December Photo Fun wrapped up in one big post!

Hi everyone! Merry Christmas (or day after)! I hope everyone is enjoying their time with family and friends, and I hope Santa was good to you!  I'm sure all of the Firsties received many wonderful gifts from Santa- their hearts were definitely all ready for Jesus! I am sure I will get to hear all about their Christmas adventures when we return to school after the new year! In the meantime, I just wanted to share some photos from those extremely busy last few weeks of school... enjoy! 

We hope you enjoyed the beautiful "snow globes" that the Firsties worked hard making for you! There is a hole punch at the top so you can hang it somewhere special!

Here we have some students working hard on their "Math Mints"

Each "Math Mint" shows a fact family- fact families are sets of addition and subtraction problems that use the same three numbers.

 

Fact families help our Firsties memorize their addition and subtraction facts! 

 

 

Here's a close up of one... This fact family uses the numbers 6,4, and 10

And if you didn't hear, we had a special visitor one day...

The 8th Graders brought Santa with them while they sang carols for us! This is one of our favorite St. Jude School traditions = )

Before all of the Christmas chaos fun, we celebrated 12-12-12...

Our Hundreds Helper even helped us skip count by 12's on the fabulous interactive whiteboard!

Speaking of interactive whiteboard, here are some of our Firsties working on a Phonics workbook page projected on the board...

Finally, here are some students working on their financial skills... we will be working on counting with coins for a few more weeks, so practice counting at home! 

Future CPA's and Wall Street financiers...

Firsties learned that when we count a group of coins, we always S-O-C! (Sort (into like groups), Order (from greatest to least), then Count!)

Well, I hope you enjoyed this glimpse into our First Grade classroom!  Please enjoy the rest of our wonderful Christmas Break- I know I will enjoy sleeping in, spending time with family and friends, and camping during the New Year's!  Speaking of New Year's, everyone has their own special traditions to do on New Year's Eve, and I thought I'd share with you my family's tradition.  According to the Japanese (if you didn't know, my mother is a quarter Japanese- born and raised there!), you must eat noodles -the longer, the better- on New Year's Eve.  This represents a "long" and healthy life in the new year!  So, grab some ramen, spaghetti, or whatever pasta you can, and enjoy some noodles on New Year's Eve!  Happy New Year everyone! 

Take care! 
~Ms. Hudson   

STOP! Firsty Parents Only- Not intended for Students!!!!

Don't worry parents- there is nothing inappropriate written in this post.  In fact, this will be one of my shortest posts ever. Some of you asked today if I discussed the horrible event that took place in Connecticut with the Firsties- absolutely not.  This is something that is really in your hands to discuss with your children.  However, in response to the tragic events that happened today in Connecticut, I am assigning one mandatory homework for you- the parents- for this weekend.  Hug your children. Hug them with the longest, biggest bear hug until they can't take being hugged any longer... and then hug them some more.  Life is precious- too precious- and we need to remember the importance of showering our children with love.  We are all too fortunate to be able to attend a school that promotes prayer, and we need to take advantage of that!  Please pray with your children every day.  And, if they are aware of what happened today, please pray with them for the students, victims, their families, teachers, first responders, and anyone affected by this tragedy.  

May you all have a peaceful weekend filled with love.

Take care
~Ms. Hudson  

Fedoras wanted!

Hi parents! Quick little blog post- to help with our Sinatra "look" during the Advent Program, I'm hoping that any kids with fedoras (any color, but blacks, greys, browns, or Christmas colors would be ideal) will wear them the night of the performance!  Something like this: 

 Some kids have expressed that they have this hat at home, so hopefully we can have as many Firsties as possible wearing these hats! Please don't feel the need to go out and buy one- it's just a little extra touch to our look! Thank you very much, and don't forget to send in a shoebox tomorrow for approval! ~Ms. Hudson

It's the Most Wonderful (and Excitable) Time of the Year!

Happy Saturday everyone!  What busy plans does your family have this weekend?  I'm just taking a wild, crazy guess that you are all busy... I know I am!  This time of year can definitely wear us all out, and I definitely noticed some wear and tear on our Firsties this week!  Periods of excitedness were immediately followed by periods of tiredness, and then sometimes even irritability!  But that was just the teachers!  = ) The Firsties were about the same, too... we are definitely noticing a few more tiffs between friends, a few more children feeling extra sensitive over small things, and a few more heads on the desks.  I know I have been trying to go to bed a little earlier, and that's not easy with all of these holiday parties on my calendar and holiday treats on my kitchen counter!  But let's all try to help each other out and remember how precious a little TLC can be this time of year... thank you!  And now I will step off of my Christmas soap box to talk about the many going's-on in our festive room...= ) 
(And again, I hope you all know me well enough by now to get my sense of humor in that last paragraph!) 

First of all, take a look at some of the decorations your fabulous kiddos put up around the room:

Glittery Christmas Light Bulbs

The stockings were decorated and hung by the "chimney" with care...

 The kids have been working on their fine motor skills with plenty of coloring and cutting... lots and lots of cutting!  Here are some students cutting out their reindeer.  They had to follow specific directions in order to color them, then, after cutting them out, they needed to use their knowledge of positional words to glue the legs on them correctly.  They even got to name their own reindeer... we just finished hanging them up in the room, so we'll be sure to post that picture soon! 

We even had some wrapped presents in our room, adding to the Christmas festiveness!  Thank you to everyone who was able to sign up and help out our Adopt-a-Family.  Your generosity exudes the Christmas Spirit! 

I'm not sure many of you know this, but every Monday during the Season of Advent, our whole school gathers outside of the First Grade classroom to say a special Advent prayer.  The Advent wreath hangs right outside our room (how lucky are we?!?!) and Sister Shawn leads us in prayer.  Please feel free to join us each Monday!  Here is a photo of the school gathered together last Monday:

Our Firsties are working diligently on their Advent Program songs.  We really have our Jingle Bells (the Frank Sinatra version) down!  Next up, we need to practice our Drummer Boy song... Speaking of which, I am on the lookout for some props and costumes for that song... Does anyone out there have something that might look like a Mary, Joseph, and (get ready for this) ox and lamb costume for a First Grader? If someone can donate these costumes (they will be returned to you), we were going to see which students would want to dress up as these people/animals for the song.  To be fair, I would need to pull names out of a hat of those interested in the part, but if any one is willing to donate the costumes, we would greatly appreciate it!  Obviously Mary and Joseph are fairly simple, but that ox and lamb... Please let me know as soon as possible via email if you can help out with this! Thank you!  

I am also looking for some crafty parents to help out with decorating some paper drums... hoping to make them look very "snazzy!" (read snazzy as glittery/decorative!) If you are available to help out with this, please let me know!

Finally, a quick academic update! Your Firsties will have a cumulative Sight Word test on Monday the 17th.  Remember to review those sight words a few more times before then! 

The Firsties have just completed their first big subtraction unit, and we will now go on to counting with money.  This is a great unit, especially because parents can easily reinforce this lesson at home.  I hope there is still some change left in your house to help them with their homework- I know some of these Firsties cleaned out their piggy banks to donate money to the poor!  Speaking of which, this amazingly generous group of children have donated well over...$200! Can you believe that?!?!?! I believe that is a record for any First Grade class that I've taught!  Unbelievable!  I definitely put popcorn in our popcorn jar when Mrs. Coulter announced our total.  I am so proud of these kiddos- way to go First Grade! 

Speaking of generous, thank you for another amazing bake sale!  We raised over $200 as well with this sale!  Our Christian Service project is good to go! Thank you to everyone who helped out, and a big thank you to Mrs. Vona and Mrs. Schultz for heading this project! 

One final note- this week we will begin collecting the shoe boxes for our Nativity Scenes- here is an example of a shoe box that is too skinny:

And here is an example of a shoe box that is just right:

Hope that helps! We'd like all boxes in by Wednesday for size approval, then we will return them to you to decorate the outside only at home over the weekend.  On Monday the 17th, we'd like them returned to school for the kids to work their magic on the interior of the boxes.  They really do turn out so beautifully, and we appreciate all of your help! Thank you! 

Have a wonderful weekend filled with family and friends! I'm off to bake some cookies, clean the house, rake the leaves, shop for presents, attend holiday parties, find a Christmas tree at the tree farm, etc, etc, etc... = )  I really do love this time of year!

Take care! 
 ~Ms. Hudson