Happy Holidays! I'm sure your children are very excited to be off for the holidays with their families and friends! Now all we need is snow!
This last week of school we did a lot of holiday-related things: we read non-fiction facts together about reindeer on the Smartboard and in booklets; we did our December calendars and "This is me in December" picture and writing; we cut out and decorated Christmas trees from paper; the SKs coloured Christmas lights by sum (i.e. 1+3=4, colour all sums of 4 red); the JKs coloured lights by reading the colour words; we did math problems on the Smartboard (i.e. two trees have 5 lights each - how many are there altogether); we also counted and sorted gold and silver rocks. The SKs played a kind of Reindeer Scrabble, in which the children had to create three letter words to match pictures on reindeer. The children also planted "magic beans" (tic tacs!) in Santa's magic snow and the next day they had turned into candy canes! Wow!
The words of the week were YOU and HERE. Please add them to your child's bedtime book box and practise them at home.
I sent home the Seniors' Phonics workbooks to work on over the holidays if they wish. They can also do the "Reindeer ARE, HAVE, CAN" sheet (we did this on the Smartboard together already) and the Christmas word search.
At the Sharing Assembly on Tuesday the children did a wonderful job singing "Toys and Tinsel" and "Oh Hannukah is Here." They also recited "Shy Santa" which I think is their favourite!
On Thursday, the children really enjoyed making wonderful crafts with our parent volunteers, who were the moms of Martel, Theo, Andrew, Claire, Matthew and Riley. Ellie's mom was our Mystery Reader. Thank you so much!! On the last day of school the children played, painted, sang holiday songs with the entire school in the gym, made more Christmassy stuff, and watched some Christmas classics on the Smartboard. Judging by their energy I think they had a wonderful time!
When we return on January 4 we'll do an Author Study on Mo Willems who wrote the hilarious and fun "Who Let the Pigeon Drive the Bus?" and other pigeon books. We will also (weather permitting!) start learning all about snow and ice in Science, and we'll start learning about several interesting Arctic Animals.
Thank you again for the lovely gifts you gave to me and my family. I love teaching your delightful children and I'm looking forward to hearing all about their holiday adventures in a few short weeks!
