Our After-Christmas Christmas Party

Because school was canceled the last day before Christmas break, we had our Christmas/New Years party on the 3rd when we came back! We played the Dreidel game from Israel, made a Kwanzaa mat from Africa, and broke a pinata from Mexico! What a great way to start off the new year! Welcome 2011!!!!!!!!!

Snow Day!!!

On Friday we got to all go outside in the afternoon and sled down the hill. We loved it. The snow was perfect; slick, cold, and tons of fun!!!! We had enough snow to really enjoy, but by the weekend it was all gone. The rain had come and melted it all away. However, it started snowing again yesterday and hasn't really stopped yet. In fact, today, Dec. 21st, is the first official "Snow Day" Cancelation that I have ever experienced!

We were supposed to have our last day before Christmas break today and have a party. I guess we'll have to do all that on the 3rd when we get back. Merry Christmas everyone! It looks like we get an extra day of vacation as part of our Christmas present.

Traveling Around the World!

Tyler's mom came to teach us about Hungary. Their family lived there for several years before Tyler was born. What a great tour guide!

Calvin's dad lives in Thialand where he works as a pilot. He came all the way to Utah just to teach us about this interesting Asian country. (okay, he really came home to see his family, but we were sure lucky to have him come to our class during his stay!)

One of the first places we visited on our trip around the continents was beautiful Italy! We loved learning about the customs and cultures that are similar to our own. We especially thank the Italians for our favorite food, PIZZA!

Melissa's mom came and taught us about the Philippines. We even got to eat flan, a new taste for all of us!

Kaiti's dad taught us about Japan. We learned how to count from 1 to 5, heard some great stories and tasted dried squid!!! Wow! We decided that American food is best!

Kye's Grandma and Grandpa came to our class to be our tour guides for Sweden! They were so much fun and made us all want to go there!

Gracie's Grandma taught us all about Israel. We got to see some amazing pictures and learned how very different their culture is from ours!

Miss Walton, We Miss You!

Miss Walton finished her student teaching just before Thanksgiving. We're sure missing her and wish her tons of success in her next experience (that we're pretty sure won't be nearly as much fun as we were). As she left us, she gave us a new playground ball, which is now the favorite ball to check out. Every time we play with it, we think of her!

Olsen Market

During the month of Nov. as we learned about money, the students were earning pennies that they kept in a bank on their desks. They would collect the pennies and then trade them for nickles, dimes and quarters when they could. Then, just before Thanksgiving we got to go to the Olsen Market and spend our cash! It was so fun! Several of the students took turns being the store keeper and we all got to buy quite a bit of 'cool stuff!'

Thanksgiving fun!

What an exciting day! Our class had collected the most food for the food drive the last few weeks so we got to have someone from our class throw a pie at Mrs. Rudd! We had a drawing and Braden won! He represented our class perfectly, throwing it square at her face! It plastered her! What a great shot! And what a great sport Mrs. Rudd was. It was so fun!

We also had a turkey gobbling contest with one child from each class competing. Our contestant was Landon. He was awesome. It was so fun to hear his creative gobble. We thought it was awesome!

Later that afternoon we invited our parents to an author's celebration where we shared our stories of "Our Most Thankful Thing" projected onto the big screen. We had some technical difficulties and couldn't get any sound to come through the system so the children ended up reading their stories into the microphone. (I'm thankful the students and parents were so flexible) They did a great job. The stories were heart-felt and wonderful! What a fun way to begin our Thanksgiving celebration!

More Wonderful Scientists!

Joe showed us how powerful air pressure can be as he projected a rocket through the classroom. He and Megan also showed us how to make an alka-selzer rocket shoot way up into the sky!

Katie used a drill to show us how mixing 2 or more colors together can make a whole new color. It was fun to see it mix right before our eyes!

Megan pushed air through a funny contraption that could pop it out and blow our hair. It was suprising and way fun!

Calvin taught us about the oxidation of copper. He showed us how to clean pennies and make them like new again. But then if you leave them for too long they'll turn green!

Gavin used vinegar and soda to make a volcano erupt. It was so exciting to watch! What a fun day!