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.

Christmas Program and Polar Express Day

I hope you all had a very merry Christmas.  I have been thoroughly enjoying my precious time with my family.  Now that all of our gatherings have come to an end, I am slowly getting things put back in order.  I still have my trees up though.  I typically wait until after January 6th (the Epiphany) to take down all my Christmas items.  I also love to enjoy my holiday break and taking down all of my Christmas decorations well... isn't something I look forward to spending my day doing.

Since I have spent so much of my time preparing for Christmas and all of the family gatherings I haven't put the pictures up that I promised I would add of all of our December activities.  So I am doing it now!  :)  You will find pictures of our wonderful music program.  The program was fantastic.  The kids worked so hard and Mrs. Friedrich did such an amazing job (again!!!) with the kids.  You will also find pictures of our Polar Express Day.  The students really enjoyed their day.  Please enjoy the pictures.  Happy New Year to you all!!!  May 2015 be a year of blessings for your family!

"The Littlest Reindeer" and More

Today was our Polar Express and Happy Feet day.  The students chose which book and movie they preferred at the beginning of the week.  We began the week reading Tacky the Penguin for those students wishing to see "Happy Feet" and The Polar Express for those wishing to watch "The Polar Express."  The students listened to the story and completed journal entries for the book of their choosing.  The journals consisted of story maps, text to self connections, predictions, story elements (characters, setting, problem and solution).  Next week in math the students will create a glyp that is related to the literature they chose.  The Polar Express activities are from Deanna Jumps Polar Express Literacy and Math Fun.  The Tacky the Penguin activities I created to go along with the book.  I plan to get them posted to TpT soon. I'll share them as soon as they are up. 

Reminder:  Next week the first graders will perform their Christmas Program The Littlest Reindeer.  The program will be on Thursday, December 19th at 7:00 p.m. in the California Performing Arts Center at the High School.  Please have your child meet Mrs. Friedrich and their teacher in the High School Band Room by 6:45p.m. dressed and ready to go.  There will be signs directing you where to go.  There will also be a dress rehearsal during the day on December 19th.  The dress rehearsal will start at 9:00 a.m. in the California Performing Arts Center.  Please send your child's costume or dress clothes to school that day.  Parents and family are more than welcome to attend the dress rehearsal.  Don't forget to have permission slips returned to attend the dress rehearsal on Thursday.  If you haven't turned in your permission slip, please do so no later than Monday.  If you need a new one, please contact me asap.  



 

Upcoming Polar Express Day...and More

The students have officially published their first piece of writing.  They chose their best piece and worked on editing and revising it on their own and with a partner.  Then, they rewrote their final copy.  We binded their work so it would look official.  Afterwards, the students shared their work with the class.  We then voted on the class Caldecott Award for best pictures.

In reading we have also been working on reading nonfiction.  The students have learned how to notice when they are learning something new.  In addition, they have also learned how to record any I Wonders or Questions they have while reading.

On a side note we celebrated my little Elly Sue's 2nd birthday this weekend.  Here are a few pictures of my angel at her party.

We have a lot of things planned this week, including our annual Polar Express Day.  It is the most wonderful time of the year and I love teaching with the book The Polar Express by Christ Van Allsburg.

The students will have the choice to participate in the reading of The Polar Express or Tacky the Penguin.  Students will study the book of their choice this week and will work on various reading literature standards with the text of their choosing.

All Aboard

I would like to share with you another great site for listening to books online.  Storyline Online features Screen Actors Guild members reading books.  They are currently featuring Lou Diamond Phillips reading The Polar Express. 

Storyline Online