Our Holiday Breakfast was fun!

We loved all of our yummy food - pancakes, sausage, fruit and snowmen donuts! Miss Qonja joined us for our breakfast and was able to visit with all of the kids. We LOVE wearing our pajamas too! Have a wonderful holiday and enjoy the time with all our your families!

Santa Snacks and Feelings

Yesterday, we made a yummy Santa snack. We had to watch and listen to the directions, and then we each worked on making our own cute Santa.

We began a new social skills unit about empathy. This week we are learning how to identify happy and sad faces and feelings. We've learned that we feel calmer and more comfortable when we are happy, and we usually will feel uncomfortable when we are sad. These are important skills for life - research shows that students who accurately identify emotions tend to be less aggressive and are more accepted by peers. Students who have high emotional understanding at age five are more likely than other children to show academic gains by nine. There is a home link for this lesson, but I will most likely send it home in January.

Don't forget... our Holiday Breakfast will be this Friday. It is also pajama day at Loon Lake, so your child may wear his/her pajamas if he/she wishes. I'd like to wish all of you a wonderful holiday season - it is exciting to see the gains your children have been making this year!

Being Assertive and More Holiday Fun!

This week we read, "How the Grinch Stole Christmas" and then wrote about how we would make a grinch grin. We discussed feeling grumpy and grinchy and what we can do when we feel that way. We also made some wonderful elves - we'll be sure to send our art projects home before the winter break.
Our Skill for Learning concept this week was being assertive. We learned that we need to stand up and use a calm, respectful voice. This is the best way to ask for help when we need it. It is an important skill for school - research shows that students who are too passive are at higher risk for being bullied, and students who are too aggressive in their interactions have fewer friends. Every day we put to use our new Skills for Learning - we see a wonderful improvement in behavior and work skills in ALL of the children. Your great follow through at home has been very helpful!
As we have gained new learning and behavior skills, I have begun to raise our expectations of our students (this is a great thing!) The children ALL understand that we will give a direction ONE time, we will give ONE verbal prompt/reminder, and then we expect them to follow through with the request. If they do not, the children understand that we will give a check mark and they will pay a 5 minute time out during Center Time. The time out is paid at their desk, with their head down, and with their body quiet and in control. ALL of them are able to do this easily now. This is huge progress, and really has allowed us to begin to teach new and important skills and curriculum. And more importantly, your children are so happy and proud of their improved behavior too! I hope you will also join me in raising your expectations for your children - they are wonderful little people, and they have so much potential!

Gingerbread Stories and Houses

We have had such a fun week at school! Our classroom elf, Ginger, has left us little notes and treats this week. He also brought us a can of snow - all we had to do was add water, and then we had our own bowl of snow in our classroom. Of course, we wrote him thank you notes!

We enjoyed playing outside for block recess on Wednesday because there was snow on the ground. Getting in and out of all of our snowpants and boots takes patience - many children need to practice this a little more at home so that it is less frustrating. We are also learning how to hang up our winter coats and snowpants, and how to put our boots on the boot mats in the hall. It is a little tricky to pack everything up at the end of the day, but this is good organizing practice for us.

All week long we've been reading different gingerbread stories. We read "The Gingerbread Boy", the "Gingerbread Girl", "The Gingerbread Baby", and "Gingerbread Friends". Today we each got to build and decorate our own gingerbread houses. They look yummy and sweet in our lighted display! We'll send them home before the Winter Break.

Holiday Breakfast and Snowy Weather

It is hard to believe that we're into December! It certainly is getting colder outside, and so children will need to bring gloves/mittens and hats for recess. They'll also need boots and snowpants for snowy weather. We all go out for a longer Block Recess on Wednesday afternoons. Your child may leave his/her snowpants here if you would like. It is important to put your child's name inside his/her boots and snowpants - many children will have the same pair and mix-ups are frequent! It is also a good idea to send an extra pair of socks and pants to keep here at school - often children get wet feet on snowy days, and they like to change into a dry pair of socks. Our classroom gets cold in the winter, so many children like to keep an extra sweatshirt or hoodie here to put on if they wish to.


This week we finished up our winter animal unit. In addition to migration and hibernation, we've learned that some animals "get ready" by storing food, and some animals adapt by growing thicker fur coats.


We'll make our gingerbread houses here on Friday - we'll be sure to put some pictures on our blog for you. Your child will bring his/her house home before our winter break.


Mrs. Aldrich, Mrs. Kerrigan and I will be cooking breakfast for the class on Friday December 16. This is a tradition in our room, and it is our gift to our students. You might want to send your child to school a little hungry that morning - we love to cook for them! Our Holiday Breakfast will be our classroom holiday party.

Happy Thanksgiving!

This week we learned about "self-talk for staying on task". This is a strategy that students can use to help themselves listen, follow directions, and stay on task. I am so pleased that with our regular practice, our students have really improved their ability to listen, focus and follow directions. Their ability to watch and listen quietly during group discussions and lessons has made them more able to take in new information, which is critical for learning! Thank you for helping your children with the home links - I love our home-school partnership!

We have continued our study of animals in winter and we have learned about hibernation and migration. We'll finish this unit up after the Thanksgiving break when we return on Tuesday, November 29. I hope you all have a wonderful break and Thanksgiving time with family!

Headbands and Hibernation

We read many Native American legends and tales this month and we also have talked a lot about the Pilgrims and their difficult voyage on the Mayflower. We learned that the trip took 63 days, and there was no fresh food, running water, or TV! We were surprised to learn that the Pilgrim children had to help their parents with work because they didn't have a school built yet. Some Pilgrim children could not even write their own names, and there weren't many books to read or paper to write on.

This week we made Native American headbands and chose Native American names. Be sure to ask your child what his/her name is! Each day we will have the opportunity to EARN feathers for our headbands. One feather will be earned for participating in group each morning. The other feather will be earned for safe, cooperative behavior. We will do this for several days.

We have also begun a science unit about animal adaptations in the winter. This week we read about bears and made hibernating bears. We'll also learn about migration and how other animals get ready for winter or adjust to our colder winter climate.