This week we wrapped up our Christmas preparations by making a nativity scene first using stickers and then by cutting out the pieces and retelling the story. On Wednesday, we celebrated Christmas in our classroom. We started by "undecorating" our tree and packing up all of our ornaments to take home and share with our family. We had to be very careful not to break anything. Some of our ornaments are very fragile. Then we decorated the tree with Ms. Torborg’s ornaments. We also read the Christmas story out of the bible. We moved our creche pieces into our stable as we read the nativity story. We were finally able to add baby Jesus to our manger. We also got to open gifts from Ms. Torborg, our Advent Angel, and our 5th grade Buddy. It was a fun and exciting short week.
Monday:
Happy Fourth Week of Advent! For Advent today, we heard Brother Francis tell us about the first manger scene and how St. Francis of Assisi trusted God to provide. Henry J. wrapped our story today, The Night of Las Posada.
In reading, we reviewed our letters and letter sounds. Then we completed a short i sight word worksheet. We had to read the word on the Christmas tree and glue the correct picture on top of it. Then we completed some activities on the iPad.
In math, we continued working on identifying tens and ones with number tiles and blocks. We started with reviewing the concepts from last week. We used our number tiles to identify a group of blocks and we used blocks to represent a number. Today we worked on composing 2 digit numbers using number tiles and blocks. We started with our blocks. We used the blocks to show the number 3 tens 2 ones. Then we found the corresponding number tiles, 30 & 2. To compose the number, we had to put the 2 tile on top of the tens tile to create the number 32 (read 3-ten 2). We created several different numbers using our numbers tiles and blocks.
In the afternoon, we read the story, The Christmas Story. We followed Mary, Joseph, and Jesus’ journey from when the angel announced to Mary she was having a baby to when they fled to Egypt. As we read the story, we defined many of the unusual words like stable (barn), manger (animal feed basket), and swaddling clothes (tight blanket). Then we created a Nativity scene. We each got a sheet of stickers with all of the pieces. We could put them together in any design we wanted. Then we watched a Brother Francis movie about Jesus’ birth.
Tuesday:
For Advent today, we heard Brother Francis tell us about the special star in the sky that told of Jesus’s birth. Our Advent Action is to share God’s light with others. Kayla unwrapped our story today, Come and See.
In reading, we reviewed our letters and letter sounds. Then we completed a short o sight word worksheet. We had to read the word on the Christmas tree and glue the correct picture on top of it. Then we cut out all of the different characters for the Christmas story (Mary, Joseph, baby Jesus, shepherds, wise men, angel, and star) along with the setting (a stable). The next step was to retell the story of the birth of Jesus. First we retold it by ourself, then we worked with a partner to retell the story.
On our religion worksheet, we had to create some hay out of yellow paper for in the manger to make a nice soft bed for the baby Jesus. On the other side, we had to draw decoration on the tree and then some presents under the tree for baby Jesus.
In math, we played roll and cover with a partner. On our turn, we had to roll 2 dice and add the numbers together. Then we needed to cover that number on our board. The first person to cover all of their numbers won.
Wednesday:
For Advent today, we heard Brother Francis tell us about the help Mary and Joseph’s must of had as they went to Bethlehem and how we should help those that have no food or shelter.
After some reading stations and Title, we opened our last book, The Christmas Story . As we read it, we created the scene using our creche pieces. Mary and Joseph have been on the journey since Advent started. They have slowly moved across the room on their journey. Today they were placed in the stable along with the baby Jesus. The shepherds were also moved to the stable. The Wise Men are now on their journey to see the baby.
Then we spent some time "undecorating" our tree and packed all of the ornaments we made to take home and share with our family. We had to be very careful not to break anything. Some of our ornaments are very fragile. Then we spent some time decorating our Christmas tree. Ms. Torborg let us put up all of the different ornaments she has received as gifts over the years. It was fun to see all of the different decorations Ms. Torborg had.
After recess, we shared our Christmas cheer with our 5th grade buddies. First, we exchanged gifts. Then we spent some time playing with them.
Finally after lunch, it was time to open gifts. First, we opened our gifts from Ms. Torborg. Along with our Santa hat, we got two new books, a Christmas science kit, and an ornament with our name. Then we got to find out who was doing kind deeds for us. We each got to open a gift from our Advent Angel. We all had fun opening our gifts.
We spent the rest of the day “Partying”. Thanks to our room parents, we had two different craft projects and a special snack.
I just want to say “Thank You” to everyone for the wonderful Christmas gifts. Your thoughtfulness is greatly appreciated!
Thursday:
No School
Friday:
No School