It's Concert Time!!

We have spent a LOT of time this week practicing for our upcoming concert, "It's Snowing! It's Snowing!" It's going to be a great show!! On Friday, we walked to the High School to practice on the stage in the auditorium.

Here's the whole class, getting ready to sing our first song.

Look at those big smiles!

The stage is really big!

The 3rd graders came, too, and watched as we practiced.

We are so ready!

We have one more practice before Tuesday night!

Beth, Tatum, and William have speaking parts, but William was sick on Friday. Good thing we have one more practice!

They have to talk into the microphone.

Tatum read William's part, too. Good job!

Our whole class gets to play instruments on one song.

We have to count and come in at just the right time.

It takes a lot of concentration!

It's fun to keep the beat!

Our last song is really fun! The next pictures show some of the actions!

The audience will be so surprised!!

Is it Tuesday yet?

Please come and be entertained by the 1st and 3rd graders!

You'll be glad you did!

Date: Tuesday, Dec. 6th

Time: 7:00 pm

Place: Cannon Falls HS Auditorium

How Many Days Until Christmas????

Have you heard your first grader ask this question?? Just tell him/her to check out the Christmas Chain!

Of course, we have to turn every project into a learning experience, so the kids had to count out 12 red strips, 12 green strips, and 1 yellow strip. Since we've been working on doubles, we practiced the fact 12+12=24, and then we added one more to get 25 (we did this on Dec. 1st).Then, the chain had to be put together using the red/green/red/green pattern.

The chains got pretty long!

Sometimes, the glue didn't stick very well, so patience was an important word to remember!

Hmmmm, 22 links on your chain? How many more do you need to add?

Lots of Math going on with a simple chain project!

The trees were hung on the wire until it was time to take them home. Hopefully, they made it in one piece and one link is being removed every day!

October Students of the Month

Congratulations to Nathan, Rachael, and Jonathan for being selected as our October Students of the Month!

Mrs. Fick came in last week to present the awards. Keep up the good work, kids!

Where has November gone? I'm afraid I haven't been taking many pictures lately, and as a result, I also haven't done any blog updates. However, that doesn't mean we haven't been working hard. We've been very busy focusing on learning to read, and the kids are making amazing progress! We've only been in school about 50 days, and wow - the change in these kids since the first few days of school is unbelieveable!

Please mark your calendars for several important upcoming events:

Tuesday, Dec. 6th, 7:00 p.m. - First Grade Concert at the HS Auditorium
Friday, Dec. 16th, 8:30 a.m. - Gingerbread House project (all supplies are due by Dec. 9th) - each child needs one adult helper

Halloween

We had a great day on Halloween! We started the day by getting into costumes and showing off for everyone in the class. Then, we began our 1/2 hour pumpkin activity sessions by working on pumpkin math and reading with Mrs. Bracken. We estimated the circumference of a giant pumpkin, and then read a mini-book about costumes and added a picture of ourselves on the last page. Then, we headed to Mrs. Hjellming's class where we made skeletons from q-tips. After that, we went to Mrs. Winchell's room to hear a pumpkin story and play pumpkin bingo. Our next session was with Mrs. LaPan, who taught us some scary Halloween poems. It was really fun to go to all of the classrooms for a special activity!

We also carved a pumpkin. Here's this year's winning jack-o-lantern: triangle eyes, upside down triangle nose, and vampire smile. We came up with four different designs as a class, and then voted on the most popular.
Here are all the kids in their costumes on Halloween morning.

Rachael, Nathan, and William

Quinn, Ben, and Ryanna

Jonathan, Sophia, and Abby

Tessa, Jack, and Mia

Beth, Cooper, and Gideon

Jadan, Richie, and Tatum
Don't they look great??
We returned to our regular routine in the afternoon, but the kids were so good all day that we got to play a few games at the very end of the day.

First, we played witch-hat ring toss.

It's a lot harder than it looks, but some of the kids actually did it!

Next, we played pumpkin bean bag toss.

That was a little easier.
Wow, what a busy day!

Every year, I invite the kids to come to my house for Trick-or-Treats, and then I take their picture by the pumpkin that we carved at school. Quite a few kids came by, plus a few from the last several years. It's so much fun to see the kids all dressed up!

I hope no one got too scared from my "Spooky Sounds" CD!
Thanks for coming!!

We are so lucky to have the Sheldon Theater in Red Wing so close by! Every year, our first graders get to go to a live theater production especially geared for children, and this year was no exception. Excitement was in the air as the kids came in on the big day. We were all set to go on our field trip to see "SkippyJonJones." We loaded the buses and headed out by 9:15 for a 10:00 show.

Excited smiles!

Are we there yet?

Thanks to Tammy, who came along as a chaperone.

When we finally got seated, we had about 10 minutes to wait until showtime. We were in the balcony this year, so we could see eveything really well.

The Sheldon is a very old theater, and it has lots of interesting nooks and crannies. This painting is right above the stage.

We had read several SkippyJonJones book in the classroom before the play, so the kids were well prepared for what was to come.

It was hard to wait!

Unfortunately, I couldn't take any pictures during the performance, but it was very well done, and it kept the children's attention throughout. With Red Wing so close, we were able to be back at school in time for lunch. What a GREAT way to spend a morning!.