Mrs. Garrabrant's Classroom: Holiday & Gingerbread Activities, Snowball Toss & More!

We had a very busy final week of 2nd Quarter before Winter Break. The students finished making their Christmas presents to their families, we got a new student, took the iReady math diagnostic assessment, and watched Willy Wonka & The Chocolate Factory. We also completed a Mitten activity, did a directed drawing of a reindeer, did a sorting activity with Cheetos Snowflakes, and welcomed Mrs. Boxley back! Then we read a Christmas sight word book, did a tree craft, enjoyed hot chocolate with our Preschool Reading Buddies, watched The Polar Express, enjoyed Gingerbread men cookies & activities, and had a Snowball Toss with Ms. Riggs class!!

Keep reading below to see more details about our fun week!

Over the past couple of weeks the students have been working hard on their Christmas presents for their families. Here are some pictures of their hard work! First they painted 3 popsicle sticks green for their ornament tree,

Then we glued them together and then they decorated them by gluing sequins on the sticks.

The students used a pipe cleaner to make a star for the top of their tree. Then we glued a piece of string on the top in order to hang it up.

After it was finished, we put their ornament tree in a baggie and stapled on a little poem.

I made each student a heart shaped rainbow crayon as part of their gift as well.

Our new friend DreQuan started in our classroom this week.

The students worked very hard on the iReady Math Diagnostic assessment. The results from both this & the reading test, will help me understand where each student is and what they need help with.

Since we finished reading the book "Charlie & The Chocolate Factory", we watched the movie "Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory". Then we talked about what was the same and what was different between the book and the movie.

After reading the story, "The Mitten" the students worked on a retelling activity. They glued a mitten on the front of a brown paper bag, cut out the animals and practiced putting them into the mitten in the same order as in the story.

Mrs. Rawlins came again this week so I could work with the students on updating their data folders and complete report card testing. Report cards will be sent home with students the week we get back from break. Mrs. Rawlins did a directed drawing with the students in order to draw a reindeer. They had to follow her step by step directions in order to have their reindeer turn out. The students did a great job following directions and they turned out great!

Here you can see Mrs. Rawlins example.

I hung up the students reindeer in the hallway!

The students also did a sorting and graphing activity with Cheetos Snowflakes. They had to first sort the Cheetos into the 4 different snowflake shapes, then fill in the graph according to what shapes they had and then they could eat them!

When Mrs. Boxley came she helped with the Cheetos activity and she also had the students write their names in their portfolios for Second Quarter.

The students really missed Mrs. Boxley!! She had knee surgery and hadn't come in for a couple of weeks while she was recovering. They were glad that she was feeling better!

The students also did a following directions activity with Mrs. Rawlins where they had to listen as she read each line and color appropriately.

We also read a Christmas sight word story.

The students had to color the lights according to the color word on each page.

Mrs. Rawlins also did a Christmas craft with the students. First they drew a triangle, then drew lines across their paper. Finally, they colored the spaces inside the large triangle all green and the spaces outside the large triangle whatever color they wanted to. All of the students did a great job following directions and they all turned out beautiful! I will be hanging them up around our classroom.

Like I mentioned in the last blog post, the students earned a class reward because they earned all of the buckeyes. They chose to have a PJ & hot chocolate party. Since Friday was the last day before break, it was the perfect day to have our party! Our class read our Christmas sight word story to their preschool reading buddy and then they enjoyed hot chocolate together!

We also watched the movie "The Polar Express".

After the movie was over, we discussed what happened and glued the events from the movie in order.

I also made Gingerbread Men cookies for the students to enjoy as well!

After the students bit into their cookies, we took a vote to see where most students took their first bite; head, arm or leg. Most of the students took their first bite from the Gingerbread Man's head!

At the very end of the day on Friday, we got to have a Snowball Toss against Ms. Riggs class in order to end our fun week. Mr. Doyle set up a fun, safe activity for the students and they had a great time! Ms. Riggs and I even got in on the fun too! We threw with our own classes, then for the last game we switched and threw against our classes. The students thought this was hilarious!

Our TeachTown lessons this week were "Sometimes Friends Don't Want to Play" & "Say Why You're Sad".

We read lots of holiday books this week!

I sent home a Homework packet for the students to work on over Winter Break. If your child brings the packet back completed when school returns, they can choose a prize from the treasure box.