Decorating, A Smarties Cape Run, and a Skype Rhyme Off.

           Yes, it's been a long time since I've blogged but now I'm back.  We have been very busy the past few weeks trying to keep up with all the holiday goodness.  Here are just a few pictures of our holiday work.

                  These beautiful trees were created by our families over the Thanksgiving Holidays, very creative.

This is our star tree.  The picture doesn't show it but every star is full of glitter and the tree sparkles.  A big thanks goes out to Mr. Lumsden for being a glitter master during our community time.  I love this.

Here is a Santa web we created during writing time.  This chart helped us write about Santa Claus.  The little Santas around the edge of the poster we created during our technology time in the lab.  I love all the unique Santas.

     Here is an idea that I came up with on the spur of the moment.  Since we are the Smarties and we try to get smarter each day I happen to pick up a piece of material and threw it around my shoulders and ran into the classroom like a super hero.  I stood in front of my class with my hands on my hips and cried "Super Smart"!  And so our Smarties Cape Run was born.  At the end of the week if you can prove that you have become smarter in some way you will get to wear the cape and "run" in the hall.  (It's a big deal since we are not allowed to run in the hallways of our school.)  Wow, it has been a huge success with this class.  They are talking to each other about how to learn more so that they get to wear the cape.  I bought a snowflake plastic table cloth as our cape.  It is perfect for this because it flies nicely behind the kids as they run.  We all sit on the floor at one end of the hall and I send them off all smiles.  The shorter the distance the better.  The kids stop if there is someone in the hall and put their hands on their hips and says "I'm super smart!" if some one asks.  I don't do this every week but I hear them discussing the next Smarties Cape Run.  Below are a few smart first graders on their smart runs.

On Friday, we had the pleasure of Skyping with our blogging buddies from Morning Sun, Iowa.  Both of our classes have read the book Rhyming Dust Bunnies by Jan Thomas and loved it.  (It's my newest favorite book.)  Since we have been practicing word families and rhyming we decided to have a rhyme off.  One point for a rhyme and two points of it rhymed and was a holiday word.  Both classes work hard at coming up with new rhymes.  It was great to see the kids thinking about which holiday words fit.  We kept score.  And though we lost we had a great time seeing our blogging buddies again.  I think we might try to make the snowmen spirals they were working on when we called. 

This holiday season is very exciting.  I send happy, glittery thoughts your way.

Claire