You're a Mean One, Mr. Grinch!

Today Room 20 celebrated Grinch Day!

That means that for the whole day we learned through Grinch themed activities.

We began by reading the classic story, "How the Grinch Stole Christmas" by Dr. Seuss.  We then brainstormed some words that would describe the Grinch, or adjectives for the Grinch.  After doing a whole group brainstorm, students returned to their spots to do their own brainstorming.

Our next activities were Math focused.  With a partner, students played two different Grinch themed Math games and worked on a mystery picture using a number chart.

Our afternoon was filled with more Grinchish activities.  We focused once again on Math, but this time with Grinch problem solving.  We made problem solving booklets, then students worked on seven Grinch word problems.

 Next we had Gym (which was unfortunately not Grinch themed).  The last activities on our day's agenda were making a Grinch kabob for a snack then finishing our day by watching the cartoon movie.  Students each made a kabob with a green grape, strawberry, banana piece, and a white marshmallow.  The idea was that they would like like the Grinch wearing a Santa hat.  They turned out pretty cute and were quite yummy!

What's Been Happening in Room 20

Wow!  December has just flown by.  It's hard to believe that in two days we will be beginning our Winter Break!  I apologize for the lack of posts this month, time seems to have gotten away from me with all the extra activities happening.

Even though I haven't been updating, we have been busy as ever here in Room 20.  Here are some pictures of some of the holiday activities we've been doing this month.

Here we are playing a whole class Math game on the Smartboard.  Students were divided into two teams and they had to come up and find pairs or trios of numbers that added up to 25.

 This month we've been learning about different holiday celebrations around the world.  With each country we talk about, we make a souvenir to go into our suitcases.  Here we are making our Christmas trees after learning about Germany.  The tradition of the Christmas Tree began in Germany.

We replayed our addition game from the Smartboard, but this time we played with a partner.

Earlier this month we all wrote letters to Santa.  We all received personalized letters back!  Here we are reading our letters that we found waiting for us at our table spots one morning.

This week was the Christmas Bazaar, where students could bring in money to buy gifts for friends and family.  All gifts were between $0.10 and $4.00.

Our month is not over yet and there are still some exciting holiday activities to come, including breakfast with Santa tomorrow morning and our holiday celebration in the afternoon to finish up our Holidays Around the World unit.

Our Elfish Visitor

Yesterday morning Room 20 came into our classroom to quite the surprise.  Sitting on one of our lights was a little elf!  We had no idea how he got there or why he was there.  What made it even more confusing, was that a book had been left on Mrs. Deyoe's desk.

Of course we had to investigate!  We read the book together and discovered our elf was in fact one of Santa's messengers.  Each night he would fly back to the North Pole and report to Santa.  He would then return and be with us during the day.

The first thing we had to do was come up with a name for our elf.  We brainstormed several ideas then took a vote.  Buddy was the favourite, so Buddy it was!  We also decided that since we would have a daily visitor, we would incorporate him into our daily routines.  Now for the month of December, instead of our morning job being our Math Journal, we have a writing activity.  Each student reports on Buddy's adventures.  

This morning Buddy was once again back, and he was in a new spot!  He was hanging out on top of our chart stand!

Brainstorming for Elf names.

Where we found Buddy this morning!

Working on our Elf reports!