Christmas Party!

We had a lot of fun at our Christmas party on Friday! We played lots of games including "Christmas Bump-It", "Ornament Matching", "Nativity Scavenger Hunt", "Christmas Words in a Word", and "All I Want for Christmas". The morning concluded with Mrs. Lytle's yummy ziti and bread for lunch! 

For "All I Want for Christmas", the kids had to think up things starting with the different letters of the alphabet. I was quite impressed with how well the 1st graders did with remembering A-Z!

I couldn't have survived the party without my fellow reindeer/sister, Alayna :-)

Christmas Shopping!

This afternoon we went Christmas shopping at a nearby dollar store. Each student had 3 people they could buy something for. During this Christmas season, we wanted to focus on the spirit of GIVING rather than the spirit of getting. Most of the students were buying presents for Mommies, Daddies, and Grandparents. Some were also buying for friends, so we had to make sure we guarded our shopping baskets so certain people couldn't peek!

They were each able to buy 3 gifts because they all earned 3,000 merits in school. You get merits for getting your work done, quoting Bible verses, getting 100% on your tests, showing character etc. 

This shopping event went really smoothly, for which we were all thankful! When it was first mentioned as a possibility, we weren't sure how we all felt about it. ;-) Organization was the key though!

Wrapping paper, tape and tags were also purchased, so when we got back to school, each group could wrap their presents. I think it is safe to say that everyone is officially in the Christmas spirit now! :-)

 

A Farewell Fish Party!

You may remember our class pet from last year, Mr. Jasper Smiles? He joined us again this school year. His place of honor was on the testing table in the middle of the Elementary Learning Center.

With the winter months quickly approaching us, I really didn't want to arrive at school one day and find the poor guy frozen stiff. I decided that I would take him home for the winter months where I had better control of room temperature. :-)

Because I was taking him home, we decided to have a goodbye party for Jasper yesterday. (So much better than a funeral!) The students have grown quite attached to the little guy, and the older ones were always excited when it was their turn to feed him.

We went all out for this party! In the morning we went down to the kitchen and made blue Jell-O, putting it in a fish bowl (a BRAND NEW one!). Each student got to stir and dump something in the bowl. About an hour or 2 later we added Swedish fish to "swim" around in the blue Jell-O.

While the kiddos did their schoolwork, I was down in the Kindergarten classroom decorating for the party - complete with blue balloons, green streamers, and party hats. Jasper even got his own place of honor!

Later in the day, the students came downstairs. We had so many fun activities planned, but unfortunately, not everything could get done. However, we did decorate our party hats with fish stickers, read a story called "A Fish Out of Water", play a game called "A Fish Out of Water", taste test different fish crackers, and enjoy the blue Jell-O with Swedish Fish. The students had all written notes to Jasper, but we ran out of time to read them to him. I will have to promise to read them to him later on. Oh the things we do for a fish!! He has no idea how much he is loved. :-) One of my favorite notes I helped one of the first graders compose goes like this:

"Dear Mr. Jasper Smiles,

Can you not get frozen this winter? I really really like you but you have to go now. I will miss you!"

You know you are a teacher when you are not ashamed to wear a party hat to a farewell party for a fish! :-)

Red Lobster

Every quarter we do something special with the students who get on honor roll. The first quarter of the school year ended last week, and all 14 students made it on honor roll!

Red Lobster has a special program they recently started for students, and so we took advantage of the opportunity. The students had a great time learning about Red Lobster and all the important responsibilities everyone has to make sure things run smoothly in the restaurant.

We got to meet Larry Lobster, wear hair nets, visit the kitchen area, scoop out biscuits, compete in a coloring contest, and best of all, enjoy a free lunch! It was a great learning experience for us all. :-)

Having Fun in the Fall with Friends :-)

Strawberry Acres

Today we went to Strawberry Acres for a field trip - not to pick strawberries, but to pick APPLES! We started off with learning about what happens to apple trees during the different seasons. Then "Johnny Appleseed" told us his life story. After the story was over, the students were asked some questions about him, and one of the questions was, "Why does he wear a pot on his head?" A first grader raised her hand, and stated, "Because he wants to cover his bald spot!" Hmmm....well, you never know. :-)

The best part of the day was taking a bumpy ride in an open air bus into the apple orchard. Each student could pick 3 apples to take home with them. The field trip was then concluded with petting some animals, and even feeding them some grass. What a beautiful fall day for a field trip! 

 

 

Pumpkin Day!

On Friday we had Pumpkin Day at school! Students dressed in orange in celebration. The big excitement of the day was cutting open a pumpkin, digging out the seeds, and guessing how many there were inside.

Getting ready to cut open the pumpkin!

Beware! Stand back! Miss Follett has a knife!

 Time to dig out the seeds!!

 

 

Love their reactions!

Time to guess how many seeds are in the pumpkin!

Samantha was our winner! And yes, I counted the 588 seeds while they were out at recess. It was good for me :-)

Fun in the Leaves

The elementary students enjoyed playing in the leaves on this warm, fall day! Most of the girls spent all of recess gathering leaves into as big of a pile as they could. When I announced there was just 4 minutes left of recess, they all went crazy, throwing the leaves up in the air and just having a grand ole' time. It is when they started coming after me with piles of leaves that I decided it was time to line up. ;-)

Get Miss Follett!!!....ummm, not happening..."Time to line up!!" :-)

If I Were An Apple...

 

I would hang on a tree and hang there until I am ripe. When fall comes I will be ripe. It is now fall and I have changed from green to red. I can't wait for harvest time! It is harvest time now, and I can't wait to be picked! The farmer is coming down to the orchard with his basket. He is picking the apple. I have been picked! I have been washed and ready to eat so I can be yummy in your tummy. It's fun being an apple! (Abbi - 6th grade)

 I would climb a tree. I would hang on the tree and fall down. Someone will find me and pick me up and eat me. (Alyssa - 1st grade)

My name would be Orange. I will be in apple pie. A goat came from the hill and ate me up. Now I am in the belly of a goat. (Ayme - 1st grade)

 I would be a Honey crisp. I would have ten Granny Smiths over for a picnic. (Cally - 1st grade)

 I would be a green colored one. I would like for someone to pick me up and place me in a basket on their table. I would also like for all my other colored friend apples to be in the basket with me to brighten up someone's home. (Destiny - 4th grade)

 I would like to be pink and I would like to be warm too. I would like to slide and I would like love too. I would like to go to school. I would like to bake too and then be ate. (Ella - 1st grade)

I would want to lay in the grass with flowers. I would look at the trees and watch their leaves turn colors - red, orange, yellow and brown. They would fall and cover me like a blanket. (Lucy - PreK)

 I am an apple and I fell off an apple tree. If I were an apple and I got picked up I would have been eaten. (Hope - 1st grade)

 I will be smashed and I will be put in the oven to be baked and be eaten. I will miss my friends on the tree when they are having fun without me. Then I will be a new apple and I will be put back on the tree with my friend and we will have fun. (Julia - 3rd grade)

 If I were an apple I would want my home to be in an orchard in Gettysburg PA. I would want to be a Macintosh apple because it is a good baking apple and good just to eat. I would be round, rosy red and shiny. My tree would be short so everyone could see me. I would hope I would one day end up at the Apple Harvest Festival. I might see my friends there. My dream would be to be picked and used in one of the very many yummy treats you could find there. They are apple dumplings, fresh apple cider, applesauce, apple fritters, apple butter, apple pie or candy apples. Harvest time is just around the corner and my family and I are going. We will have to bring something delicious home for my wonderful teacher. (Juliana - 4th grade)

 I would be happy in the tree. I had lots of friends in the tree. I had everything I need to be an apple. But I get a little scared sometimes when I look down because it is high. One day I fell but luckily I did not get squashed. I saw an animal. I rolled away cause I did not want to be eaten. I rolled a little and then I saw more apples. I said Hi. I thought I'd try to find my friends. I kept looking until I found them. I saw another apple squashed. I thought, God has been good to me. (Leah - 4th grade)

 My name would be Mack and I will be a Fugi apple. I lived on a big tree but one day I fell off the tree on a house. I slid off and landed on a boy's bike where I slept that night because I could not move. The next day I woke up surprised I grew legs! So I hopped off the bike and walked to a hotel where I slept for the night. The next day I grew arms so I went outside to get a job and that's what I did. I am now a lawyer. I got married, got a house, and had kids. And I am the first apple to be the President of the United States of America. I am retired and I am now a grandfather. (Marc - 5th grade)  

(I didn't hand the camera to Alison until after Marc did his report so I didn't get his picture. However, I thought this apple would fit with his story!)

 I will grow up to be a flower then I will be a green ball then I will be a red apple. Then I hang from a tree. I will get picked, then I will be put in apple pie. I will be eaten by a horse. My name will be flower. (Michelle - 3rd grade)

 My name would be Apitizer. I would be a bright yummy Gala apple. First I started as a blossom then grew into a yummy Gala apple. When I fell out of the tree I hit the ground hard. I got hurt. A girl picked me up, and her name was Emaline. She brought me inside and washed me up. Emaline put me in her bookbag, but it was hard to stay in one place. When we got to school Emaline gave me to her teacher Mrs. Lytle. Mrs. Lytle really liked me. She left me on her desk for five days. I got board. On Saturday Mrs. Lytle planned apple day. I was in apple pie, applesauce, and in apple dumplings. Then on Monday the students gobbled me up. I was stuck in the belly of a giant. It was very smelly but then I got dijusted and I was gone forever. (Samantha - 5th grade)

 I would stay cold. I would not like to be rotten. I would not like to be eaten. I would want to be a red apple. (Sarah - 1st grade)

My life would start as a seed. That seed would fall in the ground and start growing. Soon that seed would turn into a tree. Now it's time for the tree to bear fruit. So here am I and now I'm going to be picked. I'm going to a store to be bought, and I was bought by a woman. She brought me to her house. Now I'm going to be her dessert. She is going to make me into a apple pie. Now she has the pie ready to bake. So she put it in the oven and soon the pie was done and so is the story. (Stephen - 6th grade)