HAPPY HOLIDAYS!

Merry Christmas, Happy Hannukkah, and Happy New Year
 from The Crickets! We dressed as Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer for our school holiday party. It was wonderful!

Vesel božič to our friends in Slovenia!

Love and Hope

A light of love and hope for the children and teachers of Sandy Hook Elementary School.

Thanksgiving

Abby - I am thankful for our teacher, and our friends, and our parents, and the library.
Nevaeh - I am thankful for having great parents that give me things like my lessons, and my whole family, ABCs, and numbers.
Matt - I am thankful for my teacher, my family, and my aunt, and everybody else.
Ava - I am thankful for my mom and my daddy, and my cats and dogs.
Nar - I am thankful for the world, and for Thanksgiving, and for all the good things people have done in the past years, and for people.
CJ - I am thankful for my brother, and my family, and my aunt and grammy, and for homework.
Bree - I am thankful for everyone, and my family, and my friends, writing, and learning to be techies.
Rory - I am thankful for my family, my teacher, Thanksgiving, and my friends.
Kara - I am thankful for the world, and the trees.
Talia -  I am thankful for my mom, dad, Thanksgiving, my grammy and poppa, and Maddy, my dog, and my cats.
Julius  - I am thankful for my mom.
Kaedynce - I am thankful for my friends, my family, and the whole entire world, and my teacher, and nature. 
Camren - I am thankful for the earth, and for books and stories.
Vinnie - I am thankful that I can help other people, and I am thankful for my family, and my pets.

We are all thankful for:
our friends in Slovenia, life, our IWB, books and stories, our blog, Tweets, our school, art, our warm beds, earth, God, Jesus, food, polite words, singing together, music, our teacher's iPad, learning to read,  new friends we meet.

We're thankful for the chance to give thanks together at Thanksgiving! 




  



   






 

Happy 50th Day of School

Today is the 50th day of school! We brainstormed 50 words about our classroom. We are half way to 100 days!

For The Pine Cones, our friends in Slovenia

 

We worked very hard on this. We learned it! We really like this song. Thank you for sharing it. Would you please send us another song? 

Our Monsters

We made silly monsters by using an app on our teacher's iPad. We enjoyed making them look silly. We printed them and wrote about them. We had fun and we gave our monsters silly names like Scrambled Socks.

Nevaeh's Haunted House

In the haunted house there's ghosts that go around in circles and crash! Oh no, zombies! Run !!! Ahhh, thump... ouchy!  Oh no! I'm going to get chased by zombies again. They chase me around the kitchen, and bats flew in my hair. And I hit the exit.

Ava's Haunted House

 

I am a ghost. A scary, scary ghost. I live in the haunted house. There are monsters in there. You don't go in there. It's really, really scary. I'm warning you! Boo!!! Grrrr!!! Rahhhrrr!!! What's that? It's a ghost! The ghost tripped over a rock and I hid behind the door. I left.

Talia's Haunted House

I tiptoed in the haunted house and I saw bats flying everywhere. I went in the closet and saw a monster. It growled at me. A skeleton was following me around wherever I went, but I escaped and sailed across the sea all the way to Maine.

CJ's Haunted House

I went into a haunted house and there was a monster. There was an owl, and there was a ghost. They chased me out of the house!

Bree's Haunted House

Me and my friend went to the Haunted House. Drip! We heard something. It was Frankenstein washing his hands. We thought that was crazy. Then we saw bats. They were flying. We thought that was normal. They chased us to California. It was not a nice trip!

Vinnie's Haunted House

There was a ghost in my house. Booooo! Booooo!

Abby's Haunted House

Hi! I'm in the haunted house and I see a witch. She said, "Whuh-ha-ha. You are spooked." I want to get out of this house. I ran around the house and the witch followed me. I got out through the window.

Nar's Haunted House

I quietly walked in the haunted house. I saw bats sleeping upside down. When I opened a few doors I came to a little door and I saw zombies from World War II. Then I quietly walked outside. And the floor creaked as I walked out of the haunted house. It was very scary. Boo!

Rory's Haunted House

Swish! What was that? That was a bat. Goblins are everywhere. There are skeletons everywhere. I am brave. I am not scared. Go away skeletons! Go away goblins! Go away flying bats! Go away scary stuff! BOO!

Kara's Haunted House

Look! There is something creepy! What is that? I think it is a ghost. I hope not. It is a ghost! "Boo!" It said boo. I crept out.

HALLOWEEN!

Abby - I'm going to be a witch.
CJ - I'm going to be a Ninja.
Nar - I'm going to be a witch.
Rory - I'm going to be Rapunzel.
Cam - I'm going to be a Ninja.
Julius - I'm going to be Captain Jack Sparrow.
Talia - I'm going to be Cleopatra.
Kaedynce - I'm going to be a vampire beauty queen.
Nevaeh - I'm going to be a ladybug.
Matt - I'm going to be a firefighter.
Vinnie - I'm going to be a Ninja.
Bree - I'm going to be a skeleton.
Kara - I'm going to be a bow hunter.
Ava - I'm going to be Minnie Mouse.

That's what Halloween is about!     

       

POPCORN TIME

We read The Secret of Spooky House. The secret was that the monsters in the house ate popcorn. The story made us hungry! We decided we wanted to eat some popcorn. We used a hot air popper, and we got a big monster-sized bowl from the cafeteria to hold the popcorn. We watched the popcorn kernels pop. We each made two paper containers for the popcorn. We designed the containers ourselves. We used tape to hold the containers together. We had to decide which container we made would hold the most popcorn, and then our teacher filled that container. Some of our containers held 3 scoops! We each got 1 scoop of popcorn. We ate our popcorn while we listened to The Popcorn Dragon story. 

 

It's Fall!

It was a beautiful fall day, so we went for a  walk because we wanted to make pictures out of leaves. We were walking down the street near our school. We were looking down to collect leaves. We saw golden leaves, red leaves, and yellow leaves. Some leaves were still green. We found some maple helicopter seeds and some pine cones. We met a neighbor who said we could go all over this fields the next time we went out for a walk. On the way back we kicked through the crunchy, crackly leaves. It was fun!

It was a very sunny day. We traced each other's shadows outside on the playground using sidewalk chalk. Sidewalk chalk is big and thick. We stood still and made funny shapes with our body. We wrote our names on our shadows.

We wrote our Star Words all over the playground. We wrote them very big. Then we played Star Word Tag. When our teacher called a Star Word we had to run and find it. Then we stood on it. When we were finished we did a Sun Dance, then we laid in the sun to catch our breath.

 

Kuzha Pazi

Here is the song we are learning in Slovenian:

KUZHA PAZI, Z REPKOM MIGA                  The dog watches out, waves with its tail        

VSTANE, LEZHE, TACHKO DA                     stands up, lies down, gives you its paw,

HISHO CHUVA, JEZNO LAJA                        it guards the house, barks angrily

CHE NIKOGAR NI DOMA                              if no one is at home.

KO PA JURCHEK CICIBANCHEK                 When little boy Jurček    (Yurchek)

TRUDEN SE ODPRAVI SPAT                       goes to sleep all tired

KUZHA PAZI, K VRATOM LEZHE                 the doggy guards him, lies down by the door

DA NE VZAME JURCHKA TAT                    so that the thief can't steal him.

Our friends in Slovenia sent us a video.

  We are working very hard to learn this song!

Purple Day!

We had Purple Day. We wore all the purple clothing we had. We each brought in a purple surprise. We had purple plums for snack. Julius' mom sent us purple grapes. We froze them for snack in the afternoon. They were purple delicious! We made tally marks for all our purple things. There were 51 tally marks, plus all of our purple surprises! We even took a purple picture with our student teacher.

We want a purple-wonderful year!

A DOZEN DAYS IN FIRST GRADE!

Our class name is The Crickets, and we have been in First Grade for a dozen days.
 
Vinnie - I like working on my teacher's iPad.

Abby - I like watching our crickets.

Nar - I like seeing my teacher.

Brianna - I like writing, and singing at Morning Meeting.

Nevaeh - I like coloring at Choice Time.

Ava - I like singing together, especially our Peanut Butter Song.

Rory - I like being with my teacher, and reading.

CJ - I like building with the big blocks.

Talia - I like doing art and singing together.

Kaedynce - I like putting poems in our big, fat Poem Book, and I like to EEKK.

Kara - I like using Play-Doh and sharing news at Morning Meeting.

We all like using our teacher's iPad, having a sand box, spending time together, singing, being Chief Cricket, and doing Banana Split. First Grade is fun!

TIME FOR SUMMER VACATION!

I'm happy, I'm ready,

I'm silly, I'm sad,

I'm jolly, I'm jumpy,

I'm lazy, I'm glad!

I've got many feelings

Because school is done.

I'll miss many things,

But the summer is FUN!

More Crickets!

More baby crickets just hatched! Soon it will be time to set them all free in our teacher's backyard.

Red Riding Hood & the Woodcutter - by Natasha

Once upon a time Red Riding Hood went in the forest. She met a Woodcutter. He gave her 3 wishes. She went and made 3 wishes. She wished for a dolphin, and a horse, and a bird. They all lived happily ever after.

Little Red Riding Hood and the Witch from Hansel & Gretel - by Alanna

Once upon a time in a far, far away place, Little Red Riding Hood visited the witch from Hansel and Gretel. She is my mother and we had dinner together tonight. And my mother ate me! Wahahahaha! Nooooooo, mommy! Don't eat me please. Mom don't eat me. The Wolf came in. The Wolf ate my mother. And we lived happily ever after.

Custard and the Gingerbread Man - by Hunter

Once upon a time Custard went into the Gingerbread Man's story. I ran so fast that I caught him. He said, "Don't cook me!" but I cooked him for lunch with my fire breathing breath. He was tasty. He tasted like a banana. It was good. I lived happily ever after.

Our Beach Trip

We went to Pine Point Beach with the whole first grade. We went beach combing and we found shells, crab legs, driftwood, a whole crab, lots of different seaweed, and feathers. Natasha became an expert at finding razor clams, and Dakota became an expert at finding whole sand dollars. We saw barnacles on the rocks, rocks, seagulls, someone fishing, big waves and small waves, and the tide line. The tide was going out and we learned how to tell that. Alanna made a sand castle with drips. Jase, Hunter, and Daniel wrote their names in the sand. Laney, Brooke and Emma wrote in the sand and drew pictures in the sand. We dug tunnels and made the water go into different places. We dug big, deep, holes too. We went wading up to our ankles. The water was a lot warmer than we expected. It was an awesome day!

Custard the Dragon Meets King Midas - by Dan

Once upon a time Custard the Dragon went to visit King Midas. He was very scared! King Midas is very greedy! King Midas touched Custard. "Hot!" yelled Custard, and he turned into gold. King Midas was happy to have a gold dragon statue. Mustard convinced King Midas to pour a bucket of water on Custard. "Thank you," said Custard. They lived happily ever after.

The Witch, King Midas, and Thumbelina - by Lillian

Once upon a time there lived the Witch, King Midas, and Thumbelina. We all went in the woods. We found an apple tree. King Midas picked an apple and turned into gold. The Witch touched an apple and then it rotted. When Thumbelina touched an apple it was covered with butterflies. We picked so many! We had 100 pies! We had them for a month. We got sick of them, so we decided to sell the last one. And a tiny ladybug flew by. They all went home, and they lived happily ever after.

The Witch - by Jaidyn

Once upon a time a Witch went into Thumbelina's story. The Witch found a girl that was small. Then she picked her up and then along came little Red Riding Hood, and she said, "Hi, Witch." The Custard came along, "Roar, roar, ROAR!" Then along came the Gingerbread Man and I ate him. He was so tasty. I lived happily ever after with Thumbelina.

Thumbelina's Big Adventure in the Candy House - by Laney

Once upon a time Thumbelina was walking in the woods. She saw a house of candy, so she went inside and saw a witch. The witch was nice for one day, until she said, "I will eat you up, Thumbelina!" So I ran and pushed her into the oven. Thumbelina was so surprised to see her father waiting for her! They sat down at the table. Her Dad said, "Can you use your powers to make us rich?" "Yes," said Thumbelina. And they lived happily ever after.

The Gingerbread Man and the Wolf - by Dana

Hi, I'm the Gingerbread Man. I am going into Red Riding Hood's story. I'd better watch out for the Big Bad Wolf. Oh, oh, let's just get on with the story. AAAHHHH! The Big Bad Wolf! Ugh! And little Red Riding Hood as well. They're trying to eat me! Help! Oh no! I hear something coming. The Wolf is catching up, but that doesn't stop me. I'll go faster. Oh no! I'm going too fast, I can't see, aaahhh! Stop! I can help you. Oh! A woodcutter. Well, will you eat me too? No! 

Was that a good story, or what?

Thumbelina and the Witch - by Joddi

Once upon a time Thumbelina went to a witch's house. The Witch was from Hansel and Gretal and she made Thumbelina eat the house. Thumbelina didn't know she was a witch, but she found out that she was from her voice. "Start the oven!" said the Witch. "No! I will not," said Thumbelina. "Yes you will!" So Thumbelina kicked her into the oven and ate her, and lived happily every after.

The Gingerbread Man and Custard - by Jase

Once upon a time there was a Gingerbread Man and a dragon named Custard. But one day the Gingerbread Man went into the story Custard the Dragon. The Gingerbread Man was scared of the dog and the cat and the mouse and mostly the dragon because he almost ate him up. But they became friends, so they played all day and all night and they lived happily ever after.

Red Riding Hood Meets Custard, the Dragon - by Brooke

Once upon a time there was a little girl named Red Riding Hood. That's me! I went into a different story called Custard, the Dragon. I met the dragon and Belinda, Ink, Blink and Mustard. I asked Belinda if I could live with her. She said yes and I was very happy. Every morning I had cereal for breakfast. Custard had a little piece of the pirate. Ink had cat food and Blink had little pieces of food. Belinda had the same thing I had. She had cereal just like me. It was yummy Honey Combs. Then everybody wanted to play ball, so we played for an hour before lunch. Then we had lunch. We had ham and cheese sandwiches and they were really good. They had ranch dressing on them. We had punch for a drink. It was delicious. Then we went to play a game of tag outside. Custard was It. He chased us. He ran as fast as he could. He got Belinda and Ink, but not me. Then he got Blink and I was the only one left. Then it was supper. It was an awesome day and we lived happily ever after!

The Gingerbread Man and Blink - by Coty

Once upon a time I met a man who was a cookie. I wasn't hungry, so I didn't try to eat him. We became friends until I fell and hit my head. I did not remember anything. He reminded me that I was his friend and we lived happily ever after as friends.

Pussy Cat Meets Red Riding Hood - by Rory

Once upon a time the Pussy Cat met a girl named Red Riding Hood. The Cat liked her so they played together. They are BFF's. One day they had a sleep over. They were happy. They played all night. Mom said, "Time for bed." They went to bed. In the morning they ate and then Mom said, "Want to go to the park?" We said, "Yes, we do." We went to the park. "Go play," said Mom. The Pussy Cat said, "I don't feel good". Mom said, "Let's go home." When we got home, Mom said to me, "You have to go to bed," and I did. I woke up and I saw balloons. I see party hats and a cake and presents. "Mom, what are you doing to me?" Mom said, "You fell off your bed. That explains why you are in the nurses's office." Mom said, "Go to sleep. You will see a surprise when you wake up." Red said, "Mom, can we eat the cake?" "Yes," said Mom. And they lived happily ever after.

King Midas and the Gingerbread Man - by Nathan

Once upon a time King Midas went to the Gingerbread Man's house. King Midas knocked on the door. Knock! Knock! Knock! The Gingerbread Man said, "No one is here." "I am King Midas!"  "Are you going to eat me?" "No," said King Midas. King Midas touched him and be brought the gold statue of him home. King Midas poured water on him, and they put him in the oven, and they ate him for lunch! They went for a nap, and in the morning they made another Gingerbread Man and he ran away. The Gingerbread Man went back to his home and he locked the door. King Midas went back home from his work, and the Gingerbread Man lived happily ever after.

Little Red Riding Hood Meets Custard, the Dragon - by Emma

Once upon a time Little Red Riding Hood went into Custard the Dragon's story. She met Belinda, and her little black kitten, Ink, and her little gray mouse, Blink, and her little yellow dog, Mustard, and her dragon, Custard. I got to ride on Custard. We went to the woods and back. We flew around a tree fifty times. I loved visiting Custard. It was fun. And we lived happily ever after.

Gingerbread Man meets the Woodcutter and King Midas - by Dylan

Once upon a time there was a Gingerbread Man. He had blue candy and a tie. I visited the Woodcutter. "Don't crush me, Woodcutter," I said. "I'd rather eat you," said the Woodcutter. "Aaaah!" I said and I ran away. I hope I lost him. I did not lose him. "Come back here, I want to give you a prize," said the Woodcutter. "Okay," I said. SNATCH! "Help me! Help me! King Midas, help me! Thank you!" I said.  "Now I can finally touch you," said King Midas. "You touch yourself!" I said. "Run, run, as fast as you can! You can't catch me, I'm the Gingerbread Man!" Here comes more trouble. I kept running and I got scraped and hid. "Huh, huh, huh," I panted. "I'm not eaten. Yay!" I'm so, so, so happy. I have to run away and everyone came to me. "Come on," I said. A fox was chasing me. Impossible! I'm going to have to run even faster. Trip! Ow! Keep running. A hunter? Come on! And they passed out, and I lived happily ever after.

FAIRY TALE DRESS-UP DAY

We have been reading and learning about fairy tales, so we had Fairy Tale Dress-Up Day. We dressed up in fairy tale costumes. We made our costumes out of our clothes and/or cardboard. Here are some of the characters we picked: Witch from Hansel & Gretel, Red Riding Hood, Gingerbread Man, Blink, King Midas, Custard the Dragon, Thumbelina, the Big Bad Wolf, Pussycat (from Owl and the Pussycat). We had to say something our character would say, and then we guessed. Our principal came and guessed too! Then we went to the Superintendent's Office and we sang our Fairy Tale Song and told them which characters we were. It was fun!

ART SHOW WITH OUR FIFTH GRADERS

We went to other half of our school for an art show. Our Art Teacher put artwork all over the school. The artwork was about Maine animals and Japan. There was a merry-go-round hanging from the ceiling! There were masks and animals and fish hanging from the ceiling too.

We watched a slide show in the gym about Maine illustrators. We got our faces painted by the Fifth Grade Art Club. We made beaded necklaces with animals in the middle. We went on a scavenger hunt looking for art work. We even had a snack and a story by a Maine author. We came back to our school by bus. It was awesome and we loved the Art Show. Thank you to our Art Teacher and the Fifth Grade Art Club; we enjoyed being with you and seeing all the amazing art.

Blue Whale Facts

We have been studying whales. Chewonki came and they brought a pilot whale skeleton. We put it together. It was interesting and fun, and we really enjoyed it. Thank you to  our PTA for getting the program for us!

We are going to tell you facts about blue whales. The pictures we picked are blue whales. Blue whales are hard to photograph. We found lots of humpback whale pictures that were labeled wrongly as blue whales!

Our Facts:

Blue whales can be 100 feet long. They are the biggest animal that ever lived! They are bigger than the biggest dinosaur.

A baby blue whale is about as long as 5 bathtubs.

Their flippers are only 5 feet long.

A baby blue whale is called a calf. It can gain 200 pounds a day. They drink mom's milk. The mother squirts the milk into her baby's mouth. The baby plays on mom's flipper. The baby stays with mom for a year. 

Blue whales have baleen. They don't have teeth. They swim to Antarctica to eat krill. Krill are like small shrimp, and they are about the size of your little finger. They eat thousands of pounds of krill in a day! Blue whales eat by gulping water and their baleen traps the krill. Their mouth gets so humungous that our whole first grade could swim in it! Throat pleats let their mouth get so big. 

Blue whales swim alone. They do not swim in pods.

Like all baleen whales, blue whales have two blowholes.

We want to keep the oceans clean, so the beautiful creatures like blue whales don't die. 

Art Show

We had an art show at our school. Everyone had work in the show. We had two pieces of work; we each made a songbird out of earth clay and drew bird cages with oil pastels and golden paint. We did our work in art class with our art teacher, and we listened carefully to directions. We looked at photographs of birds to see what they looked like and what colors to use. 

The art show was at night. We came back to school with our families. We showed our parents our artwork, had snacks, and got our faces painted. It was fun and exciting!

Emma's 100 Project

I used 100 popsicle sticks and made a school house with my mommy and daddy.

Hunter's 100 Day Project

I used 100 eyes and made a 100 with eyes. It looks awesome. Mom helped me.

Jaidyn's 100 Day Project

I used 100 soda tabs and made a fish bowl with fish     with hands holding it with a desk. I did it all by myself.

wAcKy wEdNeSdAy!

Welcome to Wacky Wednesday! We are celebrating Dr. Seuss' birthday. He would be 108 years old!

We decided to wear c-r-a-z-y socks. We made mustaches just like the one the Lorax has. We had a Wacky Wednesday Assembly. Mrs. McGee read us the Dr. Seuss story called Wacky Wednesday. Then we heard The Cat in the Hat. We got Wacky Wednesday stickers too. We planted some flowers and Truffula trees in Weehauken also. It was fun!

Dakota's 100 Day Project

I used 100 soda tabs and made a heart. My mom helped me.