Polar Express Day

Today was Polar Express day! We got to wear our pjs to school. The unexpected snowfall made the day even more magical. 

We started our day by reading my favourite Christmas story "The Polar Express."

They were quick to notice the snow begin to fall! 

Just like in the story we got to have hot chocolate today. We completed a writing and art activity about how to make hot cocoa. 

Before "boarding" the polar express students were given their tickets for the train and had them punched just like in the story. We got to watch the movie with Ms. Huddlestan's class. 

We have one more day of fun before winter break!

Grinch Day

Today was Grinch day in our classroom!

All the students wore green and we began our day by reading the story of "The Grinch" by Dr. Seuss. We retold the story and talked about how the Grinch changed.

Mrs. Hickling even surprised us and was dressed up like the Grinch! Unfortunately we didn't take a picture. 

Next we wrote stories about what the grinch might steal from our house. 

Next we learned how to draw the Grinch. 

 

Happy Grinch Day! 

Christmas Concert

The kids did a great job performing at the Christmas Concert! 

Here is a picture we snapped just after we sang. 

Christmas Around the World

This week we "flew" to Germany and discussed German holiday traditions. One of their traditions that many Canadian families also do is bake and decorate gingerbread cookies. Another German tradition is advent calendars and advent wreaths. On the advent wreath there are four candles. One is lit every Sunday leading up to Christmas. 

We read this story before baking!

I just love the creativity in these cookies! 

We even had a student make a Canucks player!

Some fun math games we played this week:

We also visited Italy and discovered they have many tasty food! We got to enjoy some spaghetti. The kids enjoyed looking at famous landmarks and places in Italy like: the colleuseum, Cinque Terre, Nice and the Leaning Tower of Pisa! 

 

Have a wonderful weekend! 

Field Trip to Delta Museum

This week we visited the Delta Museum and Archives. In class we have been learning about what Christmas around the world looks like. Our field trip took us back in time as we explored how the holidays were celebrated in the pioneer days. 

A peak at the parlour. We compared the toys children had then and now and learned about the kind of activities that would take place in this formal room. 

Students made connections to a previous activity we did in class and made candles by dipping the wicks in wax. We learned that making candles this way takes a very long time and would be a tedious job! Without electricity these candles were the pioneers source of light and lights for their tree. 

We went to the kitchen to see different holiday crafts and decorations pioneers would make. 

We made an ornament out of tin foil. It was common in the old'n'days for people to make ornaments out of the tops of cans. This was a take on these decorations. 

We ended the trip with the traditional tale of "The Night Before Christmas."

A peak at our week

This week kick started a lot of fun learning in our classroom! 

First, our elf on the shelf, whom the kids named Snowflake magically appeared in our classroom on December 1.

We read the story, voted on her name and made an elf of our own. 

In math this week we have been practicing counting by 5 and 10 to 100. Snowflake appeared in our classroom and our 100s chart was all mixed up! She needed some help learning to count.  The students were keen to help Snowflake and rebuild our 100s chart! 

We also began our Christmas Around the World unit. We are looking at countries around the world, finding them on a map and learning about their culture and traditions. The students are making many good connections and sharing stories about what they know about these places. 

Before flying to a new country we pretend to board the airplane with our passports and boarding passes! 

This week we talked about our traditions in Canada, along with Mexico and France. Each day we visit a new country the children are writing, looking at maps and colouring a page in their scrapbook. 

We had a couple of fun activities and surprises lined up. In Mexico children often get to do a piñata around the holidays. In France, instead of hanging stockings by the fireplace they put their shoes by the fire. We pretended it was Christmas Eve in France and put our shoes by our classroom fireplace. The children were surprised with holiday erasers in their shoes and pencils from the piñata. 

Students have been enjoying reading this big book. 

The students also learned how to draw a reindeer. Students did a directed drawing, outlined their work and used a technique called a crayon resist to add snowflakes to their picture. They then got to paint! 

It was a busy week full of lots of learning and fun!