Thursday, December 17, 2015

Holiday Sing/Skits

After mixing up for Holidays Around the world, our class and Mrs. Reeves' class performed skits from the different countries for our Holiday Sing.

Here we have Italy (The legend of La Befana)...
Israel (Hanukkah)...
Germany (Christmas trees/gingerbread)...
Australia (summer Christmas/6 white boomers)...
Mexico (La Posada)...
and Sweden (St. Lucia's Day)
Great work, performers!  One of the most interesting things I saw was who volunteered to be narrators in front of 1st-3rd grade students and parents.  Scary stuff, but we really had some people who stepped up and were awesome readers!

Cozy Frozen Brunch

We had our cozy Frozen brunch this morning, and it was delightful!  Students continued to practice their polite table manners learned at Thankful Feast, and I really enjoyed getting to interact with our class on a more relaxed, fun day!


Some [third grade students] are worth melting for!

Thank you, parents, for all the Frozen treats you brought!
Cinnamon roll rock trolls:
Hans' Swedish meatballs/sausage:
"Fluffy snow" whipped cream!
"Olaf's arms" pretzel rods
So many Elsa icicles!  Jicama, chocolate dipped candy canes, and chocolate dipped pretzel rods!
"True love's" kisses:
"Sven snacks" baby carrots
"Olaf's snowman buttons" olives and raisins
"Melted snowmen" water:
"Frozen hearts" strawberries:
"Melted Olafs" vanilla yogurt:
"Olaf's snowballs" hard-boiled eggs and powdered sugar donuts (picture doesn't want to turn):
Our spread!
Such a yummy brunch!  Don't worry, even with the variety, I limited sugar for the kids as best I could.  Thank you so much to Eddie's mom for bringing me coffee!!  I didn't know just how much I needed it :)
What a fun brunch!


After brunch and a quick recess break, we came back for our Secret Santa gift exchange.  Everyone was so thoughtful, appreciative, and kind...I LOVED seeing it!!


We did some crafts then watched Frozen...
In our cozy pajamas with our cozy blankets!
Thank you, parents, for making this morning possible!!

Olaf's cousins

We did some fun art last week centered around our Frozen theme.  Through a directed cutting/pasting activity, students created their own versions of Olaf.  After seeing these Olafs, we decided they looked more like they would be Olaf's cousins.  Each student came up with a character backstory for these cousins as well as an authentic Norwegian name.  Meet the family!





Our bulletin board should be up in the office through January, so be sure to check it out when we come back from break!

Thursday, December 10, 2015

Our first field trip: Yolo Bypass Wetlands

Today we went on an exciting, beautiful, not-as-wet-as-expected field trip!

Even though we were expecting (and bracing for?) rain, the rain ended closer to 8 and we had a GORGEOUS day!  Thank you to all **9** chaperones who accompanied our class and Mrs. Reeves' class.  We could not do it without you!  We had such a delightful time!

This was the beautiful day we saw when we arrived...



We had four 20-minute stations where students learned about salmon migration, did a pond study, identified wetlands plants, and explored bird beak adaptations.





































After those rotations, we stopped for a well-deserved lunch.  It's amazing how hungry you get when you've been scientists all day!

After lunch,we picked up binoculars, loaded the bus, and headed out to the real wetlands.

Wildlife explorers!







Miss Heidi showed our group the seeds of a cattail!

What a fun field trip!!!  Everyone was on their BEST behavior, so respectful!  I appreciate each and every one of you and am so thankful for this class!  I can't wait till the next one!