made a few collages to share with you below.  I hope you enjoy.

Reminders for the week:
Remember we only have 2 days of school this week.  There will be no homework either day.  Monday we will be celebrating our Polar Express day.  We will finish our literature unit on the book The Polar Express and then we will spend the afternoon watching the movie, enjoying hot chocolate, making pajama glyphs for math, and many more fun activities.   Tuesday, we will be celebrating Grinch Day.  We will read the book How the Grinch Stole Christmas and doing various writing and literature activities that go along with the book.  Tuesday will be the last day of school before break.  There will be NO NEWSLETTER on Tuesday.  Reminder that we will begin swimming during PE when we return from break.  Our day for PE is Friday, so please remember to have your child bring their swimwear on Friday, along with a towel.

December Updates

December is such a busy month.  Here is what is going on for the remainder of the month:

Canned Food Drive:  The canned food drive will be going on during the week of December 14-18th.  We are collecting the canned food to donate to our local food pantry.  The 18th will be the last day of collection.

Christmas Program:  The program will be on Thursday, December 17th at 7:00 p.m. in the California Performing Arts Center at the High School.  Please have your child meet their teachers in the High School Music Room by 6:45 p.m. dressed and ready to go.  There will be High School students directing you where to go.  We will also have a dress rehearsal during the day on December 17th.  The dress rehearsal will start at 9:00 a.m. in the California Performing Arts Center.  Please send your child's costume to school that day.  Parents and family are more than welcome to attend the dress rehearsal.  If your child received a speaking part, please make sure that they have it memorized.  It was attached to the letter that was sent home in November.  The kids have been working very hard on their song and dance moves.  They are very excited for their program.  It is important that every child attends the concert.  Everyone is important to make this program a success!!  If you have any questions, please call the school or email Mrs. Friedrich.

Polar Express Day:  We have been working on our reading strategies and comprehension skills using the book The Polar Express by Chris Van Allsburg.  On Monday, December 21st we will be having our annual Polar Express Day.  The students will be allowed to wear their pajama's on this day and bring pillows and blankets.  We will be watching the Polar Express.  If your child is unable to participate in this event, please let me know so that we can make other arrangements.  In the past, we have shown two different films, one that is not holiday related and the Polar Express.  I am happy to offer two films for my students if needed.  Please email me or call the school.

Class Party:  Our class holiday party will be on December 22nd from 2-3p.m.  I sent home a note home regarding donations for our party.  Please return by this Wednesday, December 16th.  I will send home a note Wednesday, letting you know what I need.  We will watching a movie during this party time.  You are welcome to attend if you want, but I will not need any games for this party. :) Please just let me know if you plan to attend to watch the movie with your child.  If you do attend, please do not arrive before 2:00 as we will not be in our classrooms.   We will have games and such for our Valentine's party in February.

I will be back at the end of the week to add pictures of our Christmas music program.

Needs and Wants

December is a great time to introduce the needs and wants.  This is the time of year where our littles are always asking for toys and such for Christmas.  I use this time of year to teach the students the difference between a need :  something one has to have in order to survive and a want:  something we would like to have.  We are using Mo Willems pigeon books to help us decipher between needs and wants.  The students love Mo Willems and the pigeon books are so funny.  We have listened/read to Don't Let the Pigeon Drive the Bus and Don't Let the Pigeon Stay up Late.  We've discussed the pigeon's wants in both of these books compared to his actual needs.  We have also sorted pictures of our needs and wants.  This week, we will continue to read some more of Mo Willems' books.  In addition, we will brainstorm a list of our needs and wants.  We will make a class book of our needs and we will write a letter to Santa about our wants.  Here is a short video of us watching one of Mo Willems' books.