Sunshine

The sun came out today so we headed outside for a walk around the playground.

We are studying different kinds of weather now so we laid down and watched the clouds for a little bit.
I think we are all ready for some nice spring weather.

BU loves recess even though you have to wonder with this face.

Good-bye Reading Buddies

Today more of us finished our flipcharts. Here KB has LG recording her story.

Today we said goodbye to our reading buddies and will get new reading buddies in a few weeks.

These two really have enjoyed each other.

"Ok, stand up CC" she wanted to hug goodbye.

Flipcharts, Worry Dolls, & Assemblies

A few students have been creating flipcharts for us this week with the use of the ESD laptops.

Here GC is explaining to us how to check our work. His flipchart had us practicing our math.

Here CC and LG are showing us their flipchart. We had to move the math problem and then solve it. It is fun to be able to create our own work and then have our friends learn from it.

Yesterday Mrs. Thorne came in and talked to us about how to handle our worries. She said that it helps to tell someone what you are worried about and she gave each of us a "worry doll".

Today during our awards assembly a group of older students wanted to honor Mrs. Miltenberger with her very own "Principle's Award". They had this big poster made for her and read a very special message about how they feel and the wonderful job she does as she danced down the red carpet. It is great to love your job as much as she does.

We all earned our "respect" charm this month. These students were invited to walk down the red carpet today to receive their award.

We worked in groups to create this art project and over vacation had them printed into cards.

We will be selling them through the school office or through our classroom. $5.00 for a set of 6 cards and envelopes. Money earned will go towards our classroom projects and supplies.

Mrs. B (KB's mom) brought in the ESD printer today so we were able to print some of our writing projects. It was fun to create our work and instantly print them out. Thank you.
Since it has been so wet and muddy out, Mrs. Miltenberger has been letting us have inside recess. CC, TP, and GC used all the Lego's to create this and they are not going to be happy when they have to take it apart, but for now, they are happy!

JC and JS having a friendly game of hangman.

Inspired by the snow recently, we painted some snowmen.

They turned out really cute and will fit in a standard poster size frame if you want to frame it when it comes home.

Gifts....Laptops...Snow

This morning we were invited to Mrs. Thorne's office to see all the items she purchased with the money we gave her. She was able to pick up pajamas, a shirt, jeans, sweats, and a couple toys for each person in the family. AW summed it all up with, "It feels good to give".

Then in the afternoon we got the ESD lab out to do our work. We will have them in our room for the month of January. Can't wait to see what all we will be able to do with them.

Then of course we spent time outside playing in the snow.

It was the perfect day to play in the snow. It was warm, the snow was packing, and we had a great team working to make a snowman.

It took a lot of convincing to get SW to add his snowball to our group one, but we finally got him to give in.

KB was really good at bringing snowballs over.

Our finished product with LG and TD.

What a fun day together.

Concert Details

Chirstmas Concert at the Vert ----All students wear Pajamas to the Vert

K-2 grade students 6:30 (Students there at 6:20) & 3-5 Concert at 7:45 (students there at 7:30)

The Gift of Giving

We read about sharks today and found out that the largest shark is 50 feet long.

This group had fun measuring out 50 feet.

We asked Mrs. Thorne to help us with a special project today.

We asked her to take the money we have made selling our Christmas labels and spend it on a family that could use some help through the holidays.
She explained to us how much this means to her and the family that we will be helping.
We are very excited to be able to do something to help others. As AW put it..."That felt great!"

We finished our day with our reading buddies. We made our elf hats that we are going to wear at the Christmas concert this Thursday. Please come to the Vert a 6:20. We will meet downstairs and start the concert at 6:30. Wear your pj's.

Double Digit Addition

AW spent this weekend competing at a piano recital.

He did very well and received this medal.

Way to go A.

We worked on double digit addition problems today.

One person went to the baord, rolled the dice, and we wrote the problem and solved it on our white boards.
We are learning how to write the problem using correct place value alignment.

Writing

We made our own books today and boy was it fun.

TD wrote about school.

KB wanted to make a Henry and Mudge book.
TP made a story about a snowman.

Teaming Up

Today we got to wear our favorite teams colors. We were a little uneven.

But still had a great day!

We also have been trying a new program out. We are using Elluminate to do some of our school work with our pen pals at another school. We are able to talk, listen, and share our Promethean board with each other. Today we worked on place value. VS and KB watch as the other class works the problem waiting to write in the answer.

We also finished up our letters to Santa. They will be published in the Dec. 24th East Oregonian.

Time for Art

I sent home a sheet of Christmas labels for you today. A little early Christmas gift. The art work was created by us and then scanned so that we could put them on the labels. If you would like more, we are going to sell them for $1.

We have been painting paper this week so we can make our cards that we want to sell too.

This is a great time of the year to spend with friends creating special projects.

We have been reading inspirational stories and are excited to earn some money so we can help others too.

We also took a moment to have some silly fun. I created a video using http://www.elfyourself.com/.

You can try seeing it at: http://videos.jibjab.com/qp6/f66/e8b/rpm/0w6/grb/rcg/5yf.mpg
TD and KB thought it was really funny.
A little art work for you to enjoy.

I sent home the latest newsletter today. I was so pleased with our Quick Check #5 last week. All students passed with a score of 85% or higher. Thank you for your support and involvement with our learning. The children often comment on their growth. They are feeling good about their accomplishments (as they should).