News from Santa's Workshop for December 7th to December 11th

Well, it's official!  Teaching first grade at this time of year can be the craziest, most enjoyable and the most rewarding time!  I love their energy and innocence.  I think it keeps me young but, I have to admit, I'm ready for a long, winter's nap.  This week we have spent a lot of our time talking about traditions around the world.  Here are some questions that you can ask your child about their learning from the past couple of weeks.

What country was your favorite country?  Why?
Which tradition was your favorite to learn about?
Why isn't your mission file at home?:)
Can you show me the Double Bump?
Can you write or tell me three doubles facts?
Can you tell me a near double fact?
What is something that you've learned about reindeer?

Related Arts Schedule Next Week

Monday - Music
Tuesday - Library (remember book-in-a-bag)
Wednesday - P.E. (remember tennis shoes)
Thursday - Art
Friday - Music

Upcoming Events:
Thursday - Students get to plan the day.  More information to come next week to let you know what they've planned.  I made need your help:).

Friday - Students can bring/wear their PJs to school.  We will be watching Polar Express.  They can also bring a healthy/special snack from home to enjoy while watching the movie.  We are a nut-free zone so refrain from sending anything with nuts of any kind.  Your child can also bring something to snuggle with while enjoying the movie.

We were dressing up like the Star Boys and St. Lucia and we liked to make the hats.  St. Lucia is celebrated by having the oldest girl in the family put on white dress with a red belt.  She wears a wreath with candles that are lit because the real St. Lucia walked through a cave where it was dark.  She was feeding people who were hiding there because they wanted to worship a different way.

We are studying about dragons together.  We are thinking flexibly and persevering and we are collaborating.  The guy in the glasses is new.  We like him because he is funny.

We made elf hats to pretend we were elves.  Flash was our school elf.  On the first day, we tried to find Flash and we found him behind a bookcase.  Flash went to a different country everyday.  One of them was Sweden.  In Sweden, when it gets cold they make huge ice hotels.  

We did a Top Secret mission and now we can reveal it now that the mission is done.  It was called the Hot Cocoa Disaster Mission.  Santa was drinking hot cocoa while he was looking through his files about Christmas but his cocoa spilled on the laptop and ruined the files.  Mrs. Claus told him many times he shouldn't drink his hot cocoa with his laptop.  We had to save Christmas and 23 little first graders just saved Christmas for the WHOLE WORLD!!!

News from the Elves of Camp Buckaroo

Thank you so much for my remembering my birthday in the way that y'all did this morning!  The cards and gifts touched my heart and the lemon bundtlet was absolutely delicious!!  The class gift will be put to great use this weekend.  I'm spoiled because the most precious gift that you've already given me is your child and I thank you for that!

Here is a message from Miss Clark and Mrs. Hendricks in the library:

Are you looking for a fun way to be involved at SCE?  The library is looking for parent volunteers to help in the afternoons to check out 1st and 2nd grade students.  If you are interested in volunteering, contact Casey Hendricks hendricks_casey@dublinschools.netor Beth Clark clark_beth@dublinschools.net.

Upcoming Events:

December 17th - The students get to plan the day!!!!  This is a reward for earning three 5's in P.E.

December 18th @ 3:45 - Winter Break begins

Related Arts schedule:

Monday - Art

Tuesday - Music

Wednesday - Library (remember book-in-a-bag)

Thursday - P.E.  (remember tennis shoes)

Friday - Art

These are the presents we gave to Mrs. McNeal for her birthday.  It will be Mrs. McNeal's birthday tomorrow.  She thanked us when we gave her her presents.  We all gave her hugs (smile:).

At our program we pretended to be Pilgrims, turkeys and Wampanoags.  The girl is saying "thank you for coming to our program.  We are glad you're here."  

He is saying stuff about what we learned from the Pilgrims.  He said, "The Pilgrims left because King James didn't let them pray the way that they wanted to."  

She is saying something about what we learned about the Pilgrims and the Wampanoag.  

He was telling facts about the Pilgrims.

He was telling facts about the Pilgrims too.  

We wrote about the Wampanoag and we drew a picture of their home.  We made hats that look like Wampanoag hats and when you flip it around it looks like a turkey hat.  He is sharing his work with Mrs. McNeal.

Our principal, Mrs. Rinefierd, came to our program and saw our Wampanoag work.  We were sharing our work to the principal. 

He was sharing what he wrote when the principal was here.

All of us!!

We are playing the dreidel game.  They were playing this game to learn about the miracle when they fought against King Antiochus.  On the dreidel there are symbols and it means "A miracle happened here."

This elf is Flash and we had to find him when the teacher told us about him.  This was our first time trying to find him and we were trying to persevere when looking for him and think flexibly.  The rest of the days we have found him in the bed that another student made during Tinkering Tuesdays.  The candles are for when we were learning about Hanukkah.  We like Flash and his house!!  

This is our new friend!  The new friend is the one with the shirt that doesn't say Danger.  We were playing a Doubles game.

News from the Mayflower for November 23-24

Happy Thanksgiving from the Wampanoag and the Pilgrims of Room 118!  We sure hope that you can all make it to our Thanksgiving Showcase tomorrow afternoon at 2:45.  The kiddos have worked hard to learn about America's history through the eyes of the Pilgrims and the Wampanoag.  

Here is a sneak-peek at what you will be experiencing tomorrow (sans the buffalo, of course:).  Even though the buffalo were not part of the Wampanoag's lives, I got the unique experience of getting up close to these majestic beasts while on my vacation to Tennessee last week.  I wanted the children to get to see them as well.

Related Arts schedule for the week we return:

Tomorrow - Library - remember book-in-a-bag
Monday, November 30th - P.E.  remember tennis shoes
Tuesday, December 1st - Art
Wednesday, December 2nd - Music
Thursday, December 3rd - Library - remember book-in-a-bag
Friday, December 4th - P.E. - remember tennis shoes

Reminders:
**Don't forget that Spell-a-Thon donations are due by December 1st!!
**November reading logs need to be totaled and sent back the week of December 1st.
**Please return progress report envelopes, signed, as soon as you can.

News from the Mayflower for November 2nd-6th

Hello from the passengers of the Mayflower!  We have had a very busy week looking at the lives of these people and their pilgrimage to the New World.  We have also been studying the people who were already  here when they arrived, namely the Wampanoag Native Americans.  We would love to showcase our learning by inviting you in on Tuesday, November 24th at 2:45 for a small program.

Questions to ask your child:
What did you like best about 50's day?
Which time period do you think fits you best?  The 50's?  The 1800's when schools had only one room?  The 1600's when the Pilgrims lived?  Why?
What is your Pilgrim name?
What is your Wampanoag name?


Upcoming Events:
Wednesday, November 11th - Dads and Donuts
Thursday, November 12th - Multicultural Day
Friday, November 13th - NO SCHOOL for students
Tuesday, November 24th @ 2:45 - Come to our room for our Thanksgiving Showcase:)

Related Arts Schedule:
Monday - D Day - Music
Tuesday - A Day - Library ( don't forget book-in-a-bag books)
Wednesday - B Day - P.E.  (don't forget tennis shoes)
Thursday - No related arts due to Multicultural Day
Friday - No School
Monday, November 16th will be C Day - Art

Side note:  My sister and I travel to Tennessee every November for some great southern-style food, shopping and laughter to last us the rest of the year.  I will be gone November 18th, 19th and 20th so if you need anything please let the office know.  I will be checking my email a time or two on the trip if you happen to need anything:)

We are pretending that the campsite is the Mayflower and we are pretending we are Pilgrims.  They wanted to leave from England so they could be free to teach their children to pray the way they wanted.  King James I was the king of England and he told them they had to pray the way he did.

Mrs. McNeal made us quills with pencils and fake feathers.  They had to dip them in ink so they could work.  

Someone wrote down the real names of the people who traveled on the Mayflower.  We got their names and we are pretending to be those people.

The boys in this picture are Greasers and one of the girls is a Pink Lady.  The other one is wearing a poodle skirt.

We all got our picture taken on 50's day!  

In the 50's, they had people who delivered their milk and people who delivered their bread.  Life in the 50's is very different than life now.  They had to use a switchboard and call a lady when they wanted to make a call to someone else.

In the 50's, the ladies wouldn't leave until their hair was done (I love this one:)))

We are having a sock hop in our classroom.  We had lots of fun songs.  Some of them were Rockin' Robin and Lollipop.  

They were also dancing at the sock hop.  These two boys had some moves!!!!  They wore me out just watching them:)  

They are dancing together because there were no boys to dance with (smile:)

We won first, second and third place in the October reading log minutes!

He is working on his project during Imagination Station.  He is studying body parts.  

Buckaroo news for October 26th-29th

Wow!  We just had a fantastic time at our Harvest Party!  Thank you parents for all that you've done to make this a fun day for all of us:).  I'm keeping this short and sweet, as promised!

Questions to ask:

What are you studying during Imagination Station time?  What questions are you trying to answer?
Can you tell me what the equal (=) sign means in an equation?
Use the pictures below for some great conversations about the learning going on at Camp Buckaroo!  


Related Arts schedule:
Monday - Art
Tuesday - Music
Wednesday - Library ( don't forget books-in-a-bag)
Thursday - P.E.
Friday - Art

Reminders:
Monday, November 1st - October Reading logs are due -- Please total the 
              minutes on the log.
Thursday, November 5th - 50th day of school!  Don't forget to dress like
                 someone living in this time period.
Friday, November 6th - SCE Spell-a-Thon