Holiday Memories

Today we worked some more on our Christmas gifts.
I think it is safe to put this photo on because you really can't tell what we are doing, you can just see how much our hearts are in it.

Then later in the afternoon our reading buddies came and we shared hot chocolate and candy canes while listening to the Polar Express book.

Finally on the last recess of the day we got to play in the snow.
CK with a large snowball.

Oh, we had fun!

We slid, rolled, and tossed snow.

See the snowball right above GU highest hand? He was playing catch.

Then we had to go inside and leave the snow behind.
Hope you all are staying warm.

Giving a Helping Hand

Last week we were able to give some of our card sale money to Mrs. Thorne. Here are each of us handing her some cash.

With this money, she went shopping and was able to buy all kinds of items for two boys.

She bought shampoo, pants, shirts, toys, socks and more. It felt good for all of us to help out.
We got mail today! Our pen pals sent us letters. They were so colorful and festive that we couldn't wait to read them. They are very heartfelt letters that we are keeping in our scrapbooks. Thanks Pen Pals.

Here are JB and KS sharing their letters with each other.

JC loved his letter.

And these three are beaming over their letters.

Merry Christmas Pen Pals!

Last week Mrs. Miltenberger brought in our S.T.A.R certificates for the month of November.

Here are our S.T.A.R readers.

Christmas Concert

We have completed our Christmas labels and are ready to put them on sale. We are selling them for $1.00 a sheet (10 labels).
If you would like to purchase a few sheets of these cute labels, please let us know. Each sheet has ten different graphics.
These are a few samples.

Tonight we had our Christmas Concert at the Vert.

Many students attended and sang beautifully.

Here are a couple cuties from our second grade neighbors in Mrs. Straughan's class at the concert.

And a cutie from our room, KC.

Good friends sharing holiday events together.

BR and QD performing during the concert.

Yesterday I experienced the hardest read aloud day ever because of our chapter story, Marley and Me. It is such a funny story that we have laughed ourselves silly on some days, but yesterday and today was the complete opposite. We have spend the last two days in tears. After completing the story today, we cheered ourselves up by watching the trailer to the Marley and Me, movie that is coming out on Christmas day.
I said earlier in the week that I would show you our bulletin board, based on the wonderful Eric Carle calendar that Mrs. Thorne gave us. I hope you enjoy.

Getting Ready for the Holidays

Saturday I was taking pictures of Santa at the Festival of Trees and

at the end of the day I still had a few familiar faces on my camera cards.

Here is LS.

And AR who has a brand new baby sister that I got to see and hand off to Santa.

She was so little and content.

Sorry AP, I didn't have your picture still :o(

Okay, back to McKay School. Friday we completed our bulletin board. This group of students are creating some gifts to put around the tree,
while this group makes the snowballs that float around the scene. I will have to take a photo next week of the final product because I kind of forgot to do that before I left. It is really neat.

Our parent club is offering the Little Shoppers Shop again this year.

This is an opportunity for students to shop and purchase gifts for members of their families.

There are a variety of items for mom, dad, brothers, sisters, pets, grandparents, and aunts and uncles.

We are bringing home an envelope with items that we think you might want to help your child purchase. See flyer for more details.

Each day this week we have been doing a special holiday activity like reading Santa's web page.

Then at the end of the day we played a quick game of tic tac toe with Rudolph. If you want to play this, go to http://blackdog.net/holiday/christmas/tictactoe2/index.html

We WILL be on a new spelling list Monday.

Have a great weekend.

We are starting to sale some of our cards.

I hear many of you are interested in them. Here is what one looks like.

The cost is $5.00 for 8 cards and envelopes.

This group read a story about Arthur and his pet so they drew a poster and wrote about their pet.
This afternoon we spent a few minutes in the lab learning how to use the program Microsoft Paint. We are practicing our art so when we go back on Friday, we will be ready to make our Christmas labels (which we will also be selling).

Here is BR making a snowman.

KC with a candy cane.

DC and his happy reindeer.

At the end of the day our reading buddies came in.

We are lucky to have such good buddies. They pay attention to US.

Here FA is taking an AR reading test after reading a book to her reading buddy.

We get points for taking AR tests and then we get a prize.

KS and her buddy TL. I love it when kids have "happy" written all over their faces.

GU likes to read our class books.

JD reading on the heater with his buddy JM.

These two have a lot of fun reading together.

Yesterday we painted A LOT of paper so we could create this Santa (who has a really big nose)...

and this colorful tree. Tomorrow we will add gifts and some writing to the scene.