Ornament Day

This was our short week before Christmas break, but nonetheless so much fun! We did a lot of reviewing of skills that were taught already and had a lot of fun with our content and preparing for break.

We had our Ornament Day where we invite our family to come into our class and bring materials to make ornaments. After our celebration in the afternoon students are able to bring home with them the ornaments that they hand made. It is fun to watch and I hope families enjoy the handcrafted final products. Take a look at the ornaments that were made this year!





We also had fun making reindeer food. Reindeer food is to help Santa find our house the night of Christmas Eve. We mix some oats, sweet green sugar, and a touch of red sparkles to make this magical treat. They are so excited with the end product!





We also had fun writing CVC words on paper ornaments in the morning of Ornament Day. This is a big skill that we have been working on this nine weeks. Students listened to 3 letter words and wrote the sounds that they heard.




We also had our behavior celebration on the last day of school where students who earned 85% or higher of positive behavior were able to go to Purdue University and watch a basketball game. They had so much fun watching the first part of the game and seeing Purdue Pete and the cheerleaders. Here are a few pictures from our day!





Polar Express

Poem: The Polar Express
Sight Words: come, are

Reading: This week students worked on retelling stories read aloud. We used our retelling poster to help us include important details from the story. When retelling a story we include the main character, the setting, the problem, the solution, and the ending. Students love filling out the poster to recall important details.

We added the -ot word family to our list of word families this week. Students watched a video and made a list of words that belong in the -ot word family.

With ipads students used the app Skywriter to stretch out holiday words. They used the pictures on their paper to figure out the holiday word and stretch out on Skywriter. Students also scanned QR codes linked to videos about Christmas traditions around the world. After listening to a video students went to Chatterpix and recorded one thing that they learned from the QR code. Students are also working so hard at uploading their creations to Google Classroom and doing awesome!





Writing: This week we wrapped up our narrative writing unit and wrote our post assessment writing. It is remarkable to see the progress they make over the unit. We also spent time this week writing our letters to Santa. They were so excited to draw pictures and write what they were wishing for for Christmas!


Math: This week in math we worked on a new app called Number Rack. Students used the Rekenrek on the app to show addition sentences that they solved. We also spent time reviewing 2D shapes by creating holidays pictures using tangrams. Another fun christmas math activity that we did was length christmas trees! Students had a strip of green paper that they then cut into 4 smaller strips. Students glued the strips on a paper longest on the bottom and shortest on the top. They then decorated it to look like a christmas tree. One more fun math review was Stocking Numbers. Students listened as numbers 1-20 were said aloud. When they heard that number they were to glue it on their stocking.
















Content: This week we had so much fun with the Polar Express. We started the week off by reading the story and completing a sequencing activity across a few days. Students spent Friday watching the Polar Express in their jammies! They came to school with their ticket and were greeted at the end of the railroad track as they entered the classroom. After getting unpacked for the day, we began the movie and started eating delicious donuts and drinking hot cocoa. The afternoon was spent doing the Breakout in which students received their bells from the story! Students also completed the first gift of Christmas craft. Students also got to open a present from Mrs. Keller. We love the Polar Express week!







BreakoutEDU: We were so excited to do another BreakoutEDU this week! This was a breakout that I created leading up to our week of Polar Express. Students scanned a QR code that displayed a video of Santa explaining the task for the day. Students then looked for clues around the room to help them unlock the locks on the Breakout box. Students worked together as a team to figure out the lock combinations to then open up and find that Santa had left us all bells to take home! Students were so excited to find their gift!








SEL: This week our focus was on giving. We watched a story from Howard Wigglebottom about the spirit of giving. Then we read The Giving Tree and talked about how the tree gave and gave and gave as the boy grew up. Students also helped as we listed things that we could give others. We finished the week with a Kid President video about giving. Throughout the week students gave someone something each day. We did a short 4 days of giving by giving a compliment, a hug, a dojo point to someone who was kind, and a smiley face post-it.



NEXT WEEK:
We will be reviewing many skills that we have worked so hard on this nine weeks. We will be listening to Christmas stories and retelling the story. We will also be working at blending and writing CVC (consonant-vowel-consonant) words while gearing up for Christmas with one more special day; Ornament Day!

Tuesday, December 20: Ornament Day
This event will be in our classroom from 1:45-2:45. Students will rotate around and make ornaments with adults that they will be able to bring home that day. If you are able to come and help that day or supply materials for an ornament, please let me know. Right now I only have 2 adults and 4 ornaments. I have the following students who have a family member coming on Tuesday to run an ornament station:
Emma
Christopher

Wednesday, December 21: Purdue Basketball Game
We will be going to the Purdue Basketball game and it is important that you send your child to school with a DISPOSABLE sack lunch. We will be eating at Purdue and will not be able to keep and carry anything to the game with us. The $3 for your child to attend is also due by Monday. A reminder of the event and your child's percentage was sent home today with your child. Please let me know if you have any questions!