Season's Greetings!

Our last week of school before break came to a screeching halt with a snow blizzard causing early dismissal which was followed by our first snow day.  We went ahead with the student gift exchange a day early and it's a good thing that we did.

I thought I should fill you in on the final week of holiday activities in our classroom before we begin the new year so here goes...

We read Santa's New Suit by Laura Rader and then designed our own suits for Santa.  Using transition words like "first," "next," "then," and "finally" we wrote step-by-step directions describing how we designed his new suit.  They turned out very cute!

Gifts for parents were also on our agenda.  We made reversible Santa/Christmas tree ornaments thanks to Mrs. Hodson at Today in First Grade.

We also made these beautiful "stained glass" ornaments using permanent markers on transparency film backed with aluminum foil.

Of course, no gift is complete without a card and my little "elves" really created some gorgeous ones for their parents!  

Each year I look forward to reading "The Polar Express" by Chris Van Allsburg  and following-up with some fun activities.  This year, after reading the story to my kids, we discussed and wrote summaries for the beginning, middle, and end of the story.    Students also worked with partners to make as many words as they could using the letters from the title.  This turned into a fun contest between groups as they tried to be the first to fill the recording sheet.  I was truly amazed at the words each group came up with.  I have some super smart kids!!

Unfortunately, due to the storm we didn't get to watch the movie this year.  After making sure all of the boys and girls were bundled up, we had an early dismissal and began our Christmas break a day early.

I hope that your time with family and friends has been fun and that you are enjoying your break from school.  I will see you soon!  Take care!  Happy New Year!