Week of December 1

What a joyous and festive week it has been in our classroom! Everywhere we turned, there was something exciting, sparkly, or silly happening, and the students were full of smiles. Many of the students had Elf of the Shelves, which made an appearance this week, so our morning whole group was full of the names of their elves and silly things their elves did. We also talked about how some houses don't have Elf on the Shelf, for example Ms. Kel-Cie did not ask Santa to bring my kids an elf because my family is very busy and elves can be too tricky and messy for me, plus I have 2 dogs and one of them really likes to chew on things so I was worried for the elves safety.

One of the morning highlights was when Constable Jeff came to visit—and he brought his dog, Rosie! Rosie was calm and gentle, and the children loved learning about her job. Cst. Jeff and Rosie make regular appearances at our school so we will probably see them again in the new year.

We also added new fake snow to the sand table. It was a huge hit (if a bit messy)! It felt like winter had arrived right in our classroom.

In math, we worked hard on our numeracy skills with some fun holiday-themed games. Students decorated their own gingerbread people, played Roll and Cover: Holiday Edition, and tried a Count the Room challenge. In that game, they searched around the classroom for gift tags showing holiday items—like three Santa hats—and then wrote the matching number on their sheet. It made counting feel like a treasure hunt and will play it a few times before the Christmas break.

We also brought out the marble run, which filled the room with laughter and excitement. The students worked together to build different tracks and then chased the marbles as they zipped around the room. It was wonderful to see so much teamwork and creativity, even though it made the classroom noise level sky rocket!.

This week we also had Library, which is always a peaceful and happy time. Please remember to return your library books after you have read them so that your child can take out a new book.

But the best moment of all happened on Friday afternoon. The whole school got a surprise visit from Santa! We were just coming back from gym and walking in the hall when—there he was! The children could hardly believe their eyes. It was the perfect magical ending to a festive week.

We’re looking forward to more holiday fun next week! Our Christmas concert is on Tuesday December 9th. Information has been emailed to families both from myself and from the school. It is going to be wonderful and the kids have been practicing every day.