Sunday, December 22, 2019

Holidays, Polar Express, Gingerbread & So Much More!

We had a fun and exciting last week before break! 
Take a look below for more details on our amazing week!

Students worked hard to take their iReady reading diagnostic and show us what they know. 
We will take the math diagnostic the week we get back from Winter Break. 
I will send the results from both home after we are all finished so you can see how your child did.
After we were finished with our diagnostic test, students got to make a reindeer craft in Literacy Lab.
On Tuesday we had a Pajama & Polar Express day with Miss Riggs class. We watched the Polar Express movie and the students really enjoyed it. Each student got a ticket and as we went into Miss Riggs class, she punched their ticket just like in the movie!
After the movie was over, we did a sequencing activity while enjoying some hot chocolate. 
Our class also had a snowball toss with Mr. Doyle against Miss Riggs class. 
Mrs. Coberly & Miss Dupont joined us as well, the students had so much fun! 
We did a fun activity with gingerbread men. I gave the students a gingerbread cookie and told them to take a bite out of it, then as a class we graphed where they took their first bite. Most of them took a bite out of the head first!
Then we made gingerbread glyphs. Students had to follow directions to make their gingerbread boy/girl a certain way based on different criteria. You can see the key below of what we used to make them as well as their finished products.
We also did a writing activity related to the story The Mitten. 
Students designed their own mitten and wrote about what could fit in it.
We made a 5 senses Christmas book also. Students colored the cover of their book. 
You can see the other pages below.
 They used glitter glue to make the lights on the tree for the looks like page.
 Then they crushed candy canes and glued them in their book for the tastes like page.
 We used paint with cinnamon to make the gingerbread smell good for the smells like page.
 Students broke apart cotton balls to make Santa's beard fluffy for the feels like page. 
I forgot to get a picture of the sounds like page but we glued bells on Rudolph's nose. 
We also practiced guided reading as well, we read a Christmas book together.
 Then we did a Christmas lights book to practice color words.
 We also did a gingerbread story called "The Little Cookie".
 We read some Christmas & holiday books. Here are a couple that we read. 
We also introduced doodle a tootle in the writing area this week where students could write tootles to each other. They really enjoyed this!
We also started reading Charlie and the Chocolate Factory as a class and they have enjoyed it so far.
We hope you all enjoyed your Christmas tree ornaments that your children made for you. 
They worked really hard on them and are so proud of them! We included a little poem, as well as a bag with a pencil, pencil sharpener and a box of Christmas stickers. 
This week I sent home a packet of holiday homework. I already told the students this but it is not mandatory and they don't have to turn it in but if they do they can chose a treasure from the treasure box. If something is too difficult and frustrating for you or your children, just skip that page. It is not supposed to be frustrating or take a long time. It is just meant for the kids to spend 5 minutes each day to keep their brain fresh! 
Thanks for checking in to see what we were up to this week. 
I hope you all have a wonderful winter break and holiday season! 

Mrs. Brittany Garrabrant