Guest Readers

Last week Alabama baseball player Kyle Overstreet and Alabama golfer Emma Talley visited our classroom. They told us a little about what it is like to play a sport for Alabama and answered questions! It was great to have these sweet visitors!

Christmas Around the World

We started our Christmas journey at home in the United States. We talked about how we celebrate Christmas and read Christmas stories. We also, made our Christmas Scrapbook and suitcase.

Next, We went down south to Mexico, We added to our scrapbook and made this poinsettia craft.

Our next stop was Brazil and we made a bird craft for our tree.

Next, was South Africa and we made a Christmas cracker filled with candy.

Then, Germany and a Christmas Tree craft.

Sweden was our next stop and we made a St. Lucia Crown.

In Holland we made a wooden shoe ornament to hang on the tree.

We traveled to France next where we made yule logs.

In Italy we talked about Befana, the witch who leaves gifts for the children and made nativity scenes.

England is where we stopped to making stockings.

The we hopped over to Australia and learned that the reindeer rest there and let kangaroos fly Santa's sleigh...after he changes into more appropriate clothes. Christmas is in the summer there after all. 

The Philippines was the nest stop. We made a Christmas Parol Star Lantern.

China was a fun stop for us since we go to Enrichment twice a month and learn about China. We made a paper lantern to hang in our room. 

As we traveled to each place we read about the culture and how they celebrate Christmas, we compared their traditions to ours and talked about the things we like and didn't like. We listened to Christmas songs in other languages and from other countries and we read books that children in those countries read. It was such a fun few weeks!!

We are also earning these tickets to watch The Polar Express on Thursday. This will be a fun day. We get to wear pajamas all day eat cookies and drink hot chocolate. I may even have a few more surprises for this day! I hope everyone earns their tickets before then!

Welcome Back!

We have had a great few days back!! We started our Christmas Around the World Journey this week and that will continue until we get out for Christmas Break. I will post pictures as we go along. Ask your children where we visit each day and compare their traditions to your own. This is truly the most wonderful time of the year and I am so excited to share it with your children!!

Thanksgiving Break

I hope everyone has a great Thanksgiving! Remember we are out the whole week. Kids return on December 1st! HAPPY THANKSGIVING!

Wiki Stick Spelling

Practicing spelling words is a big part of first grade, and sometimes that can get boring. So, this week we had a fun twist on traditional studying. We got to use Wiki Sticks to make the letters in each word. What fun!!

Halloween Science

We put candy corn in different liquids and watched what happened then recorded it in our science notebooks. It was fun and exciting to see what happened!!

Red Ribbon Week

Here are our dress up days for Red Ribbon Week...at least the ones I remembered to take a picture of!!

Expanding Ghost

Today we did the expanding ghost experiment. We guessed what we thought was in the bottle and what may happen when we stood the balloon up and then we did it and watched what happened.

It was so mch fun to hear what the kids thought made our ghost stand up. After they wrote about it I told them what actually happened. They all said they were going to try it at home so here are the directions.

Materials

Empty water bottle

1 tablespoon baking soda 

1/2 cup vinegar

Instructions

Pour the vinegar in the bottle. 

Put the baking soda in the balloon (with a funnel) and put the opening of the balloon on the bottle.

Finally stand the balloon up and dump the baking soda down into the vinegar.

Watch the fun!!!

I would love to hear how the experiment goes at your house! Have fun!!

Reminder

Do not forget to check the classroom news link for spelling words and any important information I have for you! We will take our Spelling and reading test on THURSDAY next week since we will be trick-or-treating and having our Halloween party on Friday.

We will dismiss at 1:00 on Friday for the 100th Rivalry game against Guntersville.

If you have not sent a bag of candy please do so by Thursday.
If you are sending a treat for the party you can send that anytime before Thursday.

Thanks for all you do!!

Red Ribbon Week

Dress-up days for next week are:

Monday- wear red

Tuesday- wear camouflage 

Wednesday- wear sunglasses

Thursday- favorite team colors

Friday- wear your super hero outfit or costume

Get ready for a week of red ribbon fun!!! 

Spiders

This week we have learned all about spiders, we have read spider books, watched videos about spiders, and made spider crafts. We made this cute handprint craft and then wrote an acrostic poem to go with it. Then we got to make these glittery spider webs!! We are ready for Halloween now!

Reminders

We did not test today since we had a 3-day week. We will have our spelling and reading tests next Tuesday so make sure you still study!!

Money and permission forms for the circus need to be returned no later than November 8th. If parents wish to go they will need to pay by then too, so we can order tickets. $30 for students and $15 for parents.

Report Cards went home today. Please sign and return these on Monday.

I need one bag of individually wrapped candy from each student no later than October 30th. This will be used for trick-or-treating.

If we have not met about your child this month then we need to do so in the next two weeks. I sent home times today that we can meet. Please look for this in your child's folder. It is very important that  I meet with all parents to discuss your child's progress.

Have a GREAT weekend!!!

Homecoming 2014

Today we had a parade at school to get ready for the homecoming game tonight!! The senior football players came to our school and we cheered them on!! Then we had a special friend read to us and tell us all about playing football!! Good luck tonight guys! GO AGGIES!!