Polar Express Day

Today is our annual Polar Express Day.  All the students look so cute and cozy in their pj's.  Our room has been transformed into a train and the students have loved their bells, "hot chocolate", popcorn snack, and their polar express tickets.  I love that the magic of Christmas still exists in their little faces.  We also had a special visitor - my hubby!  Jarrod came and read the T'was the Night Before Christmas "Cajun style" to the class.  His mother use to read this to him as a kid and he wanted to share it with the class.  He read with a silly voice and the kids just loved it!

I am so thankful to teach your precious children.  They are each such a precious gift!  Thanks for sharing and entrusting them to me daily.  It brings me so much joy to know, teach, and love them!

Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays to you and your family!

Sincerely,
Mrs. Monk

Dash has been busy . . .

Dash has provided lots of laughter this season!  And today we got a letter from Dash saying that Santa has lifted his power for just a little bit so everyone could hug him just once.  They were all so excited to get to hug him and thank him for coming. Below are some pictures of Dash's adventures and of everyone's hug with Dash.

Sincerely,
Mrs. Monk

Dash has come to town!

I am sure your child has already come home talking about our precious elf, Dash.   He has definitely spread some holiday cheer and excitement around our room.  He also provides lots of laughs and giggles as the students rush in every day trying to find him and his new spot.  This is where he has ended up so far.  I am sure the adventures of Dash will continue with some fun and crazy things . . .

Sincerely,
Mrs. Monk

Day 1: He was front in center by our "I cans" for the day.

Day 2: Dash showed up in our sticker bucket - I guess he really likes the stickers!

Day 3:  He found the hot pink and zebra Christmas tree!

Day 4: He was close to the North sign in our room and hanging in the curtains.  

Little Inventors

For the last two weeks, we have been studying inventors in science.  We have learned about great inventors throughout time and how everything we use has been invented by someone to make our lives a little easier. Last week, I told the students that I lost my door stop and that I needed their help.  I challenged them to create something that could keep my door open.  I told them that it did not have to be anything like what we used in the past - it just had to help my door stay open.  The students then examined the door and came up with a plan.  They worked in partner groups to invent something to help my door stay open.  Once they had an idea, a name for their invention, and a plan, they looked at the materials that could help their plan come to fruition. (Thank you all for all of the extra materials from home to help with this project.)  Then they set a purpose for each piece of material that they selected.  Then finally after days of planning, they were able to build their invention.  Today we tested out their inventions.  None of the inventions quite did the job.  As one student said after testing all of the inventions out, "our inventions were all a little faulty."   While yes they were all a little"faulty," I reminded them that Thomas Edison tried over 1,000 times to make the electric light bulb before he got one to work just right. Of course then they all wanted to do it again. :-)  Too bad we have to move on to our next unit in science otherwise, I would have some more inventions coming my way.  Below is a sneak peak of what the last couple weeks have looked like.

Sincerely,
Mrs. Monk

The Door Machine by Nikolas and Andrew 

The Incredible Door Stop by Ava and Corinne 

The Opener by Aiden and Brendon

Door Stopper 1000 by Ellie and Samantha

The Diamond by Madison and Jensen 

Thick Stop by Ransom and Luke 

Door Stopper 6000 by MaKenna and Valeria 

Carton Door Stopper by Rhea and Athena

Star Stopper by Gabe and Ethan 

Super Door Stop 100 by Brandon and Taylor