Today we had fun with an art project. Students rolled out dough, cut shapes such as gingerbread men, candy canes, trees, etc. I will bake the shapes tonight and hopefully students can paint them tomorrow.

Pen Pals

Today we received an envelope from Toronto, filled with pen pal letters addressed to each student in our class! Students used journal time to write back to their pen pal. To see the letter your child received, look in their backpack.

Happy birthday Aaron! Thanks for sharing the yummy cupcakes with us! After introducing the letter of the week (i), students were able to tell me words with the short i sound in them. They are great word detectives. In math, students quickly proved that they understood the difference between small, medium, and large. In social studies, we continued our lesson on family by having students put the faces of each of their family members onto a heart cut-out. At the very end of the day, my son Wes and his dog Lucky visited.

Sequencing Events

This week students will be practicing sequencing events. Here is a web site with sequencing games. You might have to help your child get started, but they will get the hang of it quickly. Copy and paste this link http://pbskids.org/arthur/games/storyscramble/scramble.html This is Mia's VIP week. We will be reading many stories by author Jan Brett, including Gingerbread Baby. Shhh...don't tell...each child will receive a bag of homemade gingerbread play dough tomorrow. There's an even bigger surprise for our art project on Wednesday, but I'm keeping it under my hat for now. Check out Jan Brett's web page for fun activities at http://janbrett.com.

Goodbye Ms. Kembel

Sadly, today was Ms. Kembel's last day with us. She has completed her practicum hours and will student teach next semester. Each students made a card for her. We also had a special treat for the occasion.

The Scholastic book order arrived today and I was able to distribute the books while the students were in music. If you placed an order, please check your child's backpack. Thanks to you, I was able to add 4 books and CDs to our listening center. I know the students appreciate having new books to listen to.

Ms. Kembel taught a lesson about cooperation this morning. We also made stress balls, using the pop bottles (that you wonderful parents sent to school) to fill balloons with flour. The kids were so excited about them, but I had them keep the stress balls at school until Friday so we can finish the lesson by talking about ways to deal with stress and how to use the stress ball when they feel stressed. Thanks so much to Ms. Kembel, Nicole and Tracy for pulling off such a fun project!