Winter Authors' Celebration

Today we invited parents in to celebrate the stories that the students published in the fall.   We started with some Christmas poems that the students have been practicing and really enjoy reading.  Then each student had the chance to read his or her story in front of our audience and into a microphone.  It is always very exciting for the students to use the microphone.  Afterwards the class had the chance to read favorite Christmas stories with their families.  Thanks to all who joined us today.  It is very special to the students to share their work and accomplishments with their family.  Merry Christmas!

Letter Writing Unit

Returning from Thanksgiving break we begin a letter writing unit in our classroom.  This is one of my favorite units because not only are the students able to work on their writing skills, but it also builds a sense of community in our classroom and in our school.  I begin by teaching the students about the different parts of a letter and modeling how to write letters.  The students start writing their own letters including the date, a greeting, at least 3 sentences in the body of their letters, a closing, and their signatures.  The class also learns how to address an envelope, and we use stickers as stamps. The students are free to write to anybody.  If they write to someone in the school, the letters go in our classroom mailbox, and the students take turns delivering mail all around the school.  We also receive mail in our mailbox from other classrooms and students who write back to us.  It is so very fun!

Presenting our Habitats

We have worked hard on creating our habitats.  The students were very creative and made the environment and animals out of paint, clay, straws, toothpicks, buttons, pipe cleaners and other art supplies.  The students completed the project by writing about the animals that live in the particular habitat they created and list facts about the habitat.  We invited kindergarten guests over to do a walk through and learn about the habitats.

Holiday Concert

This past Monday Lanesboro Schools hosted their annual holiday concert.  All the groups did a fantastic job, but I think the first and second graders were the hit of the night!  Their upbeat songs and fun dance moves had the crowd laughing the whole time.  The music teachers do such a good job preparing and directing the kids. Way to go!