Jingle All the Way....into Christmas Break!

Are we feeling like we are sledding down the fastest hill right into Christmas break yet?! December is always a whirlwind, but we try to enjoy every second of the busy season! THANK YOU to all the parents and grandparents that were able to join us for the "lunch and learn" on Friday. We were so thrilled with the turn out, and the positive feedback we are receiving. We hope you enjoyed lunch with your child, and learning some tips and tricks from the Kdg. and first grade teachers for helping your child become an independent reader! It was a great afternoon, and it was so nice to see the children reading TO you! What big kids they are becoming!

Like I said on Friday, our readers grow by leaps and bounds once January kicks in. Look for those notes to come home that say "The Reader in Me" that tell you what reading level your child has recently mastered. In January, the goal is level F or above. If your child is not at level F, and you would like to talk about how you can support them from home, please let me know. I am happy to offer ideas and materials!

We have also been enjoying all the Christmas/Winter story mystery readers that have been coming in this month! Thank you, Thank you! The class LOVES being read to by others, and are especially surprised when the reader "belongs to them"!

Emmy's Dad was working and couldn't leave his classroom at the Jr. High to come read to us, so we did a little video call on Google Hangout. It was a huge hit!

These 4 rockstars got to have a teacher lunch for reaching 75 points on Class Dojo (our point system for how we act, work, and treat others on a daily basis: work ethic, behavior, kindness, following directions quickly, cleaning up, being on time to the group area, clean table area, being on task, and more!) Students can earn multiple points a day - it's all up to them!

We earned our class Basketball Activity Reward for the WHOLE CLASS passing their basketball word lists. Some students are way beyond this individually, but we always celebrate when we ALL pass a list. This encourages team work, kindness, encouraging others, and peer teaching! They definitely enjoyed their 25 minutes of open gym basketball! Then they went right outside to recess. What a nice, long afternoon activity break!!

We try to get outside in the winter whenever the weather cooperates. Below, you'll see a group of student who chose to go outside during FREE CHOICE on Friday! I love that they chose the outdoors instead of iPads, computers, or staying inside! WAY TO GO!

If the temperature/wind chill is zero or below, we can't go out, so we do a little bit of indoor movement and exercise before students choose inside toys/sedentary activities. Pictured below, we are doing a workout video from You Tube. It was 16 minutes, and they were sweating from a good workout. Perfect!

Here are some workouts to do at home if you find your child becoming restless from being cooped up on no-so-nice winter (or any bad weather) days! These are also great to get their bodies jazzed up before school on days where you know they will not get morning recess due to inclement weather.

We LOVE LOVE LOVE Cosmic Kids Yoga! Yoga infused with story time!! Search Cosmic Kids Yoga on You Tube....there are a bunch of yoga videos to try, and if you subscribe to their channel, you will get updates when new ones are added. I've used this for a about five years now, and it never gets old!

Also search for Just Dance Videos for kids on You Tube. There are a ton of short videos to sing and move along with!

We also continue to enjoy all of the fun work in math and science, too! When we get lots of exercise, our bodies are definitely ready for lots of learning. Ask your child about our science experiment this week where we could see sound waves in action! I heard that a few students recreated the activity at home for their parents! I love hearing that! When they go home to teach you new things, not only are they sharing what is happening in the classroom, but they are creating new pathways in their brains by teaching others! The one who does the talking does the most learning-----so let them talk, share, and show! It's all about discovery!

Be sure to check your child's SeeSaw account! They have bene busy posting and showing their "big learning" each week!

Abe is enjoying this math game for adding single digits. The first person to fill their board to 20 wins!

Noah is matching equations to picture models!

Lydia and Keadric are practicing recognizing fact families and sorting them in the correct columns. Then, they record their fact families!

This game is called Penguin Pop, and it takes 3 players. 2 players pop a card on their forehead, but cannot look at their own. These are the number partners (missing addends). The third person without a card adds the partners together and tells the sum. Knowing the sum, and the other person's number, you have to try to guess the number on your forehead. This is a great, and challenging, way to play with missing addends! You could easily play this with a deck of cards from home!