New Year, New Promises!

We are so happy to be back at school! We talked about New Year's Resolutions and we made some ourselves, too!

Promises to Our Family

Kaitlynn: I'm going to help my Mom cook.

Amy: I'm going to watch SkippyJon Jones with my family.

Ashley: I'm going to help with my baby sister.

Catherine: I'm going to clean my room.

Promises to Our Friends

Nadia: We're going to color together.

Daniel: I will play air football with them more.

Liam: I am going to share.

Ethan: I am going to help my friends when they are hurt.

Promises to Our Teacher

Mia: I'm going to read more for my teacher.

Kate: I will listen to the teacher.

Javon: I'm going to walk good in the hallway.

Darrius: I will do my homework.

Promises to Ourselves

Andrew: I will play video games.

Nyssa: I will read books.

Dominick: I am going to play outside more.

Vicente: I'm going to watch my favorite show.

Merry Christmas!

We had lots of fun getting ready for Christmas break, here in 1st grade.  We had some visitors come to our room the last few days.

Mr. Wallace came and read us his favorite Christmas story, The Night Before Christmas.

Santa and one of his elves came by our room and gave us all hats and scarves!

We had our Christmas party on Friday morning.  We had lots of yummy breakfast foods to snack on.  We saved our milk cartons from lunch and used them to make gingerbread houses!

Happy Hanukkah!

Our last country on our trip around the world was Israel.  We learned all about Hanukkah and the traditions they have.  Dominick and Darrius were very happy to have their chance to be tour guides.

Darrius

They say Happy Hanukkah. They light a candle called a Menorah. They play a dreydl. They serve lakes and applesauce.

Dominick

In Israel, they say Happy Hanukkah! They light candles for 8 days. It's called a menorah.  Kids play with a top thats called a dreydl.  The Star of David is important. In Israel, they eat latkes and applesauce.

We made our own menorahs and then tasted latkes at our Christmas party the next day!

Night Tree

Today we worked on making predictions from books.  We learned that sometimes our predictions might change when we get further into a book.  We used the book Night Tree by Eve Bunting.

First we made predictions just by looking at the cover.

Vicente: I think it's about a tree in the night.

Kate: I think it is about a tree.

Nyssa: It's going to tell you about the night.

Kaitlynn:  The night tree is in the night.

Nadia: It's going to be about a Christmas tree.

Darrius: It's a Christmas tree outside.

Then we read all the way to page 13 and made another prediction.

Daniel: They are going to cut down the tree.

Mia: They will cut it down and take it home to decorate it.

Liam: They might get scared.

Dominick: The owl is going to get the people.

Ashley: It is a noise that they're going to hear.

Student: I think the owl is going to tell them a secret.

Next we read page 13 and found out what they were going to do to the tree.

Ethan: They are decorting the tree in the forest.

Javon: They are decorating the tree.

Andrew: The will decorate all the trees.

Catherine: They are going to decorate the tree.

Last, we finished the story and found out they were decorating the tree with food for all the animals in the forest!

Gud Jul! from Sweden

Our trip today was to Sweden.  Kaitlynn and Vicente acted as tour guides and taught us all about the Swedish traditions.

Kaitlynn

Little kids dress up like Santa Lucia.  In Sweden, they decorate the tree with candles.  In Sweden, wreaths and advent calendars help them know what the day is.  In Sweden, they eat fish and sweet rolls.

Vicente

In Sweden, they say Gud Jul! They have Santa Lucia. She gives them some food and the girls dress like her.  In Sweden, they put some candles on their Christmas trees.  In Sweden, they use a advent calendar and advent wreath. They eat fish and sweet rolls.

We made our own advent wreaths and then had some yummy sweet rolls!

Welcome to The Netherlands!

Our trip today was to The Netherlands.  We had 3 tour guides today.  Ashley, Javon, and Guide #3 had lots of fun learning about the country.

Ashley

Black Pete spanks the bad kids.  Sinterklaas gives the good kids presents.  They leave hay and carrots for the horse in their shoes.  They decorate with candy wreaths.

Javon

They eat candy that looks like fruit.  It is called marzipan.  They also eat a roll that has meat in it.  It is called Kerstkrans.  They use candy to decorate wreaths.

Guide #3

Sinterklaas gives presents to the kids.  Black Pete spanks to the kids.  Sinterklass doesn't have reindeer, he has a white horse.  The kids leave carrots and hay for the horse.

We made wreaths and drew candy all over them.  Then we munched on fruit snacks that represented marzipan.

German Christmas

This morning we learned about Christmas in Germany.  Liam and Nadia were excited to be our tour guides.

Liam

Christkind is tall. She wears white clothes with a golden crown.  Germany has the 1st Christmas trees.  In Germany they eat sausage and cookies that looks like Christmas trees, snowmen, and Gingerbread men.

Nadia

There is a girl named Christkind.  The kids put mail on the window for her.  Christmas trees are important in Germany. Boys dress as kings and they walk around with a star.  They eat sausage and Christmas cookies.

Since the first Christmas trees came from Germany, we made our own trees.  Then we snacked on cookies in Christmas shapes.