Making Christmas Trees

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas...

To the sounds of Christmas music, the children enjoyed holiday  centers this morning with some of our favorite moms.

Visiting the Garden

We checked on the garden today to see how it's growing before we leave for the holiday. Thanks to Finn's mom for taking care of our garden.

Then we wrote about visiting the garden in our  Science Notebooks.

Cutest Snowmen!

These are the cutest snowmen ever!

 

 

 

It's all about Vocabulary

Our standards-based bulletin board this month features vocabulary.  We work on six words every three weeks that come from a favorite read aloud.  The goal is that the students recognize the words as part of their listening vocabulary but we also encourage the students to use the words in their daily conversation... and we reinforce them when they do!  But we push one step farther and encourage them to use the words in their writing.  This month's bulletin board shows four different students who used words that we have studied in their writing.  Way to go Ella, Tiffany, Adrian, and Sophia!

We feel sure that once the students are able to use the words in writing that they are part of the student's vocabulary!  Woo hoo!

PDQ

Make sure to stop by PDQ and vote for our class wreath!  Tell your friends too!

Saying Good-by

Today we said our final farewells to our little Australian mate.  He has been with our class for a year and half but this month his father is returning to duty in his native homeland of Australia.  We have learned so much from this environmentally conscious young man who wants to save the sharks in the ocean.

His family adopted the cutest little koala in our class' name.  As a token we were sent a stuffed koala that the class named Koalay Finn.  Koalay Finn will be travelling home with different students each night in a special carrying bag.  The first student that will take it home will be Finn's long time reading and writing partner.  There is a journal for the students to write about their adventures with Koalay Finn and also the student's Australian address and e-mail if they want to write him a letter or send him an e-mail. He promises to write back!  Such a thoughtful gift from a family that will be so missed.

It's such a gift to have children from other countries spend time in our classroom.  Sometimes our classroom feels like the United Nations.  Several children have visited family out of the country and several more come from families that are newly American and speak a second language at home.  It's a great experience for the children to learn from all of these different cultures because what they generally learn is that are more alike than different and that is a message that will stay with them through adulthood.  At this time of year, we are feeling especially blessed!