This will probably be my last post before Christmas with everything going on and leaving for Edmonton to celebrate Christmas with my family. However, I just wanted the chance to thank everybody for a great last week at school. I especially want to thank all the parents that came in to help with the crafts and the very thoughtful gifts the children gave. I have felt very blessed to be your children’s teacher this year.

Though apparently it is not good manners to put more than one video in a post, I just found a couple of great videos I wanted to share as a last Christmas gift to all of you.

The first is a holiday video sung by the Christian group “Sixpence None the Richer”:

The second is a great video done by a guy who thought up the idea of traveling around the world with his girlfriend and taking videos of himself dancing in these foreign places. Now, you may think that that is crazy but he has had over 30 million views and has received sponsorships from Stride Gum and Visa. Having said all that, the videos themselves are great and certain to bring a smile, if not a laugh, to your face.

Finally, fitting the season, here is a scene from the Nativity Story. If you haven’t seen the movie, it is really well done and my family and my wife’s parents all sat down together last weekend to watch it together.

To part, my family would like to wish your family a wonderful, safe and Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year.

I love weekends even more now. I get to spend lots of time with my daughter!! I have had lots of requests for more pictures. I’m sorry but with one thing and another I just haven’t had time to get them off the camera and onto the computer. That is one of the things to do this weekend (besides catch up on sleep and sleep in a little  . . . oh wait! I can’t do that anymore (sigh)) Oh well . . .

Anyway, we got to play some smartboard games today on a Christmas theme. I put one of the games/activities on the side links for the students.

Otherwise, it was a good day with the students working hard. We got to see the high school students put on their Christmas play which was really well done. The students had a spelling test and we had a very good class meeting.

Next week will be crazy busy with crafts from Tues to Weds. I have some wonderful moms coming in to help for those days. If you are still interested in helping, let me know. We are going Tues (10:30-12:15), Weds (9:15-10:15) and Thurs (10:30-12:15). We are also going to be doing a secret Santa with students picking a secret person in the class to give a gift too. However, I do something a little different. At the end of the week, the students will be giving their Secret Santa the craft that was done the best. This is a much nicer way I feel, than having to get parents to buy yet another gift. This is something the children have made and worked hard on.

Tuesday is the last day for the toy drive. So bring any toys that you feel may be suitable for then. On the toy topic (but slightly different) here is one of my favorite songs for the season which is strangely enough, from the Muppet Christmas Carol. You can listen to it here:

muppets-one-more-sleep-till-christmas

Finally, to end off on a Christmas note, I found this speech written last year for the Christmas Season and thought it to be very true. So I thought I would post it again here. Enjoy!

I keep seeing in the newspapers that it might not be a “good” Christmas because while visits to stores are up, purchases per visit are down very slightly.

There is also some fear that it might not be a “good” holiday season because fears about the housing correction will scare shoppers into keeping their wallets zipped.

I’m fascinated by this, because I have looked through a Concordance of the Old and New Testaments and I do not find the word “shopping” even once.

I’m not sure when the idea got to be dominant that a “good” Christmas was about total spending, but here respectfully are some alternative suggestions:

Maybe a good Christmas for this most blessed of nations would be when we as a nation and as communities made sure the homeless had a warm, safe place to sleep.

Maybe a good Christmas would not be about buying your kids the latest gizmo for listening to obscene lyrics, but about teaching them that if they are fortunate enough to have extra time or extra money, they can help out at the old age home or at the local animal shelter.

Maybe a good time would not be buying your parents sweaters they will never use, but taking a trip to see them and telling them how much you appreciate that they spent the heart of their lives taking care of you, feeding you, teaching you, putting a roof over your head, warming you with their love and concern.

Maybe the best time of all would be telling your husband or your wife that you would be lost without him or her and that you’re sorry for the selfish things you did that year, and you’ll be better next year.

Christmas presents rarely fit and rarely are to your taste. They sit in your closet and collect dust forever.

But gifts in this special, sacred time of love and caring to your family, your friends, and your neighborhood – those are never forgotten. They bring peace of mind for years.

And I seem to recall from my vanished youth that this is the holiday of the prince of peace, not the queen of diamonds.

This is a response to a project given by Mr.Hancock about rights and responsibilities. One of the projects was to write a blog entry about an important right to the student doing the project. Here is Dylan’s response.

I think an important right is for everyone to have a home because it is strong and protecting. A home is strong and protecting because they have strong walls and locks. In a home you have responsibilities to:

• keep it clean
• help out
• do your chores
• don’t break stuff
• not leave home without asking.

Everybody has the right to have a home. If no one had a home it wouldn’t be happy and cheerful. It would be sad and gloomy.

Curt is a homeless person who went to my church. Then he never came back. I think Curt feels really sad. I feel really bad about homeless people because they don’t have anything. I miss Curt.

There are some things we can do to help homeless people:

• Donate to Salvation Army
• Play freerice.com
• Pray for them.

This is a response to a project given by Mr.Hancock about rights and responsibilities. One of the projects was to write a blog entry about an important right to the student doing the project. Here is Ben G.’s response.

A right that is really important is to be safe. If you are safe you won’t be kidnapped. Here are some ways you can be safe and not get kidnapped:

• • • • • You should be with your family all the time.
        • You should be at home
        • You should be with someone.
        • You could be at school
• You should be with a buddy
• You should be with your teacher
• You should be with your brother or sister
• You should be with a cousin
• You should be with a friend
• You should go outside only in the daytime
• You should be with a friend outside

If you don’t do these things you might get kidnapped. If we didn’t have the right to be safe, it would not be a safe and caring community. It would be a bad and scary place. I have heard of some kids who have been kidnapped and I care about them because they don’t have parents and home. I think thse people feel very, very, very sad. To help them, you could ask them if they want to come to your house until you find their parents or take them to the police where someone can help them.

It’s been a busy week here in Grade 3. Plans are underway for our concert on the last day of school. Students received their report cards today and Parent/Teacher interviews are on Monday. These are just a few of the things that we have been doing or are gearing up to as we count down the days to Christmas and Christmas vacation.

In terms of school work, for Language Arts, we have been working hard on our paragraphs. We have started using the word “because” as a way to connect and elaborate on ideas. Each paragraph must have at least 3 “because” words in it.

For Social Studies, we have finished our look at communities and have been working on mapping for awhile. Today, we introduced the idea of a bird’s eye view. I even allowed the students to stand on their desks to illustrate the idea. I told the students that this would be their one and only chance to stand on their desks. The students were enthused and had fun. We then took a tour around Google Earth to look at the various levels of Bird’s Eye views we could explore within the program noting the amount of detail we saw as we moved further and further out towards space. We then talked about map legends.

In science, we are starting our major project in the building unit. Students have been given a choice of three projects: A bridge, two car garage or a tower. Students have also been given a budget which they must stay under as they purchase their materials. It should be a great project and I am working on putting our budget sheets onto the blog so you and the students can keep track of their expenses as well as progress on each of the projects from home. I will update you on how that will work as we get into the project. I have told the students that I will not just let them build any old thing. An engineer must have a plan and keep track of their expenses (though we won’t use the Olympic buildings as an example, eh?). It should be a lot of fun and the students have been looking forward to this for a long time.

Well, it’s been a long night and I am just about to go to bed but I just thought I would make a mention of our toy drive again. Please keep bringing in those toys! Also, cans!!! More Cans!! Yeah!! Also, I have had some wonderful moms volunteer for the craft days next week (Tues, Weds Thurs). If any other moms are interested and want to spend some fun times with the students making crafts, please let me know. The more the merrier!!!

Speaking of the concert, I though I would give you a sneak preview of one of our concert pieces. The students here are doing an amazing job and I think you will love seeing this piece performed at the concert!

First of all, here is the spelling for this week. You can click here spelling-m-5 or you can print it out below. It is also in the box.net area.
Spelling M 5

Students also have a memory verse and poem to memorize. The poem is for the concert next Friday. The memory verse is due on the Thursday of the next week. The memory verse is Luke 2:10-12:

But the angel said to them, “Do not be afraid. I bring you good news of great joy that will be for all the people. Today in the town of David a Savior has been born to you; he is Christ the Lord. This will be a sign to you: You will find a baby wrapped in cloths and lying in a manger.

The poem is in the students planners. We would like them to have the poem memorized as soon as possible.

As mentioned last week, the elementary is holding a toy drive. We are looking for used toys or books in excellent condition that could be donated to those children who don’t usually get a whole lot for Christmas due to various circumstances. I am also sweetening the pot by giving away four tickets (2 each) to the two students who bring in the most items.

We are also still looking for opportunities/ideas for service projects for the class. If you ahve any ideas, post a message on the blog or come and talk to me.

Crafts: Next week, we are going to be doing Christmas Crafts as a class. If you are interested in helping out, we are going to be doing the crafts from Tues-Thurs next week. On Tuesday, we will start at 10:35. On Wednesday and Thursday, we will go from 9:15 to 10:15. Please let me know which days you might be interested in helping out if you can. You don’t have to commit to all three days. If you just want to come in on one of the days, that would be great. If you can make two or three days, that would be great too.

Finally, here is a little video that reminds us in this busy time what the season is all about. Enjoy!!!

We had a wonderful day yesterday. The students had a reading test yesterday and we also prepared for their Science Test today. Students were extremely well behaved on their field trip to the Chilliwack Museum where they got to hear stories from the past and make some pioneer crafts including potato candy. Yes, that’s right. You heard correctly; potato candy! And it was good!! In fact, it’s all good in Grade 3.

As the Christmas season comes closer, we often tend to think of those in need. While we should always be thinking of others who are having difficult times throughout the year, Christmas seems to naturally bring these feelings out.

As such, our class has a couple of projects we are working on to help bring Christmas to others. Our first project is the annual Salvation Army Food drive. We are are working hard to being in lots of cans and other food items. We have already received a number of items but more is needed. Please continue to bring those items in.

The other project we are working on is a toy drive. We are working on getting used or new toys together to donate the local Woman’s Shelter. Any toy is fine as long as it is in good shape, has all the pieces with it and is clean. I am sure that your child has many items that they do not play with and could be donated to someone who may not get a present for Christmas.

Here are the spelling words for this week. Look below or if you can not see the spelling words below click m-41 or download the spelling list from the side box.net area.

M-4

Here is a fun video that I found of a famous comedy sketch! Parents, you may know this one but the students probably don’t. It’s called “Who’s on First?”