Christmas Fun (and some other things that start with Cc)

Sometimes it works out really well that our reading curriculum does the letters out of alphabetical order; we did the letter Cc this week, so we had lots of fun with Christmas activities this week, culminating with Friday afternoon's Christmas party with our 4th Grade Buddies.

Wednesday Ms. VP organized a field trip to see a Christmas teddy bear display. We saw bears that light up, bears that move, a bear nativity, big bears, little bears...
bears that sing
A Christmas tree with 500+ bears on it
Bears on a train
Also on Wednesday we had a guest come in who played part of the Hallelujah Chorus on the clarinet.
We learned that sometimes you can play music by reading notes on a page, and sometimes you can play be ear. Our guest played some familiar music so of course everyone wanted to sing along. Here's a little clip:

And now the party pictures:
Bowling! They decorated some bowling pins (cups) and we taped some lanes on the floor.

Drawing and coloring ornaments
Making snowflake or star ornaments
Yes, I am drawing on someone's face, because this party even featured face painting! (Want to try it at home? Soak colored pencils in water for at least 15 minutes, make sure they aren't too sharp, and be aware that some brands work better than others. We used Crayola.) We did give the disclaimer that neither teacher went to art school, and it was free, so no guarantees on the product.
A pink Christmas tree was requested, and I thought it was actually kind of fun.
This was probably my best work. :)
Here are some buddies showing off their snowmen.
Then all that was left to do was eat a candy cane, say goodbye, and leave for the weekend!

Merry almost Christmas!