Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!! We had a lot of Christmas fun in first grade! On Monday, we reenacted Las Posadas, which is the commemoration of Mary and Joseph's journey searching for shelter. The first graders did a wonderful job reading their part to all of the other classes. On Tuesday, we had some special visitors. First, some of our eighth grade class read and discussed Bible stories of the first Christmas with us. Then, Mr. Biggins brought in my Milo, my Christmas puppy, for the students to meet. Wednesday, we had a party with goodies, games, and a fun white elephant exchange. While we had a lot of fun, we also did many things to prepare our hearts for Jesus's birthday, including extra prayers, acts of kindness, and learning all about the first Christmas. 

The students get so excited when we receive a phone call from the office in the afternoon and this week was no exception! When they hear me tell Mrs. Smith that we will need a few minutes to get prepared, they scream with excitement! Everyone in our hall knows when we have a mystery reader! This week, our mystery reader read The Day the Crayons Quit by Drew Daywalt. This is a very funny book about a boy's crayons quitting. They each have their own argument: blue is tired of being used so much for all the water and sky and black wants to be more than an outline all the time. One crayon is mad because he is naked (his paper has been ripped off). The students laughed often throughout the story and then they all enjoyed Crayola gummies and their new crayons after! 

We've also been enjoying some Christmas fun. Our elf, Snowflake Cuddles, has been getting into all kinds of things in our classroom. St. Nicholas came on St. Nicholas Day and left a candy cane in our shoes. We've been decorating our room for Christmas, talking about Advent and preparing our hearts for Jesus, learning all about how God chose Mary and Joseph, working with final stable syllables in phonics, and doing subtraction in math. The students are working hard, but having lots of fun too!