Our last two day's of school were spent learning about Croatia and Denmark. Miss Diana, who is from Croatia, shared holiday traditions from her country. Mrs. Karsbaek, who's husband is from Denmark, shared holiday traditions with our class, too. Friday morning we read The Polar Express and watched the movie. Then we compared and contrasted the book and the movie. We also cleaned our chair pockets, threw out our old crayons, wiped down our tables, and prepared for our return in the new year. Then....it was time to party!!! Happy Holidays everyone and don't forget to READ....READ.....READ!!!!

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Today we traveled around the world to Poland, China, India, Israel, and Japan. We learned about Diwali, Hanukkah, Chinese New Year, and more. So far we have learned about Eid, Antarctica , Germany, and other holiday customs and cultures. Tomorrow we will learn about Las Posadas and more. We have also worked on map skills as we receive our holiday cards from across the country.

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Mr. Jangles was listening in on all our travels around the world. Today we traveled to Antarctica, Australia, and Germany. Sumehra was our child of the day and did a wonderful job reading. Thanks! We took our math MAP test today. Results will be coming home in January. Tomorrow we will really "travel" as we move to other classrooms to hear about different holiday traditions. Thank you to the parents who are able to come in tomorrow and share. As we wind down for the holiday break keep in mind the BEST gift you can give your child if the love of reading. If there is ONE gift that is a MUST on everyone's list....it should be a book!

Apparently our friend the elf, Mr. Jangles, likes math as much as he does reading! Today he was making polygons on geoboards! Jasmine was our child of the day and read Little Bulldozer. Thanks, Jasmine! Our passports were stamped for our 1st stop on our trip around the world to learn about holiday traditions. We read books about American traditions and created a "keepsake" for our suitcase of collectibles from our trip. Tomorrow we take off across the ocean. We also read three cards from schools across the country and labeled our map of North America as to where they came from: Texas, Pennsylvania, and Alabama. As we complete the online project of exchanging holiday greetings and as we complete our Holidays Around the World, we are also learning map skills. Homework that is due on Friday: Gingerbread Science experiment and math problem solving worksheets. Reading Log and Math Fact Log will be reviewed on Friday but are due complete with holiday vacation reading/math fact practice in January when we return from break. Tomorrow students take their math MAP test. Be sure and get a good nights sleep and eat a healthy breakfast.

Amal was our child of the day and read a very funny book: My Sloppy Tiger. Thanks, Amal! Mr. Jangles enjoyed it as well. He loves to read! We took our reading MAP test today and then worked on our "suitcases" for next week's Around the World trip. We will be "visiting" countries all over the world to learn about holiday traditions. We will find the countries on the map and learn map skills as well. Our passports are ready and we are ready to go! Have a great weekend and read a good book!

Mr. Jangles, our Elf on a Shelf, loves to read. He made a mess of our counter to get to the books! That's ok...anything for a good read! Emily did a wonderful job as the child of the day. We really enjoyed the story she read to us! We read two more Gingerbread stories (The Gingerbread Man and The Gingerbread Cowboy) and started making comparisons of our books. We also continued writing our Gingerbread stories. During math workshop, we worked on coordinate graphing by making a gingerbread house! Tomorrow we have library after all! We also have our reading MAP test in the morning. Get a good night sleep and eat a healthy breakfast and you will be all set....ready to show how smart you are!

Mr. Jangles is keeping an eye on everyone and reporting to Santa each night. I wonder where we will find him tomorrow? Ali was our child of the day and read The Three Little Pigs. Thanks, Ali! We read The Gingerbread Girl Goes Animal Crackers, focusing on the literary elements. We also read Gingerbread Pirates. Tomorrow we will start comparing and contrasting the Gingerbread books we have read so far. We also began writing our own gingerbread stories. Tomorrow we do have library after all. Be sure and return your books so you can have two new books for the holiday break.

Thank you, Angelina, you were a GREAT child of the day. I really liked how you read the book, The Magic Fish....you really got into the characters and it helped us all understand what was happening. Keep reading!!!! We read The Gingerbread Girl and identified the words that created the most vivid mental image; then we drew our mental image. We will read another Gingerbread story tomorrow and then compare and contrast the two books. We are also keeping track of the story elements we are reading in each of the Gingerbread books so we can identify the common elements. We will also be writing our own Gingerbread stories. We also worked on fluency, but remember....this is a season of "Secrets!" We also finished our unit 4 checking progress in math. Library will be on Friday of this week, so don't forget your books!

Michael was our child of the day and read One Smart Chick. He's really working on reading with fluency! Great job, Michael!

When we came into the classroom today we discovered we had an ELF!!!! He's here visiting everyday and reports back to Santa each night about all the wonderful things the boys and girls are doing. The class decided to name him Mr. Jangles and will be writing about him each day in the ELF ON A SHELF Journal.

We learned about point of view in our integration time as we read The True Story of the Three Little Pigs. During math time, we learned about the partial sum algorithm. We finished unit 4 today as well. Friday students will be taking the winter Reading MAP test. Next week we will take the math portion. All students need to do to prepare is get a good nights sleep (like always) and eat a healthy breakfast...like always!

End of the week fun!

Colin and Giovanna rounded out the week as our child of the day readers...thanks!!!



We finished up our study of visualizing as a reading strategy today...of course, we never really stop...we are always visualizing! We also learned two more ways to organize our writing in addition to writing a traditional beginning, middle, and end and ABC order: writers can organize their writing by using the days of the week and by a series of cause and effect.

This week in math we worked on adding two digit numbers by rounding and estimating, then solving for the actual sum. Monday we will learn about partial sums addition. We also worked quite a bit on problem solving.

Only two more weeks till holiday break. Next week we will be comparing and contrasting Gingerbread Stories and beginning our study of maps. We have made 29 holiday cards to send to school across the country and we will be receiving 29 holiday cards from schools across the country as well. When we receive our cards we will look at where the school is on the map and work on understanding maps.

We will also begin our study of holiday traditions around the world.

Have a GREAT weekend!