That's "snow" cute!

Since we came back from Christmas break, we have been SUPER busy!  I am just about finished with assessments and I am SO impressed with how much my sweet babies have learned!  The kids were excited that the season changed over the break, so we have spent the past few weeks talking about Winter, arctic animals and snowmen.  Earlier this week, we interactively labeled a snowman I made as an example for a cooperative group project we completed today.  The students got in their cooperative groups and drew their "job" out of a cup.  I had printed out the word and the picture (differentiation at its best) of different parts of a snowman that they would be responsible for.  Each student had 2 parts of the snowman they were responsible for and 1 student had 3 (eyes, nose, and mittens - super easy!).  I pulled off all different colors of bulletin board paper and had it sitting on the counter for them to choose what color they wanted for each part.  The only thing that is consistent about them is the blue paper background that I cut to be the same size.  I gave them free reign with the paper and how they wanted to design each part.  Being a control freak, it just about killed me!  The room was chaotic and loud buzzing with busy students working on their parts.  They were all over the room in the floor with their large pieces of paper going to town.  They worked so hard and they were so encouraging of each other.  When someone had trouble with their part, their group members were right there to assist them.  I LOVE IT!  Forget the noise - these kids working together melts my heart!  When all was said and done, these snowmen were "snow" stinkin' cute!  I left out the part where I bribed them told them that if their snowmen were cute enough we would get to display them for the whole school on a nice, big, empty wall in the media center.  I'm pretty sure they want theirs to go on that wall! :)  On Friday, they are going to get back in their groups and label their own snowman and also write clues about their snowman.  Then we are going to post the snowmen in the front of the room and I am going to read the clues and see if we can pick which snowman goes with the clue.  Of course you know a cooperative learning activity wouldn't be complete without the paparazzi, so here are a few pictures of them working and the finished product.

 Aaron, Ray'shawn, a sweet friend, and Katelyn's Snowman

 Messiah, a sweet friend, Meredith, and Emily's Snowman

 Joshua, Tristan, Kameryn, and Amy's Snowman

 Nick, Eli, I'Dereis, and Karma's Snowman (This is possibly the cutest picture of these 4, ever!)

 Kevin, Brooke, Hannah, and Jyrah's Snowman (That little tiny head with that huge nose tickled me!)

 Ray'shawn gluing his pieces on the snowman.

 Hannah showing me her nose.

 Aaron busy working on the body for his group's snowman.

 Amy hard at work on a perfect circle!

 Nick and Eli

 Meredith making some arms for her snowman. (She traced her own arms - I thought that was cute!)

 Emily busy drawing one of her parts.

Kameryn and Joshua hard at work!

I love these free form cutting activities.  They show their personalities and always turn out cute!

Merry Christmas

Better late than never, my sweet students and I around our Christmas tree the day before our break.  I hope you all had a Merry Christmas and a happy New Year!

I am so thankful that I am able to have this beautiful Christmas tree in my room for my sweet students.  The tree and everything on it was donated by various businesses last year.  I wrote a few letters and they gave generously!  (Thanks as always to The New River Pottery, Walmart, Lowes of Winterville and Lowes on 10th Street - You guys are amazing :)

Christmas Party

After rotations in the morning, we decided to have our Christmas Party that afternoon.  Leading up to the party, the students had been participating in the 12 Days of Christmas.  The 12 Days of Christmas is a behavior incentive that many of the teachers at our school have the 12 days leading up to their Christmas Party.  Parents are asked to donate 22 of the same item pre-wrapped to the classroom.  Each day, if the students don't lose their apple, they get a present in their bag. (A gift bag I purchase and put their names on - I try to get them on sale!) On our party day, we sit in a big circle and everyone opens their presents.  It's pretty chaotic but super exciting for the kids!  This is a time we all hope that students who missed a certain present due to misbehavior will reflect and have an aha moment.  However, they are all so happy to be opening 12 presents that I'm not sure they noticed!  When they finished opening their presents, they went back to their seats and had a yummy snack and then we finished watching the Polar Express.  Many of them colored in their coloring books that Mrs. Edwards and I got them for Christmas.  While they were busy with all this, some of my sweet parents helped me take down my Christmas tree so we would be ready for January when we got back!  Here are some pictures of the fun!   

Snack Time!

 What a mess!

 A present from Mrs. Edwards and I!

It was an exhausting day, but seeing their excitement after waiting 12 days to open their presents is so worth it.  

Christmas Rotations

On the last day before our Christmas Break, we had another day of rotations, but with Christmas activities this time.  In my room, students made a Christmas Tree ornament.  Each child had 2 die-cut Christmas Trees that had several holes punched out of them. On the table, we had cut up squares of tissue paper.  They glued the tissue paper to one side of the Christmas tree and then put the other one on top.  I put a piece of red ribbon through a hole at the top and voila they had an ornament for their tree at home.  This activity is super easy and turns out really cute.

 In Mrs. Hardy's room, the students learned to sing Feliz Navidad!

 Candids in the hallway !

 In Mrs. Biggs' room, they read The Elves and the Shoemaker and then sorted their shoes in hula hoops.

 In Mrs. Mitchell's room they played Musical Chairs to Christmas music.

 In Mrs. Reel's room they also played Musical Chairs to Christmas music.  

 

 In Mrs. McGregor's room, they played bingo with the Christmas Vocabulary words.

It was a great way to review the things we learned about Christmas and not start anything new before our break! 

Pie Feast

To celebrate Thanksgiving, after we have learned about Thanksgiving and the Indians and the Pilgrims, we have a pie feast with another class.  School policy doesn't allow us to cook anything or parents to send anything they have made, so we have to use store bought items and this is what we came up with years ago.  One class dresses up as the Indians and one class dresses up as the Pilgrims.  My class was responsible for bringing Pumpkin Pies and the other class brought Apple Pies.  Thank goodness for my wonderful parents - they came in and helped out (this is the first time I have ever invited parents to help) and it was the least stressful pie feast I have ever had.  We dressed up as the Indians and invited Mrs. Mitchell's class to come feast with us.  The students tasted each kind of pie as I showed an example of them.  They gave thumbs up/down to show if they liked it or not.  After we tasted both together, the students were able to eat and chat with each other and I called them up by table to graph their favorite on the SMART Board.  I had a few students this year that didn't like either, so I had to add a column to our graph for neither.  In the end, most students liked Pumpkin Pie.  We answered a few questions about the graph and the students came up to write their answers.  Both classes were so well behaved and they really enjoyed this activity.  Here are a few pictures of our feast.