Winter Break is a good time to read a good book, so we wanted to make sure that all the students had something good to read for break. Soooo, we hosted our annual Book Exchange. 

This is the brainchild of our lovely Mrs. Moss, so kudos to her!

The students can bring up to 5 books to exchange. We decorate the art room with snowflakes and such and lay the books on the tables.

The students are allowed to take however many they brought in, meaning if you brought 3 books to exchange, you take 3 books. Some kids bring in more, just to donate. It's a great time to get a new book, and best of all...it's free!

In the past few years I have started a holiday tradition in our room, the Cup of Cheer.

The holiday time is special time to reflect back on our year and remind ourselves of the many ways in which we do good things for each other. This time of year is the time that people spread good Cheer, no matter what religion you are.
 
So what we do is, I ask the students to bring mugs to school filled with little goodies to spread this good Cheer. During the mug exchange, we share our thoughts of appreciation about the year so far.  We will drink hot chocolate from our new mugs, and we’ll eat cookies and treats while enjoying a holiday movie.
On the day of the Mug Exchange, the students are allowed to wear their favorite fuzzy slippers and pajamas during our social time. 

The students were very excited about this activity, and they enjoyed looking at all the mugs coming in.

The big day arrived and the students anxiously kept asking me when we would do the mug exchange...

We sat down in a big circle and I talked about what the spirit of gift giving means. We shared out our thoughts about gift giving. A lot of them thought the same as I do, that it is better to give than to receive. They shared how they get excited to watch someone open their gifts.

We also talked about gifts of the heart, things that are given to someone that you may not be able to wrap, like respect and kindness.

We talked about the year and how it was going for everyone, their successes and their struggles.

And then we exchanged our mugs.

We played a little game to switch our mugs by reading a story. Every time the word right or left was in the story, we switched right or left. (Of course we used plastic cups for this portion, we didn't want anything to happen to our real mugs!) Then we used our class numbers to switch with our buddies.

​Then we enjoyed our little goodies and had some hot chocolate!

We were fortunate (unfortunate?) to have some snowfall in December, so we did a SNOW study. One of our first tasks was to do a close read on Wilson "Snowflake" Bentley. We read about his perseverance in his life towards the pursuit of snow science and microphotography. we examined some of his slides and identified the six shapes of snowflakes.

I love how a couple of our students connected it to a biography study their sister had done in 5th grade. They brought in her report and shared some more facts about his life.

​Next, we did an onsite field trip by heading outside to examine some snowflakes. We didn't really see any of the shapes, but the kids had fun trying.


We wrapped it up with a leveled article about recycling snow from Tween Tribune called, "Chill Ways to Recycle Snow." The kids brainstormed ways to reuse snow. Some of the more memorable ideas were

The students did a stupendous job at the Winter Concert Program! They sang and danced so well.

A big round of applause for Mr. Renardo, our fantabulous music teacher!
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Irene Fountas and G.S. Pinnell are the leading ladies of Reading instruction. They are the gurus behind well rounded literacy programs.

One of the activities that came from them is something called Working with Words. You give the students a strip of letters that they cut out and place on their desks, give them a clue or two, and have them spell out a word.

It's a fun way to practice spelling and phonics.

From there you can look for word patterns or use those words as springboads to other words.
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​  M is spelling out a word.

​                                                   What is that word?

​    AARRRRGH, the agony! What is the word?

At the end, there is a challenge to use all the letters in one word.

One of the stories we read in our Journeys reader is Technology Wins the Game, a story about how discoveries in science have helped athletes perform better in sports activities. 

At the end of the story we had our own Olympic Games (well, at least, a version of it.)  😝

We had some normal competitions such as discus and javelin throw, but we also had some strange competitions such as cotton ball shot put, biggest foot, and teddy bear grab! 

This all came from an old Aims unit that I had adjusted to fit us.

The kids had fun!
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