MERRY CHRISTMAS!!!!!

Merry Christmas!!!! I hope everyone is having a great holiday break! We had a great trip to New York! It snowed about 12 inches while we were there so that made it even better! I will be sure to show you pictures when we return to school! Have a safe and fun week off next week! :) Keep reading!!!
This is me and my husband, Clay, in Central Park after the snow.

Jingle Bells Strikes Again!

Well our elf, Jingle Bells, has struck again! Today when we returned from lunch, he had written his name in gold glitter on my reading table. He had also scattered glitter on my desk and all over the students' desks! It was a big mess! I guess Santa told him how much I love glitter! :) He has been a naughty elf these past few weeks! Last week he unplugged the mouse to my computer and hid it, and the next day he dumped everything out of my purse and hid my car keys in the treat box! I know the kids are really enjoying this, but I will be glad when Jingle Bells goes back to the North Pole! Remember to send your child's book for the book swap on Thursday morning!

Pajama Day Pictures

We had a very fun day this past Friday doing our progressive The Polar Express lesson. I think the students really enjoyed moving around to all of the other first grade classrooms and wearing the PJ's to school! Here are some pictures. Enjoy!

First Grade teachers in pajamas ... What a FUN day!!!!

My sweet boys asleep on the front couch! :)

The girls were so tired too! :)

Our class in front of the school's Christmas tree.

Reminders

On Friday, we are doing a special activity. We will be doing a fun activity around the book The Polar Express, so we would like for all first graders to wear their pajamas to school this Friday! This will be a fun day for the kids - I am so very excited too! I love an excuse to buy new pj's! I still have several students who have not paid $10 towards our class parties. Our room mother, Mrs. Burns, is working very hard on our Christmas party, so it is very important that all students pay. Remember we will have a book swap during our class party next week, so students should bring a wrapped book to school by next Wednesday. (Boys bring a book that boys would like, and girls bring a book that girls would like.) Have a great night!

Friday Fun!!!

Today was 50's dress-up day, and I had 2 cute (and sweet) boys dress up. Thank you Jaylen and Payton for participating!!! Mrs. Rogers and I also dressed up as The Pink Ladies. A few quick reminders - We will be having a PTO Santa Shop next week, and my class goes on Monday and Wednesday. If you send money for this, please write student's name and Santa shop on the envelope. If you haven't already sent party money, please do that soon! Our elf got into some candy last night, and we found him with the wrapper, but he was also reading a book! I have put a picture of that for you to see! Thanks for all you do! Have a great weekend!!!

Welcome Back!!!

I hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving break! We are having a great week so far. Remember if you want your child to have his or her picture made with Santa on Thursday, you must prepay for this. Please send money to school with your child tomorrow if you would like those pictures. We will have another dress up day on Friday - 50's Decade Day. Students must pay $1 to dress up. Our sweet room mother, Wendy Burns, is already busy working on things for the Class Christmas Party. Please send $10 (which covers both the Christmas and Valentine Parties) to school as soon as possible. We will also have a book swap during our party, please see the note that was sent home for more information. If you have any questions, please email me anytime.

I bet you have tons of question about the Elf (Jingle Bells) that we have in our classroom. :) Well, it's true! Santa sent my class last year an Elf to live with us in our classroom until Christmas break. This helps Santa with his naughty and nice list! Yesterday, to our surprise, Jingle Bells returned! The kids are so excited, and can't wait to see what he has done from day to day. This morning, he had gotten into my treasure box, and gave everyone a Christmas pencil! But he can also be naughty to us...like when he rolled my entire room last year while we were at lunch! He also brought a book - The Elf on the Shelf, which tells more about how he works. I will post more pictures as we get closer to Christmas! :) I just love this time of year!!!

Have a GREAT Thanksgiving Break!

I hope everyone has a safe, fun, and happy Thanksgiving break! We had a great day yesterday. We started off the morning by watching the Kindergarten Thanksgiving Program, they did an excellent job and my class loved it! They all sang along and did the dance motions. Friday was also Alabama/Auburn dress up day. I had some participate, and they were actually all Alabama fans...no Auburn gear in my entire class!!! Wow...I knew they were a smart group! :) Don't forget to read over our break! See you on Monday, November 30!

ROLL TIDE!!!

Wow!!!! Our food drive was a HUGE success!!! Our school has collected 1203 items! Great job! Thanks so much to all of those to helped make this such a success. (And ENJOY your week off of reading HW!) We are collecting items for a parent (and his unit) who is serving our country in Iraq. Please see the note that went home today. Thanks again for all of your help and support with all that is going on!

HAPPY MONDAY!

I hope everyone had a GREAT Monday!!! We had our end of unit test in Reading today and my class did EXCELLENT!!! I am very proud of them. I also really appreciate all you are doing at home, from weekly reading assignments to math facts practice and reading A.R. books.

I don't think we will get to go to the library any this week because of the book fair, so I will have to exchange books within the classroom. Be sure to listen to your child read and ask them questions about their books, and have them retell the story to you without looking back at it. When students take DIBELS test next month, they will be tested on Oral Reading Fluency and will have to retell what they have read. Having them practice this with their A.R. books will be great.

Mid-term Progress Reports went home today. Please sign and return these to me by Wednesday. I was very proud of all my good grades! Most students have already reached their A.R. goal too. If you have any questions, or would like to set up a conference, please feel free to email me at any time - jwright@gcs.k12.al.us.

Remember to send money with your child either tomorrow or Wednesday for the book fair. They really enjoyed making their "Wish List" today. Tomorrow is also the last day for the Food Drive. Please send any extra can goods to school...students and parents :) will get a week off from Reading homework when they donate 5 cans!

Happy Veteran's Day!

I hope you all have a great day off for Veteran's Day! I have just a few reminders and updates for this week so far. As you all know we have a new principal, Mr. Russ Waits. Some of you have probably seen him either in the mornings or afternoons in the car line. We are all so very excited to have him at our school. He wants all of the students to introduce themselves to him, and to let him know a little about them. So we will be sending home an activity for home in the next few days, and will also do something along with it at school. Be sure to check your child's purple folder for this.

We are having a food drive at school this week. We talked today in class about helping those less fortunate that us, so if you see your child digging in the pantry please allow it! :) The bins are divided by Alabama/Auburn, and we really look forward to seeing who wins each day.

First Grade will have Thanksgiving Lunch on Thursday, November 19. If you or another family member would like to come have lunch with our class, reservations and money have to be turned in by this Friday (November 13).

We are celebrating Christmas at Mitchell a little different this year, and are very excited about it! Our theme is going to be "A Storybook Christmas". We will have several activities planned around this theme, and I really think the students will enjoy it. One thing we are going to do is have a book swap during our class Christmas Party, rather than exchanging gifts. Each student will bring a book (around $5) to school on the day of the party. More information will go home later, I just wanted to let you know because the book fair is coming up next week at school and this would be an excellent time to get your child's book for this.

Hope you all have a safe a fun Veteran's Day and remember those who serve or have served our country!

Storybook Character Day

Here are some pictures from today!!! I had a lot of cute storybook characters in my class. The first grade teachers even dressed up and I think all of the students loved it. We were the 3 Little Pigs and the Big Bad Wolf! :) Mrs. Lancaster agreed to dress up as the Big Bad Wolf, so we all had a great time! Oh, I almost forgot ... we won in the teacher division!!! I will not be at school tomorrow, so I hope you all do GREAT on your Friday tests, I know you will :) and have a good weekend!

We finally found out who our next principal will be ..... Russ Waits!!! He is currently the Band Director at GCHS, and will begin at our school on Monday!!! We are very excited about this, and can't wait to welcome him to our school next week. I am actually a former student of his (Emma Sansom Band/Danceline) and taught his daughter last year, so I am thrilled!!!

Remember - School will dismiss tomorrow at 12:00, and there will be no gym or EDGE.

Good Morning! I have had several parents tell me that they are having problems leaving a comment. I have posted on this site (under the About Me section) directions for leaving a comment. You need a Google Account to do this, so I have created one for the class so that you won't have another user name and password to keep up with. You all can just use this one, but be sure to sign your name or your child's name so that I will know who all has visited our site.



We had a very nice Retirement Reception for Dr. Berry yesterday at the school. She loved the money tree that was given to her by the students, so thanks to those of you who participated in that. We all will really miss her!



At the time, we are still Principal-less! Many parents have been asking about who we will be getting, but we still don't know who it will be. We are all very anxious and excited to find out!! They have been interviewing for over a week, and we will find out tomorrow night at the Board Meeting. I will post on here tomorrow night, so be sure to check!

WELCOME!!!

I am just getting started blogging, so it may take me a few weeks to figure everything out. We have been doing so many fun things at school, so I think this will be a GREAT way to share all that we are doing with our families. I hope you enjoy, and please remember to check often for updates! I am going to post some pictures from the past month, so I hope you enjoy!

Today we made posters for Dr. Berry. In the morning, we are going to surprise her by having the entire school line up in the driveway to give her retirement wishes as she arrives (late, with the help of her husband). This is a surprise we are really looking forward to! We are really going to miss Dr. Berry!

This is a class picture from the field trip to Farm City. We had a great time and got to do and see lots of fun things!

First Grade Teachers at Farm City with a HUGE pumpkin! We had a blast!

We were taught all about milk at Farm City. We got to see this sweet lady milk a cow with her hands, and then by a machine. The kids really enjoyed this, and loved getting ice cream!

While learning about community helpers, we had a lesson from our local Firefighters. We got to see inside their fire truck, and some even got to sit in the driver seat and pull the siren.

Mrs. Wright's Class being silly at the Birmingham Zoo!

Getting ready for Zoo Trip!

Cookies I made for the class that went with our story Pig in a Wig.

Thanks to Mrs. Wendy Burns, our sweet room mother, for decorating our classroom door for GCHS Homecoming.