2016 Christmas Program

What a great night!  100% attendance for first graders at the program tonight.  That is a first for me and I have been teaching 12 years!!!!!  They all looked so cute in their fancy Christmas outfits. They sang so well and had a great time singing and dancing.  We watched a little Frosty The Snowman while we waited for the program to finish up1  WAY TO GO FIRST GRADE!

THE HANDSOME BOYS

THE PRETTY LADIES

Dissolving Candy Cane

Today we did a little holiday experiment with candy canes.  I had a few students that were disappointed we didn't get to eat them but in my opinion it was much cooler to watch them dissolve in 3 different liquids.  All students made their very own prediction about what they thought would happen when we placed a candy cane into a cup of cold water, hot water, and a cup of vinegar!  They were able to come up with some pretty interesting predictions.  Everyone filled out their prediction data sheet and then we dropped the candy canes in one by one.  We discovered that all of the candy canes eventually dissolved but not at the same pace.  The cup of hot water dissolved the candy cane the fastest.  The cup of vinegar bubbled and stripped the red stripes off of the candy cane immediately after we dropped it in.  The cup of cold water slowly dissolved the candy cane but did leave bits and pieces behind.  It was a fun and interesting twist on a very popular Christmas candy.  I bet next year when my students are hanging candy canes on their Christmas trees they might remember this little experiment.

The candy cane in the cup of vinegar is now white.

The hot water slowly dissolved/melted the candy cane.

Makenna and her classmates were busy writing her predictions.

Fantastic First Grade Christmas

With a little photo editing, my students or should I say Santa's Little Helpers are ready to spread some Christmas cheer!  Only 12 more days till Christmas=)

Meet Penny The Elf

We have a special visitor this week.  Penny traveled all the way from the North Pole to spend the week with us.  She is making sure that we are making good choices at school and working hard.  She reports back to Santa each night and then magically flies back to Erie Elementary and hides in our classroom each day!  We were so excited to find her today.  Each student has their very own Elf Adventure book to record where Penny hides each day=)

Dear Santa......

This week my class wrote letters to Santa.  We reviewed the parts of a letter together before we began to write.  Each student wrote one reason why they liked Christmas, asked Santa for something they needed and also an item they wanted (this goes right along with what we have been learning in social studies this week), and finally they asked Santa a question.  They did a fantastic job!  We also did a step by step "How To Draw Santa" activity to display in the hallway with our letters.  I think they turned out pretty cute=)

Meet Our Class Pet

Hi there!  My name is Freckles.  I am so excited to be Mrs. Holland's first grade class pet.  Can you believe that I get to go home with each student in the class to spend the night and play!  I am one lucky leopard!  I can't wait to snuggle, listen to boys and girls read me books, and go on fun adventures with my new friends.  Don't forget to write about what we did together in the class pet journal so you can share with the everyone when you bring me back to school!