We have truly learned so much and had so much fun getting ready for Christmas and the holidays!  We had a celebration with our 5th grade reading buddies where we made Christmas trees out of ice cream cones, green frosting, and M&Ms!  What a great way to celebrate before our break!

We also had an amazing Polar Express Day on Friday! We wore our pajamas to school just like the kids wear when they go on the Polar Express train in the book.  The students then had fun opening their presents from Mrs. Dawson and I- they all got a copy of the book The Gingerbread Man Loose in the School!   The next thing we did was get in line for the train ride to the Polar Express!  We all got a special ticket, had it punched, had a cup of hot chocolate with marshmallows, and then got on the "train" (we made a train out of our chairs!).  Mrs. Thompson read the story while we drank our hot chocolate.  After the book, we found a surprise from our elf, Periwinkle! He had brought us all special bells back from the North Pole!  Just like in the story we had read!  What an amazing surprise! 

We then watched the movie, played outside, and had a cookie decorating party!  We finished up the day by watching Santa feed and visit the reindeer on the reindeer cam! It was such a magical moment! 

Thank you so much parents for all of the sweet gifts, treats, cookie supplies, and help to make this an amazing event for the students!  We could not do this without your support and help!

We hope everyone has an amazing holiday season!

Check out our December Video below!

We have been having a fantastic book study on the tale of The Gingerbread Man!  We have read various versions including the originals, The Gingerbread Cowboy, The Gingerbread Girl, and The Gingerbread Man Loose at School!  We have compared the different versions and retold them. 

Today we had planned to eat Gingerbread Cookies as our snack, but you will see in the pictures below that we almost didn't have any cookies...because they ran away!  We had to chase them all over the school!  We had the best time!  Ask your child to tell you all about our adventures searching for the Gingerbread Man!

Wow!  What an AMAZING trip we had with an AMAZING group of students!

We planned this field study to relate directly to our units in Social Studies on Past and Present and also our unit on Maps.  We also have been talking about retelling stories and the play was a perfect way to do this as well!  The students even looked at maps of Charlotte and the light rail Blue Line to plan our trip.  Below, you can even see pictures of the students using the maps provided by the train to follow along with the stops.  We also used our math skills to count the number of stops we had to make during our trip.  The students had great theatre etiquette while we were at the performance, and they all seemed to enjoy the play!

Be sure to check out the slideshow below to check out some of the highlights from our trip!

We are definitely a thankful group of kids and teachers in this classroom!  We had an amazing time in November learning about past and present, what we are thankful for, the reason we celebrate Thanksgiving, and properties of matter!  You can check out our pictures in the slideshow below to see images from the whole month!

Thank you parents for making our Traditions Feast an absolutely wonderful event! The food was all delicious, and you can see below that we ate at a big table like one large family, and it was a great day!

We have had a wonderful Science unit on Properties of Matter!  The students read books about all different materials, we watched videos, and explored the  materials with our hands.  We also had such a fun time seeing all of the family boat projects that were sent in using all kinds of different materials. We even sorted the boats by material and viewed boats made in other classes!  At the very end of this post you can even see a slide show of each child putting his/her boat in the water to see if it floats or sinks! 

Thank you parents for making this science unit such a success!

We had so much fun learning about materials with our sink or float experiment!  Check out the slide show below to see each child with his/her boat!
These boats were AMAZING!