Pinata, Pinata!

Here is our pinata before we smacked it. Lots of starch, paper, tissue and love made it a sight to behold!

An awesome time was had by all at our fabulous holiday party today! 

The children were thrilled with breaking the pinata. A huge shout out to the super generous parents of our class -- you out did yourselves with the goodies you sent in for this occasion. Thanks for making this a memorable experience not only for your child, but the entire class.

Kristian and Mom

Grayson and Mom

Macy, Mom and sister, Molly

Jack and his entourage, Tata, Mom and Violet

Yummy in our tummy snacks - Thanks to our Homeroom moms, Miss Sandra and Miss Marry for providing tasty and wholesome treats!

Sad pinata, happy us!

Nutcracker Play

Jesse, one of the former Royal subjects, played the lead.

Our fourth and fifth graders put on the Nutcracker play today. They did a fabulous job with their songs, lines and dances. Ashlyn's brother, Tyler, did a great job singing so well, that Ashlyn knew all the words too! Bravo to our upper grades for being such great role models!

Grayson's cousin, Dawn was one of the Sugar Plum Fairies!

Ole! Christmas in Mexico

 Today we read the Caldecott award winning book, Nine Days til Christmas. It was about a little girl named Cici who celebrates her first posada (party) with her first pinata. It fit right in with our party and pinata making. We also made sombreros and shawls and wore them while we danced the Mexican Hat Dance. We are in a festive mood these days! Bravo!!

We're Going to the Zoo, Zoo, Zoo!

Checking out the rhinos

We had an awesome day on Thursday at the zoo! We walked around and counted all the different types of animals we could see. Some were keeping themselves warm on this chilly day, but we were excited to see the ones who came out! After lunch we went to the educational center (zoo school) and had a great opportunity to learn about some unusual animals and touch them! Of course, we were the best behaved class ever!

And the leopard

Then the giraffes.

Having fun with the elephant statue.

The gorilla poses for us!

And we pose with the gorilla!

Now we're in the Florida exhibit checking out the alligators.

After lunch we headed to zoo school -- even Macy's mom and sister came to school

Getting ready for our zoo teacher.

Petting the fancy chicken

Now the snake!! Eeek!

Some of us were even brave enough to touch it!

Then the bearded dragon, a lizard!

Junior Achievement

On Friday we had a special guest from Chase Bank, Miss Tricia. She was a volunteer with Junior Achievement, an organization to teach and promote busisness practices to children. She taught us lots of things about money -- what is looks like, how to make money, how we spend money and most importantly how to save money!

She read lots of stories and brought some cool activities, like scratch cards to identify money and stickers. Then  she spoiled us rotten with our own piggy banks, snacks and good job certificates! Thanks for taking the day off and spending it with us. You were awesome, Miss Tricia!

First Grade Readers

Here are some of the Queen's favorite bookworms from first grade. Thanks to Doria, Evan and Chelsea for showing off their reading talents to us on Thursday!

Where Do Royal Subjects Like to Read?

Here or there or anywhere! 

They like to read in a tub or on a pillow, in a rocking chair or under a table, in the throne or wherever they're comfortable.

The Royal Subjects began some of their most important work of the year. Doing what we call Read to Self. And the question is why would they read by themselves? To quote their exact words: "to get smarter, to learn more, to get better and better, they like it, they love it, and it's FUN!"

Here's them doing all of that!