An Excellent Week!

We were clinging to any signs of fall that we could find...

but December came with a snowy blast of coldness.

The snow couldn't stop our week from exploding with excitement!

We began our week by kicking off the season of Advent, making our own Advent wreaths.

Every week we will add a little flame to our candles.

We also kicked off our shoes and worked on making graphs.

Geoboards were also a fun math activity we did this week.

After reading the story Horton Hatches an Egg, the children created some structures that would hold an elephant

and balance an egg.

Another EGGscellent activity we worked on was hiding words in eggs.

It was hard work, but the kids LOVED it!

We read a great book called Elmer,which was about a patchwork elephant.

Soooo, we decided to create our own Elmers.

The kids made quite the colorful elephants.

Tuesday we headed over to the church basement

to visit with our Prayers Pals.

We hadn't seen them in awhile,

so it was great to see them again

and chat a little.

Some of the kids even made some new friends.

We shared some more of our pictures with them

and shared a few smiles

and giggles too!

We told them good-bye

and shared one last smile

.

and one last hug.

We can't wait to celebrate Christmas with them.

Pastor Rouland also helped us get ready for Advent with his chapel message.

He helped us find all of the candles in the church.

Our week continued with a special visit to the Ladies Aid.

We sang a few of our favorite songs for them

to help them celebrate Christmas.

We even taught them a few songs and made some new friends.

The kids had a great time!

Some "elves" stopped by this week too to help us practice reading.

They had us jumping for joy to play our reading game.

First the kids had to pick a card.

They had to be careful which card they picked out!

Some of the cards had letters on them.

The kids had to read the letter

and say its sound.

But some of the cards had lazy elves on them!

OH NO!  That meant you had to give all of your cards back.

If the kids got a happy elf,

they had to do their best elf dance!

These kids  have quite the moves!!!

Mrs. Helmkamp also stopped by with BEE-BOT.

Bee-bot was busy delivering special packages to people.

The kids did a great job of helping Bee-bot deliver Christmas packages.

Our elf adventures continued when some 7th grade friends stopped by to help.

The kids were each given 7 cents to buy some items to build an elf trap.

Then the kids had to come up with a plan.

Next they went shopping!

Putting the traps together was quite the challenge.

The children did a great job of working with each other

to create some amazing contraptions.

It was so fun to hear the kids share their ideas.

They even tested out their traps 

and made sure the traps worked.

The kids had a great time

and made some more new friends along the way.

What a fun adventure

with some fun friends!

 

Our week was not complete until our Friday reader showed up!

It was an EXCELLENT way to end the week!

We'll see what wintery adventures blow in next week!