Alphabet Party! (and other awesomeness)

I think this may be the first class picture we have.  Thanks to my favorite preschool teacher for popping over and snapping it.

This morning Miss Keili from the AZ Farm Bureau came and read to us about apples and then showed us how to make a Fall and Spring apple tree.  

Today was our alphabet party day!  That means we did lots and lots of literacy activities, like reading alphabet books, singing "Who let the A out?", writing letters, and doing fun alphabet pages (dot to dot, letter matching, missing letters...), and alphabetizing letters.

 It's amazing how much more fun it is to put cards in order if they are first thrown into the air.

  We ate alphabet snacks (and rocked out to the ABC disco)

 We played more games like, alphabet cover-up

 and matching upper and lower case letters

 and put together a really long alphabet puzzle.

 At the end of the day we went outside and made fruit prints with our buddies.  (We used to do apple prints, but after 6 years I was getting a little tired of apple prints, and we saw this really cute idea here so it was time to try something new.  Not sure if we'll add faces though)

 And a little dress-up during centers to end the day.

Happy Friday!

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!

Aa is for aliens and Officer Aimee (the 2 are not related, other than their initial sound)

Here are some of the cute aliens we had fun making (drip watery paint on paper, blow it, let it dry, add eyes and mouths)
Today Officer Aimee came to school. She showed us some of her tools (pen, flashlight, taser that makes a funny sound) and we got to hear her radio a bit and see her badge. She talked to us about safety and calling 9-1-1 for a real emergency.
She brought some (clean) handcuffs that everyone got to touch.
We heard the siren, saw the lights, and even got to climb through the back of her patrol car.
Then everyone got a sticker badge. Some children put theirs on their sleeve, just like a real police officer.