GRINCH DAY

You can click on the pictures to enlarge them

I love this day!  Every year, shortly before our Winter Break I like to have a "Grinch Day."  We did several activities that went along with the story "The Grinch Who Stole Christmas."  

Some of my students came to school dressed in green in
honor of our Grinch Day!

Here are some things that we did:

We did a writing/art activity: "To make the Grinch grin I would _______________"

Our art/writing project

 Then we brainstormed with partners adjectives that would describe the Grinch (at the beginning of the story). After working with partners we listed them on one big poster.

We also made Text to self connections with the book.  Just as the Grinch has things that make him grumpy all of my students had things that make them grumpy.  Then they also made connections with the Grinch at the end of the story.  His attitude changes and he becomes happy, so we talked about things that make us happy.

After that we listened to the song, "Mr. Grinch" and picked out similes that were found in the story. Then the students made their own similes to describe the Grinch.

The similes that the class came up with

We also learned how to draw Mr Grinch!  The students did a great job on these!

Some finished pictures:

We did some holiday activities on the laptops:

We had green candy canes and some green cookies too

And we finished our day with the cartoon, How the Grinch Stole Christmas!  The day FLEW by!

Karate Graduation

Today was the Karate Graduation and we had a great time!  I was happy to see so many of my students show up today.  I know Saturdays are busy and it can be hard to squeeze in one more thing!  Graduation started off with the students demonstrating the techniques that they had learned.

Next, they got to teach their parents (and siblings) some of the techniques they learned (jabs, punches, kicks, high kicks and blocks).  I think they kids loved this!

After that the students got to break a board for completing all of their homework assignments and attending a couple extra classes (which were free!) at the studio.  I think this was the highlight of the graduation for the students.

Even the teacher's broke boards
(we were asked to break 4 boards at one time) 

 After the boards were all broke the students got to take the medal stand, one at a time, and receive their certificate and medal.

The group of third students, and teachers, who showed up for graduation

and we had to get a picture with our Karate Masters

Thanks to all the parents for supporting your child through this program.  I think they had a great time and I hope that you can implement some of those things they learned in your home (the focusing, showing respect and having self control).

Karate

We were lucky to have Master Letchenburg come and teach us some karate skills the past three weeks. The kids loved learning from him and they gleaned some important things that will help them be successful in life.  Some of the things they learned were:


1. "The Goals we set, are the goals we get"
2. "2 qualities of a champion are: attention to detail and follow through"
3. "7 magic words of respect are: yes sir, no sir, yes mam, no mam, please, thank you, and you're welcome"
4. "3 rules of concentration are: focus your eyes, focus your mind, and focus your body"



The students can repeat those from memory and they understand what each of them mean and how, by putting those into practice, will help them be more successful in school, at home and all other aspects of their life.

They were also given homework assignments throughout the three weeks and each time they completed a homework task they were given a stripe on their belt.  Some of the homework tasks were:
1. respect your parents
2. respect your teacher
3. go above and beyond at home
4. say "thank you" and "I love you"
5. Clean your room without being asked

We are so grateful for Master Letchenburg, Master Jones and Mr. Ducett for taking time out of their busy schedules to work with us!

Halloween

I hope your child had fun at school today!  It was filled with fun and games. We had a school wide parade and then our classroom party.  Thanks to the many moms who planned our party, donated items and came to help out during the party.  We couldn't have done it without you.  Our PTA planned some games for the students to do during lunch recess.  We also took some time to enjoy the beautiful weather today by going outside for a longer recess than normal.

Drawing a Halloween picture on a paper
plate while on our heads