Sweets, candies, and laughter

Candy is ready and waiting to decorate houses!

The much anticipated gingerbread house project came with lots of creativity, laughter, and candy breaks. Lots of helping hands made it possible - thanks everyone!

A little dab of frosting...

The evening before...

How about a candy cane?

It's looking great!

How about an M&M here?

Is it candy break time?!

Yum!

A little help from big bro!

I know just what to pick!

Fun time!

Just as fun for big bro!

Just munching on one!

Ta Da!!

Designed by two!

Snuggles!

Big smiles!

Look at my ideas!

Twice as nice!

Look what we made!

Little help from big sis!

You're going to love it!

Finishing touches! 

 

Making candy cane ornaments

P.J. Day!

Opening surprises - books!

Performing The Gingerbread Boy

Favorite character day!

ornament time

Learning about deer

The Gingerbread Boy play

What a fun filled week! Thanks for all your help and see you 'next year'!!

Mrs. Dagley

Gingerbread everywhere!

Gingerbread Man doubles facts!

These little gingerbread shapes seem to lend themselves to all sorts of fun. Here we are after making a book of math doubles and attaching it to the gingerbread cut-outs. Of all the doubles we have practiced, I would say 8+8 and 9+9 are the two that get mixed up at times... so we keep practicing. In fact we visited Mrs. Carney's class and taught them our doubles rap chant. They loved performing for another class!

Gingerbread girls and boys and elves made an appearance during centers too. Creating our own gingerbread kids on the starfall site, listening to Gingerbread Pirates at the listening center, sorting words under gingerbread headings at pocket chart, and searching for an elf in the dictionaries to discover and write a word, helped enliven centers!

Computer center!

Pocket chart sorts

Searching for the hidden elf!

 We had fun creating our own life sized elves this week to decorate our room. Exciting project!

Look up!

Cheerful little elves!

All in a row!

 In science we continued with
light and sound activities, discovering and discussing how we use light and/or sound to communicate information or send messages. Everyone had the chance to sort photos under those categories and tell how it could be used to communicate.

Nice sorting!

 Our completed paper 'video games' about how sound and light enhance the game were also proudly displayed!

Lots of creative ideas in these!

 Sorting was also an activity we engaged in during reading. Each child chose a gingerbread cut-out from a tin that had words or pictures on it from the various versions of the Gingerbread themed stories. They placed their cut out with its characters or events under Beginning, Middle, or End to determine when it happened in the story. It was good practice for story organization and for comparing texts. The bonus was if a solid red gingerbread was chosen, everyone had to hop up, run in place, and sing, "Run, run, as fast as you can. You can't catch me, I'm the gingerbread man!"

sorting fun!

 Due to the freezing temps this week, we had several indoor recesses. Checkers, blocks, castles, cars, playing school, and building legos make recess a very fun time!

Playing school!

 

Blocks for animal homes

Checkers masters!

castles, legos, and more!

 Here a few holiday themed friends cheering up our day!

Excitement in the air!

Reading time is getting exciting as more kids are finding series and specific books they want to (and can!) read. We are also practicing a Reader's Theater Gingerbread play.

Caught up in a book!

Play practice!

In writing we are writing a fiction story complete with original characters and problem /solution. We will finish those next week. Love the creativity!

We wished Arthur a Happy Birthday this week - what a special day for him!

I don't know about you, but I am heading to the stores today for shopping and also for some gingerbread house supplies. We only need 4 more permission slips signed for our project on Wednesday. Anyone is welcome to drop by on your way to work (9:00), and a parent, grandparent, aunt/uncle, or older sibling at TES is welcome to be the visitor! 

Here's hoping we all get a lot checked off on our To Do lists this weekend,
Mrs. Dagley 
 

Brrr, it's getting cold outside!

 

The seasons are changing, snow is on the way, and animals as well as people prepare for winter. This week we learned about animals that migrate, hibernate, or adapt to winter conditions. The hallway display shows an animal they chose and tells a fact about what they do in winter. We read several great non fiction texts and completed a little paper booklet to read and color.


In our science focus of light and sound, we turned our attention to ways that sound and light energy are used to communicate. Viewing slides and animations of ambulances, fire trucks, light houses, and  a 'career kid' video game designer gave us some examples of how important sound and light energy are to communicate information. We followed up by planning and designing our own video games - what challenges will we include, what will the final goal be, who or what will be our character? They had so much enthusiasm during this project!

Creating our video game ideas

Awesome ideas!

Let's add sound for this part!

It's all planned out!

A few ideas!

Reading how animals such as dolphins communicate, even 
under water, was a great chance to partner up, read to each other, and discuss.

Reading buddies!

I'll read to you, you read to me!

Dolphins are cool!

We've got this covered!

 We've been practicing reading and spelling words with the suffix 's' added to them and have made word families with words such as 'all' during our Fundations phonics time.

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I hope you had the chance to read your child's collection of personal narrative writing! Isn't it fun to see all their ideas and what is important to them? Lots of hard work went into their collections.

So proud!

Look at this writing!

Favorite pages

We loved reading them all again!

What a collection!

It's that time of year again when all our many versions of The Gingerbread Man make an appearance. We have been comparing and contrasting as we read each one and are getting ready to make our own gingerbread houses soon!

Just a few of many!

Every year the first grade classrooms invite family in to decorate a gingerbread cookie or mini house. Our class will be decorating gingerbread houses, and any donations you could contribute in the way of graham crackers, frosting, and mini candies would be appreciated! I will be sending a note home as well, but I plan on decorating gingerbread houses on 
Wednesday, December 20 at 9:00 AM. Any family member (parent, grandparent, or aunt/uncle) is welcome to stop by, help set up the supplies and help with the decorating. If a family member is unable to come, an older sibling can come down from upstairs if you wish. It is always fun, and the room smells so sweet!

We wished two boys a Happy Birthday this week. Happy birthday to Caleb, and Happy Birthday to Jaylyn!

I loved having the chance to meet and talk with you at parent conferences - thanks for coming out!

Happy shoveling,
Mrs. Dagley