Happy Holidays!

Today was our Holiday Breakfast - we enjoyed eating yummy food together. We especially liked wearing our pajamas to school today!

The children worked hard on their family gift to all of you - I know that it is often challenging for your children to talk about their day, so I am hopeful that the Conversation Jars will be helpful at the dinner table.
I wish you all a wonderful Winter Break - I know you will enjoy this extra time with your children. Our class of 12 has been fighting the flu and colds all week long, and I know that your children will appreciate the extra time at home to slow down a little bit. I look forward to seeing each cheerful face back at school on January 3, 2013!

Our Loon Lake Student Council has been collecting blankets and slippers and socks to donate to Mott's Children's Hospital. Several of our students brought in things to contribute - look how full the tree and table by the office look!



Ginger has been busy in our classroom too - on Monday we found him flying on a bluebird!

Here he is driving in a van (from our toy cupboard!) with some friends!

Our Skills for Learning lesson this week focused on recognizing when we have "strong feelings" so that we can use a calm down strategy or coping skill. We practiced putting our hands on our tummies and saying, "STOP". Next we can name our feeling, and then ask for help or use another coping skill. By using the "STOP" signal, students are able to interrupt the escalation of emotion, which helps keep the problem small, and allows us to intervene to offer assistance. Here is a picture of a stop sign that we use in our classroom. Mrs. Schnieders also worked with each student to make a stop sign of their own.

We had a new student join our classroom this week, and will be adding one more new friend - for a total of 12 wonderful children in our class!

Next Friday, December 21, we will have our Holiday Breakfast - please send your children in a little hungry for this special event in our classroom! This will be our Holiday Party.

 

 



What An Exciting Week!

So many exciting things happened this week in our classroom! We've been working on many holiday projects and made menorahs and Santas. We learned about the Dutch custom where the children place hay and carrots in their shoes on December 5 and then find little treats the next morning. We left out a pair of wooden shoes and found gold candy coins and candy canes in them the next morning.
We also have our elf, Ginger, back with us. Each day we find Ginger in a new spot. He has been a great motivation for us. In this picture, we found Ginger hanging on our neat work chart. We decided that Ginger wanted to remind us to work neatly.

 

The next day Ginger left us this message about our wonderful work and behavior!

 

On Friday we made our own gingerbread houses. We have them on display in our classroom, but will send them home before the holidays. It was a lot of fun, and a great fine motor task!