December - February Literacy Events
Most recent are listed first.
February 26 - 28, 2001
Teacher Selected Materials
Child Selected Materials
Books we Read Together
-
Joseph's Coat (x2)
-
Little Green Frog
-
Cinderella Dressed in Yellow
-
Bear Went Over the Mountain
-
A Counting We Will Go
-
Down By The Station
-
There's A Monster in the Tree
-
It's Melting
-
See How It Grows
-
Dinosaurs Dancing
Books read to us during extended
program visit to Highlands Library
-
Star of the Circus- Michael and
Mary Beth Sampson
-
My 1st Riddles- Judith Hoffman
Corwin
-
Circus Family Dog- Andrew
Clements
-
Circus- Lois Ehlert
Songs and Action Plays
-
Most of the books we read
together this week had a song that goes with them. Instead of simply reading
them, we sang them.
-
We learned a new action poem
about dinosaurs
Spread your arms, way out wide
Fly like a Pteranodon, soar and glide
Bend to the Floor, Head Down Low
Move like a Stegosaurus Long Ago
Reach up tall, try to be
Tall as an Apatosaurus eating a tree
Using your claws, grumble and growl
Just like a Tyrannosaurus on the prowl
Dinosaurs once ruled the earth
Ruled the earth, ruled the earth
Dinosaurs once ruled the earth
Many years ago
Stegosaurus swished his tail...
Triceratops had 3 horns...
Other Activities
-
After reading Dazzle the
Dinosaur, we learned about the letter D. We brainstormed a list of words
starting with D that we found in the book, then added a few of our own. Our
list included Dinosaur, Dazzle, Dragon, Day, Denise, Destiny, Duck, Door,
Dog, Diet, Dill Pickle, and Drats. We practiced writing the letter D in our
alphabet books and illustrated our page with our favorite D picture. We also
wrote the words Dinosaur, Duck, and Dog.
-
As a group, we gathered together
and each received a plastic dinosaur. Each child took turns telling the
group one thing about their dinosaur (color, size, number of legs it walked
on, unique features, etc...) Then, each child had to find another child with
a dinosaur that had something the same as their dinosaur. Each group was
then responsible for telling the other groups what was the same. We switched
again, and each new group had to find and tell something the same. We
switched one more time, and each group had to find and tell something
different about their dinosaurs.
-
We had a lengthy discussion about
friendship and how we show people we are friends. Also included in this
discussion was appropriate playground conversations and some school rules.
4 of my students came together and decided that we should make a promise as
a class to be nice to other people, to be friends with everyone, and that if
anyone wants to play, then we should let them. So, all the students stood up
and we turned that into an oath that we all shared.
-
We made a card thanking our
pancake breakfast coordinators and volunteers for our yummy breakfast.
-
We had an Ash Wednesday
celebration.
-
We created crosses and recorded
our plan to become closer to Jesus on them
-
We found out that one of the boys
in grade 1 is quite ill and had to be taken to the hospital. The students
were very sad about this and told me that we needed to do something for him.
We eventually settled on a card. I was so impressed with what they wrote!
First, they decided the card should be yellow because it looks like a happy
sun. Then, they dictated the entire letter for the inside of the card.
Dear _____, We hope you feel
better. If you stay in bed, it can help you even if it is boring. We hope
that God gives you everything you need from the world's space. Stay in the
hospital until you feel better because it is a good and safe place. We will
take care of you in our hearts by saying a special prayer. We hope when you
are feeling better you can come back to school. We hope you like our
card.
From Kindergarten.
Then, they all signed their names.
Most of them also took the initiative of adding hearts, flowers, and suns to
the page to make him feel better.
-
For our extended experiences, we
had our last session of the Footlights and Fancy Feet program.
-
We also had another session of
the Art Start Program. This time, we looked at a variety of patterns found
in nature, then drew a picture of an animal, and covered it in
patterns.
-
Finally, we had another visit to
the Edmonton Public Library for a storytime and book selection. In addition
to the books listed above, we also had a storytime poem, a cut and tell
story, and played 1-2-3 look and see. Each time I take them to the
library, I become even more proud of them. They have settled into the
routine so well, that I can take groups of them and help them find books
they are interested in, and when I come back, the others are just quietly
reading to themselves. I have found this time very valuable because even
some of my children who didn't initially want to take books in September are
now finding topics they are interested in and books they want to take. I
have one girl who even in December wasn't interested in any books, and today
I finally had to cave in and let her take 5 books because she was just dying
to read so many that I couldn't restrict her enthusiasm.
As always, we continue with Bible stories and prayers
February
23, 2001
Books
we read Together
Other
activities
February 22,
2001
Teacher
Selected Materials-
Child
Selected Materials-
Other
Activities
-
As
we are just introducing Dinosaurs in the classroom, I thought it would be a
good time to make a KWL chart. Out of all of the children I have taught,
this group seems to know the least about dinosaurs, but are the most
interested in learning about them. The things that they were able to tell me
they knew were the things I had briefly shared with them over the last 2
days. I will have to explore
this further!
-
What
they knew-
-
Some
have long necks
-
Some
are bigger than a school
-
Their
legs are big
-
Some
eat trees
-
T-Rex
eats meat, even blood
-
They
make footprints
-
Some
have 2 legs to walk on and some have 4 legs to walk on
-
They
could eat you
-
They
have sharp teeth
-
Some
eat grass
-
What
They Want to Know
-
How
do we draw dinosaurs and dinosaur feet?
-
How
big were the dinosaurs for real?
-
Did
Dinosaurs Sleep?
-
Did
Dinosaurs Walk, Run, or Jump?
-
What
are some name
s of Dinosaurs?
-
How
did a Dinosaur Know Where it Lived?
-
Did
Dinosaurs Have houses?
-
How
are Dinosaurs Born?
-
Are
there little dinosaurs?
-
Are
the babies big?
-
Did
dinosaurs fly?
-
Did dinosaurs have nests?
-
Could
dinosaurs swim? Could they go in the water?
-
Could
Dinosaurs walk backwards?
-
Did
dinosaurs live where the school is?
-
We
continued with our daily prayers and bible reading
-
We
created a Dinosaur Footprint chart. I have a BIG dinosaur footprint I have
cut out of green paper. We practice predicting how many children’s
footprints will equal the dinosaur footprint. Then, we trace each child’s
foot. We see that there is still space available, so the kids brainstorm
ways to fill the footprint up. This class decided that we should ask some of
the teachers in the school to help, so my daily helper took the footprint
and traced some adult feet. In the end, we found that one dinosaur footprint
is equal to 25 human footprints.
-
The
students also drew a picture of a dinosaur footprint next to one of a
child’s footprint. They then completed the sentence “ A Dinosaur
footprint is ___________ (larger) than a child’s footprint)
February 21,
2001
Teacher
Selected Books
Other
Activities
-
After
reading our selection, we brainstormed what a child’s name- osaurus would
look like. Then, the students drew a picture of that dinosaur and labeled it
with the correct name.
-
For
our extended program, we headed to the arts barns to view the play “The
Monster Club” I cannot believe how much the students enjoyed it! I was a
little hesitant to take the students because I was not sure they could sit
quietly for 1 hr, but the whole play they were transfixed. Afterwards, there
was a question and answer period for the actors- my students got right into
it, and were asking real questions- and even good questions like “How does
the smoke get on the Stage”, “How did the monster grow” and “Why did
you pull down his pants and show his underwear”. To be honest, I am sure
it was largely the whole showing the underwear thing that the kids enjoyed
so much, but they really did seem to learn as well!
-
After
we got back, we again journaled about our experiences. Surprise surprise,
most of the pictures involved the character with his heart boxer shorts
showing, but these drawings also included the most details I have seen yet
this year. I had nearly 25% of my class recreate the set by dividing their
page into a triangular shape. After their drawings were complete, the
students were to label their pictures with Monster Club and dictate their
stories, but that wasn’t enough for them today. Most of them also wanted
me to spell the names of the characters for them, so that they could label
each character in their picture with the correct name. I am So Proud of
them!
-
I
introduced our first dinosaur song and the flannel board activity that went
with it.
1
red, 1 orange, 1 blue dinosaur
1 pink, 1 purple, 1 green dinosaur
1 yellow, 1 brown, 1 black dinosaur
9 dinosaurs in all
February 20,
2001
Child
Selected Books-
Books
we Read Together-
Other
activities
-
We
journaled about our visit last week to Rutherford House. First we
brainstormed a list of the activities that we had completed, then each child
selected their favorite as the picture to draw in their journals. When they
were finished, they wrote the words Rutherford House and then dictated their
stories to me.
-
In
our extended program, we had another session of the Art Start Program.
Again, we were working with clay, however this time we designed and made our
own coil pots. They turned out very well.
-
We
continued with our daily prayers and bible reading
February 16,
2001
This
is a half morning for the extended program only
Books
We Read Together:
Other
Activities-
February 9 - 15
Unfortunately, my recording this week has been very poor, so I
am going to have to give a weekly summary rather than a daily account.
Hopefully, next week won't be so harried!
Teacher Selected Books-
-
The Giving Tree by Shel Silverstein
-
Guess How Much I Love You by Sam McBratney
-
Froggy's First Kiss by Jonathan London
-
I Like Your Buttons- by Sarah Marril Lamstein
-
Up Up Down by Robert Munsch
-
Love You Forever by Robert Munsch
Child Selected Books-
Activities-
-
We spent another morning at our skating lessons. I am so
impressed with how well they are doing. Even my students that cried for the
first few lessons are now skating around and dancing and singing to the
Hokey Pokey and Looby Loo while on the Ice.
-
We visited the KNEX exhibit at the space and science center.
The children were so impressed with what could be built. They were full of
questions, and were amazed at how many KNEX some of
the bigger models like the dinosaurs and shark were made from, and how long
they took to make.
-
We Started our Giving Tree in the classroom. After reading
the story, we discussed how sometimes it feels good to give and sometimes we
are giving something we really don't want to share. In the end though, we
always feel happy because we have made someone else happy. We decided to
make a tree that shows all of the nice things that we do in the classroom. Every time
a student
catches another student doing a good deed, we write their name on a heart
and their good deed on the back. Then we hang them on our giving tree. We
are trying to see just how full of love we
can make it!
-
We designed Valentine's Cards for our special valentine.
They were in the shape of a flower, with the student writing their special
valentine's name in the center of the flower under the following poem: I
Love you for the things you do and just because you are you. The flower then
had 6 petals, each read I Love For You Too... The students selected 6 things
they love that their special valentine does and Tammy and I recorded these
on the petals.
-
We went with Ben Calf Robe School to the Call Me Sweetheart
Program at Rutherford House. This was another discussion building field
trip- the students were thrilled with the fortunes they received during the
valentine's game. One of my students really believes that he is going to get
married soon
and be a farmer, and has already adjusted his play within the classroom to
include feeding animals!
-
We had our valentine's party. The students favorite
part was passing our their valentine's but we also baked cherry
turnovers in the shape of hearts, watched Franklin's Valentines, Ate, and
played games. Another hit was the game Heart Heart Valentine (a Valentine's
Version of Duck Duck Goose) The "it" child would go around the
circle saying heart heart valentine. When they picked
Valentine, they would recite this poem: Roses are red, Violets are blue, I'm
a ______ (frog, dog, cat, etc...) and so are you. They would then have to
race around the circle using the mannerisms of whatever animal they
selected.
-
We made a Guess How Much I love You book. The students
picked a special person and told me How Much They Loved that person. Student
responses included More than the whole earth, to the sun and back, all the
way to the UFO's, as big as God, as big as Jesus, to the moon, bigger than
the dinosaurs etc... Inside the book they drew a picture of themselves, the
special person, and a symbol representing how much they loved them. Then,
they wrote the phrase I love you... and Tammy and I filled in the rest of
their answer. Later, we came back to the books and printed I love you on the
arms, folded them over, and then this much on the chest- They look really
cute when the arms are outstretched.
-
We worked on the letter L. We brainstormed Like, Love, Looby
Loo, Lion, Luke, Llama, Lie, Light, Larry, and Leaf. Then the students
practiced making their letter L's and writing the words Love, Like, and Lion
in their alphabet books.
-
We discussed what Random Acts of Kindness meant and what
acts we completed over the week. We also went on a Random acts of Kindness
walk and passed our Candy to people we saw. When we gave them the candy, we
said Happy Random Acts of Kindness Week.
-
We
continued with our daily prayers and readings from the bible
-
In
our extended program, we continued with the Footlights and Fancy Feet
Movement and Dance Experiences. The students continued to learn concepts
such as right, left, above, below, high, low, slow, fast, gentle, smooth,
and rough.
-
In
our extended program, we also continued with the Art Start Program. Again,
we were working with clay. The students were thrilled to see their pots out
of the kiln, and to glaze them using the beautiful colors. They also had the
opportunity to create another clay item- this time, anything they wanted. We
saw a large variety in their creations- snow people, angels, people,
flowers, a gorgeous sun, a butterfly, and others.
-
In our extended program, we also had
another visit to the Public library. The program again included the Color
Song , a cut and tell story, and a craft, as well as the following stories
February 8
Teacher selected Materials-
Child Selected Materials-
-
Hedgie's Surprise by Jan Brett- after reading our two other
Jan Brett books, the students were dying to find out more about the
Hedgehog, and to see if the illustrations in this book would give us clues
too.
-
Snowy Day Colors- by Mary Hogan
Other Activities-
-
Each child had a piece of large manila tag which they
divided into 3 columns and labeled- Small, Medium, and Big- They were amazed
that even though big is big, it has the fewest letters of the words (Did I
explain that right? Maybe it only makes sense in Kindergarten). Then, they
took pictures of the animals from the mitten, cut them out, and pasted them
in the different columns to create a graph. They found that medium had the
most animals, and big had the least.
-
We sewed our own mittens, and using pictures of the animals
from the mitten, retold the story of the mitten. We made sure that each
child left enough slack in the yarn so that when they made the AAAHH CHOO-
the mittens flew all over!
-
We used the masks downloaded from the Jan Brett Website to
dramatize the story of the Mitten.
-
We practiced all of our prayers yet again.
February 7
Teacher Selected Materials-
-
The Mitten by Alvin Tresseult
-
The Mitten by Jan Brett
-
We read the Alvin Tresseult Version, then reread the Jan
Brett Version. Then, we made a giant mitten, and wrote things that were the
same and different on it. Some of the similarities were
quite obvious (different animals, etc...) but some of the students really
got into it and were noticing different colors and even textures- the mitten
in the Tresseult version looked smooth, and the one in the Jan Brett version
looked rough and bumpy.
Child Selected Materials-
Other Activities-
-
We played A Hunting we will go and Alphabet Bingo.
-
We practiced our daily prayers- all 5 of them- to make
certain that we knew them well for next week.
-
We Sang our February song and Tony Chestnut
-
I must add that this was "one of those days". My
children were demonstrating more energy than I had seen for months- any
other activities that I had planned were quickly scrapped!
February 6
Teacher Selected Materials-
-
The Mitten by Jan Brett. We read this book again today
as I wanted children to think about the beginning, middle, and end of the
story. We brainstormed a list of events that took place at each point in the
story. Afterwards, we illustrated our own mitten shaped books with one event
from the beginning of the story on the first page, one event from the middle
of the story on the second
page, and one event from the end of the story on the third page. They also
dictated to me some events from each portion that I wrote on the correct
pages.
Songs:
Other:
-
In our extended program, our Art Start Program was on
Printmaking. It was fantastic to hear the children use words like printing
ink, brayer, and fiberglass board by the end of the session. We also had the
chance to go look at the kiln in the IA lab where our clay pots were being
fired.
-
We finished off our bunch of munch video by watching the Boy
in the Drawer and Murmel Murmel Murmel
-
We continued with our double prayers.
February 5
Teacher Selected Materials-
-
The Mitten by Jan Brett. -Before we read this book, we took
turns looking at each page and predicting what the words would say. I
recorded all of these on chart paper. Then as we read the book, we compared
our predictions of each page to what the words really said. Mostly we found
that our predictions were right, but sometimes we noticed that we were
thinking about things that the author wasn't saying. We discussed why this
was and determined that we were figuring out what the book said by the
pictures. We talked about how this was one reading strategy, but if we only
use the
pictures when we are reading then sometimes we will be mislead.
Child Selected Materials-
Songs-
Other Activities-
-
We sang and played a Hunting We will Go with 2 sets of
rhyming words each
-
We played one round of alphabet Bingo
-
We brainstormed V words- Vampire, Volcano,
Violin, Vase,
Valentine's Day, Valentine- and practiced writing the letter V in our books.
We also selected 2 V words to write and illustrate
in our books.
-
In our extended program, we continued with our Footlights
and Fancy Feet Program.
-
We are doing double prayers this week as next week it is our
prayer week over the intercom. We said 4 prayers today.
Friday, February 2
Teacher Selected Materials-
-
The Paper Bag Princess by Robert
Munsch
-
We compared this to the video we had
watched yesterday and noticed that although the pictures looked the same,
the story was quite a bit different.
For
our extended program, We spent the morning skating at the Westwood Arena.
Thursday, February 1
Teacher Selected Materials-
Other Activities-
-
As we missed our Art Start Program
on Tuesday when we went to Revy, We had the program this morning instead.
The students had the opportunity to do print making, painting, and bubble
painting.
-
Our placemats were close to
destroyed so we created new ones. Each placemat read:
Thank you God for sending Jesus to
teach our hands to help and our hearts to love. Amen.
Jesus Loves ______________________
The students filled in their name, and drew a picture of themselves working
with either their hands or their hearts.
Wednesday, January 31
Child Selected Materials-
Books we read together-
Other Activities-
-
We Composed a letter to Revy
thanking them for their assistance in building our birdhouses. Each child
contributed 1 sentence to the letter, and then they all signed their names
at the bottom.
-
For the extended program, we had our
bi-weekly visit to the Edmonton Public Library. The students were so
excited to go so that they could take out Robert Munsch books and share them
with their families. The students also had the opportunity to
-
Listen to and act out a train
song
-
Sing along to a colors song
-
Sing along and work with the Flannel board
to Jenny Jenkins
-
Read Down by the Station
-
Read Row Row Row Your Boat by
Iza Trapani
-
Read Polly Molly Woof Woof
-
Sing I’m a Little Teapot
-
Sing Head and Shoulders
-
Read I’m a Little Teapot by
Iza Trapani
January 30
Today we had another girl join our class- that brings our new
total to 8 boys and 6 girls!
Teacher Selected Materials-
-
The Mitten Tree- by Candace Christiansen
-
we spent a lot of time predicting whether or not the
children would guess who was making the mittens. We also took some guesses
as to who was refilling the basket of wool for Sarah. Afterwards, we looked
at the illustrations. We noted that using crayons or markers doesn't make
that kind of picture- smudgy. I introduced chalk to them and showed them a
picture that I had drawn using chalk. They agreed that it looked like the
pictures in the book (not that my art was that good, only that the effect
was the same!) We then all designed our own picture of either one mitten or
a pair of mittens using the chalk.
Child Selected-
Books we Read Together-
Other activities-
-
For our extended program, we had the opportunity to join St.
Basil Kindergarten at Revy. There, we had a chance to look around and then
make birdhouses. The children are very excited about painting them tomorrow!
-
As always, we continued with our daily prayer and bible reading.
January 29
Teacher Selected Materials-
-
Andrew's Magnificent Mountain of Mittens- by Deanne Lee
Bingham
-
We spent almost as much time talking about this book as we
did reading it. This is an item I had taken out of the public library, and
the children were very interested in why it had a flag on the side. They
were very interested in the fact that this flag (Canadian) meant that the
author was from Canada. They are very excited to go to the library on
Wednesday to see if they can find more books from authors from Canada. This
is also a "chapter book" which the children found very exciting. I
explained that the book would be broken down into smaller parts called
chapters, and that we would have the option to carry on or stop reading
whenever we finished the end of the chapter. We did end up reading the whole
book, but the students liked thinking about whether or not it would be a
good place to stop. Mostly, they noticed that the end of the chapter was
when something exciting happened. I had never thought that I would get into
cliffhanger endings with these kids!
Child Selected-
Other Activities-
-
We journaled about our Field Trip to Galaxyland on Friday.
The students drew their favorite part of the trip and labeled it with
Galaxyland, while Tammy and I scribed their stories.
-
we created our own class book called Dressing for Winter. We
brainstormed a list of the things that we need to wear in the Winter-
Mittens, Hat, Snowpants, Jacket, Skates, Boots, Scarf, Hood, Pants, Sweats,
Sweater, Muff. Each child then selected one item to complete the phrase
"On icy-cold and wintry days I put on my _________ then run out to
play!" They also wrote their names at the bottom of the page and drew a
picture of the selected item.
-
We continued with our daily prayers and bible time.
-
Our extended experiences involved the Footlights and Fancy
Feet Program. She continued to spend time on Beat, and helped the children
create a dance to "Yell"
January 26
This day was only for the extended program. We had our skating
lesson in the morning and spent the afternoon at Galaxyland. Only 1 of my
students had ever been their before, and the excitement they felt at going on
the rides and playing at the play park was just fantastic. I can't wait to see
what the students journal about it on Monday:)
January 25
Teacher Selected Materials-
Other Activities-
-
We originally had a field trip planned for the morning but
it got postponed. Instead, we decided to have a Robert Munsch day. Each
child selected their favorite Robert Munsch book, and favorite illustration
within it. They then drew their own version of that picture. Individually, I
had each child retell the story in their own words and scribed it for them.
I also had them tell me which part of the story was their favorite. I was
absolutely amazed at how much detail some of the students remembered, even
in books we had read 3 weeks earlier.
-
We finished watching the Robert Munsch Video- we saw
episodes of Jonathan Cleaned Up and Moira's Birthday.
January 24
Teacher Selected Materials-
Child Selected Materials-
-
Show and Tell- Robert Munsch
-
Get Out of Bed- Robert Munsch
-
Down by the Bay- Raffi
-
Lady with the Alligator Purse- Nadine Bernard Westcott
-
What Comes in Threes
-
Jonah and the Whale
Other Activities-
-
We Brainstormed a list of things that we see in the Winter
Time (Snowshoes, snowflakes, snowman, igloos, Skates, Skis, sleds). As I
wrote these down the students were amazed at how many started with the
letter S. They continued looking at the words and were even more amazed that
many of the words started with S-N-O-W- I explained that these letters made
the word Snow, and that any word that starts with SNOW would also start with
those letters. One of my students didn't believe me so he threw out Snow Angel-
I wrote it down and he was just amazed. This started a whole sense of
competition of creating snow words, so students added Snow Fort, Snow Ball,
Snow Lady, Snow Baby, Snow Dog to our list.
-
We then completed our "In Winter, I see Books"
Students selected 4 things that they see in winter, and recorded the words
to complete the phrase "In Winter, I see..." They illustrated each
page to match the words that they had recorded.
-
We also watched the video "Angela's Airplane" I
didn't explain to them before we watched it that this was a Robert
Munsch video, but it had been on for less than a minute before one of the
children noticed that the movie looked the same as the pictures in the
Robert Munsch books. They then decided that the story was silly just like Robert
Munsch books as well. They enjoyed it so much that
I pulled out the book and started reading.
January 23
Teacher selected materials-
Child Selected Materials-
Other Activities-
-
We completed a great activity about the Dream snow
story that I learned at our most recent inservice. Thanks Barb! First we
brainstormed a list of our favorite animals (Lion, Zebra, Giraffe, Dog, Cat,
Parrot, Tiger, Bear, Fox, Squirrel, Frog, Chipmunk, Snake, Rabbit, Turtle,
Polar Bear). Then each child selected one of the animals and drew a picture
of it in the center of their page. We discussed the use of color in Eric
Carle's work, and they tried to model their art to match his- therefore,
after finishing their animal, they also made certain that their entire page
was filled with color. Next, I stapled a piece of plastic over the page. The
students used white acrylic paint to paint
over their animal, as well as dabbing white snowflakes over the rest of the
picture. Finally, the students filled in the name of their animal onto a
piece of paper "The snowflakes gently covered _______ with a white
blanket". The students loved this activity so much that they wanted to
show the whole school their work. We took our pictures out to a centrally
located bulletin board, so that
other students could guess which animals are hiding behind their snowy
blankets, just like they guess which animals are hiding behind Eric Carle's
snowy blanket. This activity was completed over the course of the full
day.
-
As part of our extended program, we had additional paint
experiences. Brucie Moulden continued our Art Start program- the students
first experimented with creating color, and eventually created a still life
picture of some materials that Brucie brought in.
January 22, 2001
Child Selected Materials-
Books we Read Together-
-
There's a Monster in the Tree
-
The Northern Lights (introduced)
-
Counting Penguins (introduced)
-
Arctic Winter, Arctic Summer (introduced)
Other Activities-
-
We journaled about our Winter Wonderland Field Trip from
Friday. The students drew some fantastic pictures of snowshoes, skates, as
well as the treasure hunt and parachute games. They labeled their work with
"Winter Wonderland" and then Tammy and I Scribed their stories.
The students have greatly improved at this activity since the beginning of
the year. Getting them to tell us about their experiences used to be like
pulling teeth, but now they are adding more and more detail without us even
prompting or asking them questions. Even the students with the lower English
Vocabularies are starting to correctly name the activities and even
integrate tense into their stories.
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Tomorrow will be our grand unveiling of our classroom igloo.
After all the hard work we have put into building it, as well as the
hundreds of milk jugs we collected from around the school, we thought it was
important to let everyone know about this exciting event. As such, we wrote
a "Memo" for Ms. Syrnyk to post in Cub-Chat (our teacher
information newsletter) and also an "Announcement" for the morning
announcements. In addition, we wrote a Thank you letter to post outside the
classroom to thank everyone for their donations.
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In our extended program, we had another Footlights and Fancy
Feet Program. Karrie had the students working with hula-hoops to practice
prepositions, as well as working in partners to develop rhythm. The students
always love her visits but today was especially rewarding.
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As always, we practiced our daily prayers and reading from
the bible.
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We practiced our 5 Little Snowmen Poem.
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Today was our first day as a school on the Hot Lunch
Program. We spent a long time practicing what good manners would sound like
to the wonderful ladies who are serving us lunch. We also discussed what the
meals for the next few weeks included, as well as providing some comparisons
of taste as some of the foods are quite foreign to these students.
January 19
Today we had a full day fieldtrip- The Winter Wonderland Program
at Rundle Park but on by the Catholic School Board Outdoor Pursuits Program. It
was a fantastic field trip, and the students really loved experiencing
snowshoeing, skating, as well as a treasure hunt and parachute games. We
finished off the day with a campfire, while one of the leaders told us a story,
and then we sang some of our favorite songs. The students got to select the
songs, and as you can see they were quite the mix.
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Feliz Navidad
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Oh Canada
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Down by the Bay
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Alice the Camel
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The Itsy Bitsy Spider
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Twinkle Twinkle
January 18, 2001
Teacher Selected Books-
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Snow is Falling by Franklyn Branley- I didn't introduce this book as either
fiction or nonfiction. The children figured out that it was nonfiction by
noticing
that there were captions describing different pictures within the book.
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The First Snowfall- by Anne and Harlow Rockwell
Child Selected Books-
Books We Read Together-
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Down by the Bay- Raffi
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A Counting We Will Go
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Who Stole the Cookies from the Cookie Jar
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While Snowman, White Snowman, What do You See
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The Lady with the Alligator Purse
Other-
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We learned another winter poem today.
Five little snowmen sitting on the ground
The first one said "oh, my we're round"
The second one said "there are snowflakes in the air"
The third one said "but we don't care"
The fourth one said "let's run and run and run"
The fifth one said "I'm ready for some fun"
Whooo went the wind and out came the sun
As the five little snowmen melted into none
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The words were actually supposed to be a little different but as I was teaching
it line by line, the students remembered the 5 little pumpkins poem we had
learned
in October. Immediately, they began reciting those lines that would still fit-
they knew I wasn't going to say witches in the air and they guessed it would
be snowflakes instead! I never had a chance beyond that point to instruct it
line by line because they were so interested, I was not willing to dampen their
enthusiasm.
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After learning the song/poem, we created our own pictures of 5 little snowmen
sitting on the ground. I was very impressed to see that everyone added details
(the wind, the sun, and the snowflakes) from the poem. At the top, they labeled
their work with 5 Little Snowmen.
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We also had a Kindercooking session today. We created snowflakes by cutting
tortilla's into snowflake shapes, cooking them in the electric frying pan and
then dusting them with icing sugar. The students are getting very good at
following
the instructions on the recipe poster.
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As always, on both days we continued with our prayers and bible session.
January 17, 2001
Teacher Selected
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Snowflake Bentley by J. Briggs Martin- This is a biography
of Wilson Bentley. The students were very interested in the fact that this type
of non-fiction material seemed just like a story. Once again I was surprised
at how interested in literature my children were as I read this book- last year,
I only read my class the main portion of the book and they did not enjoy
it
at all. This class noticed that I was not reading the captions at the side of
the page and demanded that I include that.
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Snowballs by Lois Ehlert.
The students loved the silly snowpeople and were very interested in the fact
that the pictures were made using some of the same techniques we had used during
out Art START program just the day earlier.
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Lady with the Alligator Purse- Nadine Bernard Westcott.
Because this class loves books that they can "Read" by themselves
afterwards,
I have started using more of these books that have catchy songs with them. After
I finished reading/singing it, they were already demanding to read/sing it back
to me.
Child Selected-
I use books as a transition point between any activities that we do in the
classroom-
if they finish a task, they can look at a book while they are waiting. If they
finish lunch early, again they can read while they are waiting. Since adding
the tubs of books with stuffed animals (Thanks Carol!) I have noticed a few
different things. More and more students are selecting the stuffed animals to
read to- it has been a great way to get them retelling some of the longer books
in the class (i.e. Franklin, Berenstein,...)
Therefore, for child selected materials, today we had 2-
Neither book
was read to ALL of the students, but different clusters listened to each.
Books we Read Together-
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The lady with the Alligator Purse- by Nadine Bernard Westcott
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Down by the Bay- Raffi
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White Snowman, White Snowman, What do you see
Other Activities-
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After reading Snowflake Bentley, we spent some time discussing crystallization.
Afterwards, we made our own six sided snowflake out of pipe cleaner and then
we put it in a borax and boiling water solution. We will be examining the
snowflakes
daily for the next week to see what occurs.
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We learned a poem about snowflakes today.
Snowflakes are falling by ones and twos
They fall on my shoulders and on my shoes
They stick to my eyelashes and to my nose
They stick to my mittens and to my clothes
But best of all they stick together
To make the biggest snowballs ever
January 16, 2001
Today our focus was on snowpeople!
Teacher Selected Books
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Sadie and the Snowman- Allen Morgan, Illustrated by Brenda
Clark- we spent quite a bit of time comparing the illustrations by Brenda
Clark in this story to those in the Franklin books (which happen to be some
of our favorites). We also used the story to stimulate a discussion about
some of the snowmen we have built, how we decorated them, and what happened
to them.
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The Biggest Best Snowman- Margery Cuyler- we compared the
snowman in this book to the ones in Sadie and the snowmen. We were
especially interested in the size differences between the two.
Child Selected-
Books we Read Together-
Activities-
-
using "ivory snow" we created our own snowmen. We
discussed how to make them (roll them), how many balls snowmen should have,
as well as how to decorate them. We also gave our snowpeople names which we
recorded on their base. In addition, we compared the snowpeople to the ones
in Sadie and the Snowman and The Biggest Best Snowman.
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We finished illustrating our "White Snowman"
books.
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in our extended program, we had our second visit with Brucie
from the City Art Centres Art Start Program. She had the students involved
in torn paper art as they devised exotic creatures. Afterwards, she spent a
long time discussing each creation with the students to help them learn the
language of the techniques that were used.
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We continued our daily reading of the bible, as well as the
singing of our new prayer
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We played two rounds of alphabet bingo and 2 rounds of
color/shape bingo (and they still are wanting more.)
January 15
Teacher Selected Books
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Polar Bear, Polar Bear, What do You Hear? by Bill Martin Jr.
and Eric Carle
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Snowy Day Colors
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Story of Ruth and Naomi from the bible
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Today we also learned a new prayer (tune of Twinkle Twinkle)
Thank you God for all that grows
Thank you for the sky's rainbows
Thank you for the stars that shine
Thank you for these friends of mine
Thank you for the moon and sun
Thank You God for all you've done
Amen
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We illustrated and practiced reading (4 times) a new book
called White Snowman, White Snowman, What do you see. We followed the
pattern of Brown Bear and Polar Bear but instead
substituted the words White Snowman, Blue Mittens, Brown Sled, Pink Hat, Red
Boots, Green Scarf, Orange Toboggan, Black Umbrella, White Ice Skates, and
ended with "A Winter Wonderland
as Pretty as can be"
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We played 2 rounds of Alphabet Bingo. This was our first day
playing this game and the students did remarkably well. It appears that it
will be a new favorite, and I am sure we will play it over and over.
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Our attendance question of the day was "What did you do
over the weekend?"
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Our dismissal question was to supply a word to rhyme with a
cue that I provided to the students.
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For our extended program, Karrie from the City Arts Centre
came to teach the students the Footlights and Fancy Feet Program. Today her
focus was the ocean, and she taught them several
Maritimes songs, as well as some old fishing and rowing classics (like row
row row your boat!)
Literacy Summary January 9-12, 2001
Author
Bins:
I
took a note from Carol’s Bins of Favorite Authors/Characters and created a few
of my own this week. We now also have bins of Franklin, Curious George, The Bernstein
Bears, and Robert Munsch to select from at our main reading area/reading center.
So far they are a big hit- I also have stuffed animals in the bins (Franklin,
George, and Brother and Sister Bear) that the students love “reading” the
stories to. They are a little upset there is no animal in the Robert Munsch bin,
but they have decided they will just have to read those books to each other.
January
9, 2001
Teacher
Selected Books
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Amos’s
Sweater by Janet Lunn
Child
Selected Books
Books
we Read Together
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A
Counting We Will Go
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There’s
a Monster in the Tree
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Cinderella
Dressed in Yellow
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Who
Stole the Cookies from the Cookie Jar
-
Is It
Alive
Other
Activities-
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We
had a visit from Patricia Rabbit from the John Janzen Nature Centre. We
learned about which animals like the winter and which ones hibernate or
migrate during the winter months.
-
In
our extended program, we had our first visit from the Art Start Program with
the City Arts Centre. The children had the opportunity to learn some art
related language, as well as to begin to create their own masterpieces using
clay. Our instructor was excellent at answering the children’s questions
(ranging from questions about art to why her smock was so dirty!) and at
creating links between the language and the activities that the students
were doing.
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We
played our game a Hunting we will Go with 2 sets of rhyming cards/student.
January
10, 2001
Teacher
Selected Materials-
Child
Selected Materials-
Books
we Read Together-
Other
activities-
-
We
wrote and drew in our journals about our experiences with Patricia Rabbit.
The students drew a picture of their favorite part of the morning and
labeled it with Patricia Rabbit. Tammy and I then scribed their stories. I
was amazed at how many students remembered the proper terms for migration
and hibernation.
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We
also continued working in our Animals in Winter Books. We wrote that one
animal that migrates in the Goose and one animal that likes the winter is
the fox.
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In
our extended program, we drew winter scenes including at least 5 different
winter objects and then painted them with Borax and Ivory Snow to create a
snowy look.
January
11, 2001
Teacher
Selected Books-
Child
Selected Books-
Books
we Read Together
r-
Other
Activities-
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We
finished our animals in winter books. We learned that 1 animal that
hibernates is the bear and recorded this information in our books.
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We
noticed that many of the books in our classroom had the word WINTER on them
and that Winter starts with the letter W. We then spent time looking for
other W words (both around the classroom and in our brains) and added the
following to our list- Winter, Walrus, Water, Wave, Watermelon, Wind,
Wednesday, Wagon, Wheel, Wagonwheel, Window, Witch, Wizard of Oz, Why,
Where, Who, When, What.
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We
practiced making our letter W’s with our magic pencil in the air, and then
recorded them in our alphabet books. Later we selected a W word to record on
the same page and to illustrate. We decided that Winter was too hard to draw
so most students selected either Water, Watermelon, Wagon, Wheel, or Window.
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We
viewed the Video’s 50 below Zero and Thomas’s Snowsuit by Robert Munsch.
We looked for similarities and differences from the books and then reread
the books to refresh our minds.
January
12, 2001
This
was our first regular Friday for the extended program. We joined St. Michael
school for Skating Lessons at the Westwood Arena. The students were very excited
to note that the word Westwood also begins with the letter W. The morning was
very chaotic, as we were also joined at various times by students from St.
Patrick, St. Basil, St. Clare/Ben Calf Robe, and St. Gerard school’s but we
did enjoy the experience. We are looking forward to our next skating lesson on
the 26th.
Monday, January 8
Today we started our new hours. The students continue to attend
Mon-Thurs for the regular program, but we have added Friday 8:30-11:50 to the
extended program as well.
We also gained a new student today.
Teacher Selected Books-
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Thomas's Snowsuit
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50 Below Zero
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I Have to Go
We started with just Thomas's snowsuit, but the children loved it so much
that they wanted me to read it over and over- instead, I gave them a taste
of what they really wanted- the humor of Robert Munsch. We read each
book twice, and by the second time the students were already beginning to
"read" some of the book with me.
Books We Read Together-
Other Activities-
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Our attendance question of the day was telling about what we
did over the Christmas Vacation.
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We then journaled about our Christmas vacations, with the
students writing "Christmas Vacation" and Tammy and I scribing
their stories.
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We brainstormed and recorded a list about what we knew about
animals in winter- some gems!
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Rudolph the Reindeer likes the cold
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Caribou like the cold
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We need to feed our rabbits carrots
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Birds need shelter so they fly to the south. When it
gets to 15C then it is okay for them to come back. In the south, the
food is not covered with snow so it is easy for them to find. Snow makes
the food yucky (It seemed so promising until the last line!)
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Rabbits are white in the winter so the fox can't find
them.
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Penguins are birds that like the cold
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Bears hibernate in the winter
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Sheep don't like the cold. They have to make more wool
to keep warm.
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We also completed the cover and first page of our animals in
winter book. The students wrote their name on the cover, and on the first
page had to write 2 things that they do to get ready for winter- the list
they chose to select from was
-
Muff
-
Jacket
-
Sweater and Jacket
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Hat
-
Scarf
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Mittens
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Boots
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They also completed the last page which had them draw
themselves completing a winter activity.
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The woman scheduled to run our afternoon extended movement
and dance experience called at lunch to cancel so we had a myriad of
activities in the afternoon. Our primary literacy focus was a discussion
about birds. The students were very concerned that the birds that don't fly
away need food and since the snow makes it yucky, the birds would always be
hungry. We decided to make bird feeders, which we then took into the school
courtyard and hung on the tree- Tall branches because birds fly high- they
don't like to fly low or they get caught in people's hair!
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As always, we continued with our daily prayers and bible
time.
December Summary
Teacher Selected Materials:
-
The Christmas Star- Marcus Pfister
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A Colorful Christmas- Kim Ostrow
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The First Night- B.G. Hennesey
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The Perfect Christmas Gift
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Froggy’s Best Christmas-
Jonathan London
-
Kipper’s Christmas Eve- Mick
Inkpen
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The Gingerbread Mouse- Rita Walsh
-
The Selfish Giant- Fiona Waters
ed.
-
Tale of Three Trees- Angela Elwell
Hunt
-
The Christmas Crocodile- Bonny
Becker
-
Hurry Santa- Julie Sykes
-
Olive the Other Reindeer- Otto
Seifold
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Wild Christmas Reindeer- Jan Brett
-
Littlest Reindeer- Michael Foreman
-
Counting to Christmas- Nancy
Tafuri
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Who was Born this Special Day- Eve
Bunting
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All for the Newborn Baby- Phyllis
Root
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The Polar Express- Chris Van
Allsburg
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The Keeping Quilt
-
Dream Snow- Eric Carle
Child Selected Books
-
God’s Littlest Angel- Alan and
Linda Parry
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Arthur’s Christmas- Marc Brown
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The Grinch Who Stole Christmas-
Dr. Seuss
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Playground Problem Solvers
-
The Selfish Giant- Fiona Waters
ed.
-
Froggy’s Best Christmas-
Jonathan London
-
Franklin’s Christmas Play-
Paulette Bourgeois
-
Gingerbread Baby- Jan Brett
Books We Read Together-
Other Activities-
Oh Clap and Be Joyful
Lord Jesus Loves You
God Love Us and Sent Him
It Really Is True
Oh Clap and Be Joyful
We’ll Sing it For You
God Loves Us and Through Us
God Loves Others Too
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Once a week we had an advent
celebration in the classroom. This included a reading from the Bible, a
quiet reflection, and also a poem that we would chant together related to
the advent theme of the week. We also spent this time contributing ideas we
had to celebrate Jesus’ birth or ways that we prepared at our homes for
Christmas.
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We completed an Advent Star to
help us count down the days to Jesus’ Birth. On the Star was the following
poem:
Tell
Me, Tell Me, Shining Star
Christmas Day is Just How Far
Take one Loop off every Morn
When all the loops have all been torn
Ring the bells and blow the horn
It’s the day that Christ was born
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We journaled about our visit to
the Festival of Trees. The students drew their favorite activity and labeled
it with “Festival of Trees”. The grownups then scribed the stories that
the children related about the day.
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Each day we also worked on our
advent wreath. We traced our hands on green paper, and cut them out. Then,
we told a grown up one gift from the heart |