Good Morning Parents!!
Can you believe it is December 16th already? Only 9 more days!! I think I am as excited as the children. Not only is it Christmas but my birthday falls on Boxing Day...so it is a very celebratory time for me and my family!
We have been busy little elves in the classroom, and having so much fun as well. The decorating of the gingerbread houses on Friday was wonderful. Thank you to Leah's mom Angela who helped divie out the candy and with cleanup...and thank you to Brady's mom Jody who provided all the excellent icing for our houses. You will see pictures of smiling faces at the end of this blog. So keep reading!!
During these past few weeks we have been making a book of symbols of Christmas. The children have learned about an important symbol and then have done some writing, reading and art about it and have put it into a booklet that they will be taking home. It is truly a keepsake! In spite of the excitement we have still been doing our reading, writing and 'rithmetic. There will be a spelling test on Friday...so continue to study the words at home.

Now a look at our week:
Wednesday: We will talk about Hannukah. The grade ones will make Latkes with our cooking moms in the afternoon after we read about Hannukah and write about Hannukah and add to our symbols book. Latkes are a delicious potatoe pancake...there may be some leftover so take a peek when you pick up your child...we like to share.

Thursday: Pancake breakfast, pajama day. The annual pancake breaky, santa visit, pajama day will be happening this Thursday morning. We will eat pancakes likely around 915 and then shortly after run off our pancakes by going to gym...hopefully their bellies will be okay...haha. If your child does not like pancakes, please have them eat before hand so they are not starving.
After lunch we will be walking across the street to the church to watch a movie that Mr. Hodson has made. Mr. Hodson has written, produced, filmed many movies that are quite amazing. WE are lucky to have him as part of the school. This movie will take place from 100ish till 200ish.

Friday: Our last day of school. We will be busy wrapping gifts, making cards, cleaning our desks, cleaning our room and then in the afternoon we will decorate cookies ( I made some sugar cookies that the children will ice) and we will watch a little movie and then just play. Often the children do not get enough time to just play with each other, so that is what our plan is.

Your child will receive their report card on Friday as well.
And with that, enjoy the pictures and have a great holiday. Stay healthy and have fun! I hope to hear all about your holidays in January.
Lots of love and best wishes,
xoxo 
teri

Our finished properties!

Letters to Santa!

Good Morning Everyone!
Did you know there are only 18 more sleeps till Xmas??? Wow, time is simply flying and we are all doing so well!! The kids are excited but great. I am excited and great as well!! We had a fun week this last week with Tiago presenting on Monday about Sinterklass Day, a Dutch Holiday that celebrates by putting your clogs in front of your fire place and if you are good it is filled with candy...this does not replace Christmas but is a celebration of Santa Claus.  Afterwards we wrote about this celebration and put it into our Symbols of Christmas book that we are working on this month. Ms. Linton came in and talked about the symbolism behind yummy Gingerbread cookies and then our third page in our book was talking about the symbolism behind Poinsettias. In art we painted some lovely poinsettias which will be displayed when you get to school, on Monday. They are lovely!! Next week we will be writing letters to Santa, you will get a copy to send to him and we will be blessed with a baby visit on Thursday. Besides that we have tons of other great activities.....wait till you hear about a covetted classic that we do every year...it's the.....

GINGERBREAD HOUSE MAKING ACTIVITY:
This Friday between recess and lunch we will be making our annual gingerbread houses.  I will be providing the cardboard structures, and the graham crackers. Brady's family will be providing the icing (thank you Jody and Brian) and what I need from you is this: everyone needs to bring a small (500 ml) milk container, this will be the base for the house...it needs to be emptied and clean and brought to me by Wednesday so i can set up the structures. All the children need to bring in some candy....not a lot, we share, but some ideas besides candy...marshmellows, shreddies, raisins, chocolate chips, candy canes, pretzels...etc. We have so much fun on this day. Baking will be cancelled on this day...the grade ones will take their cooking turn the following Friday. 

Finally, our love hamper...thank you so much for everything that has been sent already. We have lots of "gift" items, but are short on the food. If you would like to contribute food, like Peanut free items...pasta, pasta sauces, cereals, soups etc. That would be lovely.

Thank you so much...a few pictures of wonderful things in our classroom.
Have a great day,
xoxo 
Teri

Brady reading one of his favourite books to the class....a porcupine in a pine tree.

The grade ones wrote a reindeer story and painted their own little reindeers to go with it.

Our bear winter collages....very cute!

Why do babies cry? Kacey came in and we talked about why they cry and then how to comfort them. This is part of our roots of empathy program!