Wow! We sure had a fun filled day today at school! First, we joined with Ms. Srmek's class, and we watched the Polar Express! We got to lay on our blankets, relax, watch the movie, and drink hot cocoa- just like in the movie! After the movie ended, we went back to our classroom to find out that Bob, our elf, brought us donuts in a special Christmas jar! He wrote us a message saying goodbye and that he'll miss us! We'll miss that special elf in our classroom, too! Next, our classroom holiday party started with a pizza lunch. We had pizza, chips, and juice- our bellies were full by the end of the meal! At our party, we played a game where we had to pass the gift (like hot potato), but when the music stopped, we had to unwrap a layer of wrapping paper. Whoever tore off the last layer, got the present! Congrats to our winners today! Then we had centers, where we played pin the snow ball on the polar bear, ate Christmas grinches and candy canes made out of fresh fruit, and played holiday bingo! It was so much fun and the fruit was just so yummy! We ended our party, we played a few games of limbo! This was the highlight of our party- we just LOVED it!

We ended the day by taking home our Christmas presents from Ms. Riplinger! We just can't wait to read our new books!!

Today was a very exciting but sad day! We got our last letters from our elf pen pals! We have LOVED writing to them and receiving letters back! After lunch today, we got a call from the main office saying that we received another package and it looked like it came from the North Pole. Well, sure enough, it was from the North Pole! We then got our own letters out of the package, which were covered in glitter, and couldn't wait to read them! We spent a lot of time this afternoon reading them and sharing them with our friends! The whole room was filled with excitement! Well, goodbye elf friends! We hope we can write to you again next year! We'll miss you SOOO much!

We are really enjoying the holidays in Room 117! We are learning about the different countries during our holidays around the world activities. We are doing research about the different holidays on our new iPads, our computers, and through the classroom library books and our travel journals. We love looking for our elf on the shelf, Bob, each morning when we walk in, as he changes places in the room every day! We are doing many neat projects and are making many memories in first grade! 

Room 117 has been busy writing back to our elf pen pals at the North Pole! We are just so excited to hear back from them! Most students have found out that they are on the "good" list and that elves are all ages: 350 years old, 1500 years old, 31 years, 8 years, and 100 years old! Wow! Most elves like to have a snowball fight, sing Christmas songs, play video games, and play with the reindeer. The reindeer that is every elf's favorite is Rudolph!