What our last week before Christmas holidays looked like...

Snowflake has been quite the elf, always coming up with some way to entertain us!

She brought Kit an elf outfit to dress up in and it looks like she has aspirations to become a teacher, judging by the chair she brought as well.

She came all dressed up in a cupcake birthday outfit just in time for one little boy's special day.  He turned 7 that day!

Somehow I didn't get a photo of the day she brought a reindeer to school!  

On Friday, she hid behind this reindeer photo prop!  I think she might have thought the reindeer had gotten too much attention the day before!

Snowflake brought all the good little boys and girls in my class a little gift, lip balm, which they are now storing inside of their 'stash' boxes.  I am sure that they will need it during the cold month of January.

One last Gingerbread math game for the month!

 THANK YOU to all the moms and grandmas who came to help out on Friday's craft day.  I think that all the kiddos had a super fun time, making these various crafts to celebrate the season.  This craft was creating a paper bag house with some snow painted on.

Many of these ideas are old favourites, but a few were ones that were found on Pinterest.  Check them out!

There was icing and candy everywhere as the students checked out their graphs to see how many of each kind of candy they could add to their creations.

Paper bag Santa puppets were a hit,

as were the Santa stars.  True story....I still have the one my brother made in primary school and he's now 50 years old!

No time for resting...if the students had time, they did a number search and colour to reveal a picture.

Who knew that a little white paint on your hand could turn an ordinary Christmas ball into a family of snowmen?  I hope this one becomes a treasured keepsake.

Bet you remember doing this one as a kid.....trace your foot and two hands, a little glue, some eyes and a pom pom and you have a reindeer!

The students actually clapped when we showed them this doily angel that they were going to make!

Some shiny rhinestones, a triangle and  a clothespin and voila! a decorated tree.

A very merry and blessed Christmas to you all.  Remember: Jesus is the reason for the season!

Christmas Concert

What a smart elf Snowflake is!  We found her sitting in a basket with a note asking us to let her hear the class sing.  She must have known that today is the Christmas concert.  She was wearing a different skirt!  She looked like she was wearing her Sunday best too!

It was easy to carry her down to the gym in the basket and then the students all sang her their concert piece.  She even managed to get into the picture!

Snowflake meets the Gingerbread Man

Look where we found Snowflake on Monday morning!  She was hanging out with our gingerbread people inside of their house!

She brought us colourful pencils with HUGE erasers on the end!  I hope that doesn't mean she thinks we make too many mistakes!  

On Tuesday morning, she was spotted in the corner of the puppies' cage!

Snowflake brought a friend to play blocks with on Wednesday and then...

she brought a game for all of us to play this morning!

We have been comparing a variety of Gingerbread stories.  Who knew there were so many?  We noticed that the titles usually tell us who the main character will be, that there are different characters in different books and that the Gingerbread person says a different 'refrain' in each story.

So many books to choose from,

and read to a friend.

Today, we finally got to taste gingerbread!  Each student got a cookie and was able to add the features using icing and small candy bits.

Once each child was done, we created a 'map' to show which part we bit first, second, third and fourth.

Using this information the children went around and collected the data.

They looked very official with their clipboards, writing their data onto a chart and then transferring that information onto a graph.  They are becoming more and more independent in this skill.

How our week ended....

Sometimes it feels like technology is not my friend!  Blogger, which manages my school blog, was having difficulties this weekend and I couldn't post.  Sorry this is a bit late!

This photo of Snowflake eating Mrs. Claus' Crullers, by the boxful (!) was from Thursday.  They look yummy!

There was also this lovely note from Jingles, saying that Snowflake had let Santa know that the students had really been wonderful the day before.  It's always nice to get a compliment!

The students finished off our bears unit looking at two stories about Corduroy.  In this series of pictures, the students were working with a partner to find what words Corduroy said at particular points of the story.  

By working with a partner, they were able to focus on ensuring that they were finding the correct answers.  They had someone to confer with.

Hope to catch up with our new work tomorrow.

Stay tuned!

Catching Up post

I am soon sorry that I haven't posted for almost a week.  The computer at school have been giving me nothing but trouble!  Can't print, can't get to sites, can't download photos!  It has been a bit discouraging!   Trying to catch up now......

Our books about Moonbear by Frank Asch have led to a great deal of understanding about how the Earth revolves around its axis to create one day, then travels around the sun to create the seasons.  Once around the sun is one year.  The moon also revolves around the Earth and that creates the phases of the moon.

On Friday, Moonbear's story led us on a baking adventure.

The students learned how to read the basic recipe printed on the back of a cake mix box.  They learned that recipes have two parts, one that lists the ingredients and one that explains the method.  There are many, many verbs in the method that we were able to discuss.

The result of baking, was a chance to do a little eating!

I just noticed those two sweet faces in the photo!

On Tuesday we heard a knock on the door and this parcel was delivered!

Inside was a letter from the desk of Santa Claus....

and our scout elf!  We are pretty sure she is the same one that arrived in my class last year, so she is again being called Snowflake!

Here's Snowflake on Wednesday morning, sitting up on top of the speakers of the SmartBoard.

She seems to be happy with what she sees!

I am happy to show you these smiling faces!  All of these very grown up children have received the Sacrament of Reconciliation.  I am so proud that they are able to understand what is right and what is wrong and are willing to share their mistakes and ask for forgiveness.  What a truly 'grown-up' step for each of them!

See you all at the Toy and Turkey Bingo on Friday night here at the school!