Jack's Tradition

Jack's family shared the traditional dressing of China, Japan, and Korea. They also brought in rice crackers and seaweed for everyone to taste!

Jim's Tradition

Jim's mom read us a book about snowmen and then all the students made ornaments! Hopefully the ornaments made it home!

Teddy's tradition

Teddy's family has a very special tradition of traveling to Mexico each winter! Teddy and his dad shared several pictures of their trips and told us fascinating details about adventures they take in Mexico. Ask you child if they remember the cenotes!!

Avery's Tradition

Avery and her mom read A Charlie Brown Christmas to the class!

Levi's Tradition



Levi's Family celebrates St. Nicholas day on December 6. They shared the story with the class and all the students put their shoes out in the hallway. When they went back for their shoes....they found candy!!!

Erik's Family Tradition

Erik and his family play holiday charades each Christmas. They played it with the entire class and it was a hit!!! The kids acted out gingerbread boy, Rudolph, the nutcracker, Santa, and candy cane to name a few.

Samantha's Family Tradition

Our sweet Samantha shared several traditions that she does with her family. She talked about her making cookies each year. She said that making sugar cookies and reindeer cookies are her favorites! She also told us that she and her cousins go to her grandma and grandpa's house and they have a special visitor- SANTA! They all go to church on Christmas Eve and then celebrate Christmas together.

Collin's Tradition

Collin's family has a very special book they read each year during December. It is such a fabulous book about family traditions that I stole their idea a few years ago after hearing it when I had Collin's brother and I have been reading it to my classes since. They also painted snowmen decorations with the class! Crafting and painting is a big deal at Gaby's house!!!!!!!

Emma's Family Tradition

In Emma's house her elf, Christopher Pop-In-Kins, comes to visit in December. He watches over Emma and her brothers and reports back to Santa about their behavior! They shared the book explaining the elf's job with the class as well as some tasty candy canes!

Addison's Family Tradition

In Addison's house, they read T'was the Night Before Christmas each December. Her mom also makes a very special Christmas Eve dinner for the family. Each member of the family can request their favorite food for Christmas Eve. Last year Addison picked macaroni and cheese, the year before that she picked pancakes!!

Traditions from our class

Our classroom has been learning about winter traditions around the world and in our own community! We  read about La Befana in Italy and the first Christmas trees in Germany! Ask your child to tell you who La Befana is and why the very first trees were decorated (it has nothing to do with religion or holidays).


Rabbits in Distress!

 

Mrs. Willmore shared a LOT of good information with us today about animals in the wild. We heard the different sounds animals make when distressed, playing, calling their young, and warning others that danger is near.  We learned that animals do speak and have a language of their own. Mrs. Willmore also told us that rabbits are some of the easiest animals to eat so when a rabbit is in distress and calling out, almost all animals in the woods will come out to observe the scene. After hearing several animal sounds, she taught us how to make our own animal callers that sound like a rabbit in distress!

 

 

Our Own Duck Callers

Some of our girls were so excited about the animal callers that they immediately went home and made their own. Lucy can't wait for recess so she can call some ducks!!!

How to Make Your Own Animal Callers

Here are animal sounds the kids enjoyed listening to today.
Animal Sounds


We have researched animal callers to help us make our own owl callers later this week. Here are a few links if you want to try at home!!

How to Make Turkey Callers

How to Make Bird Callers

Animal Caller with Decoy

These are very similar to what the girls designed in the classroom!

Animal Caller 1

Animal Caller 2

WHO IS INSPIRED TO CREATE THEIR OWN TO SHARE WITH THE CLASS? What an incredible experience this could be for your family!!

Pajamas, Pilgrims, and Pumpkin Soup

We had a pajama party today for reaching 10,000 minutes of reading outside of the classroom!!

Next, we read Pumpkin Soup by Helen Cooper and made our own soup! Everyone helped, not everyone ate it, and not everyone liked it...but some of us did!

 We also made bracelets to help us remember the first thanksgiving. Each bead represents a part of the story. Ask your child to tell you all about the pilgrims and Squanto on the first thanksgiving.

Enjoy your break!

The First Thanksgiving

Today we learned about the first thanksgiving. The children found it very interesting that it was over 400 years ago and that is lasted three days!! Some of the children already knew about Squanto and how he helped the pilgrims survive the first winter. Their assignment was to write about why the first thanksgiving happened. They met with their writing partners to share and add more information to their work.

We then discussed what we were thankful for this year. We made a list and cut out a cute little turkey to adorn the lists. A good reminder that cutting on lines (squiggly, straight, and curved) is FABULOUS practice to strengthen those fine motor skills.

Long Ago Stations

We had an interactive visit from the Historical Society last Friday. The kids went from station to station learning about life long ago. They wrote with quills dipped in ink, made dolls out of cloth and stuffing, stamped envelopes from wax, and explored artifacts from long ago. Avery's mom came to help out too!