"All I want for Christmas is..."

This week we finished our "Festivals of Light" unit with our focus on Christmas.  We read books and did several activities that related to the story of Christmas.  We made sure to emphasize the importance of giving and why we give at this time of year.  We all admitted that we have our "wish list" for Santa but decided that if God came to us and asked us what we wanted for Christmas we'd have a much different answer.  The answers from these sweet 1st graders were too amazing not to share with you so we are dedicating the blog this week to sharing with you their special Christmas list.

"All I want for Christmas is..."

Abby- "for everybody to have clean clothes."

             Alex- "peace for the earth."

Asa- "joy for my mom."

             Campbell- "joy to the world."

                        David- "love."

Elianna- "everybody to have all the money that they need to buy what they need for their families."

Evan- "no more global warming."

Finley- "for Haiti to have clean water."

Griffin- "freedom for every country."

Jack-  "for nobody to cry."

Jake- "for everyone to have a happy life."

Joshua- "love for my family."

Julian- "peace to the world."

Lila- "love for my sisters."

Maddie- "for everybody to be happy."

        Page- "for everyone to have a home."

               Raquel- "no more fighting."

In chapel this week our lessons also focused on the Christmas story.  We were asked to participate by creating Mary and Joesph to share while telling the story.  They all turned out so well we thought you'd enjoy seeing all the wonderful Mary and Joesph sketches.

We have amazing talent in our class!! Take a look at some of our students who participated in our annual talent show...

David playing piano.

Griffin, Jake and Alex showing off their soccer tricks.

Lila reciting poetry.

Raquel and Abby showing off their artistic skills.

Campbell and Page doing a cup routine to a Christmas song.

Evan playing the piano.

Mr. Myler singing Rudolph the Red Nose Reindeer to us.

LOOKING AHEAD...

When we return from our holiday break we will begin our most exciting theme of the year,

"HOORAY FOR THE USA!!!" 

We are looking forward to teaching these first graders all about our 50 states!  They will also be assigned a famous American to research and portray during our "Hooray for the USA" performance on Thursday, February 5th at 9:15AM.  We can't wait to begin 2015!!

 

Spelling Words- Week #10  January 7-10, 2015

Phonics Skills: long vowel a with silent e

1.       bake

2.       same

3.       page

4.       sale

5.       gave

6.       face

7.       name

8.       made

9.       came

10.    date

Challenge Words

11. mistake

12. space

13. hooray

14. states

“Surprise the Teacher Word”

15. ??? (This is your choice)

PARENT RESOURCE-FYI

Recently, some of our teachers and administrators participated in an ISACS (Independent Schools Association of the Central States) webinar titled “Raising Resilient Children in a World Filled with Stress & Pressure" which was presented by Dr. Robert Brooks.  The webinar provided some great strategies for helping raise, discipline, and guide children so that they develop resilience and are able to deal comfortably and effectively with setbacks and mistakes.  ISACS has posted the recorded version of the webinar at

 http://www.isacs.org/page/472128_Learning_Bridge_Webinar_Login.asp.  It will be available until January 16^th and can be accessed by visiting the link above and selecting “12/3/14 - Raising Resilient Children in a World Filled with Stress & Pressure" with Robert Brooks and using the password “rowing”. 

Merry Christmas and Happy 2015!

Enjoy your sweet children, we will miss them!

Sara and Carey