Happy Kwanzaa

Favorite Kwanzaa books...

Seven candles for Kwanzaa by A. Pinkney
Seven spools of thread by A. Medearis
K is for Kwanzaa: An alphabet book by J. Ford
My first Kwanzaa book by D. Chocolate
Children’s book of Kwanzaa by D. Johnson
My first Kwanzaa by K. Katz
Story of Kwanzaa by D. Washington
It’s Kwanzaa time by L. Goss

Merry Christmas

Just a list of Merry Christmas books to read...

The year of the perfect Christmas tree by G. Houston, B. Cooney
The night before Christmas by C. Moore
The twelve days of Christmas by J. Brett
Rocking horse Christmas by M. Osborne
Olive the other reindeer by V. Walsh
Polar Express by C. Van Allsburg
How the Grinch stole Christmas by Dr. Seuss
Waiting for Christmas by M. Greenfield
Gingerbread baby by J. Brett
Wild Christmas reindeer by J. Brett
Olivia helps with Christmas by I. Falconer
Merry Christmas, Strega Nona by T. dePaola
The legend of the poinsettia by T. dePoala
An orange for Frankie by P. Polacco
The best Christmas pageant ever by B. Robinson

Hope your Christmas is the merriest ever!

It's Christmas Eve!

My favorite Santa sites....

Have fun at the North Pole! Both sites are kid friendly.

Games, maps and tracking Santa....

http://www.northpole.com

Tracking Santa through Class Brain...

http://www.classbrain.com/artholiday/publish/tracking_santa.shtml

Another great site to track Santa, in 3D...(Works only just before Christmas)

http://www.noradsanta.org/en/countdown.

Write Santa, Track Santa, Rudolph Webcam and estimated time of arrival of Santa at your house

http://www.emailsanta.com/

Happy Hanukkah!

Here's a few of my favorite books to read for Hanukkah.

Hanukkah haiku by K. Gudeon
The trees and the dancing goats by P. Polacco
The borrowed Hanukkah latkes by N. Cote
How I saved Hanukkah by A. Goldman Koss
Hershel and the Hanukkah goblins by E. Kimmel
My first Chanukah by T. dePaola
Latkes and applesauce: A Hanukkah story by R.
Manushken
I have a little dreidel by J. Baum
Latkes, latkes, good to eat by N. Howland
It's a miracle by S. Spinner
Messy Bessey's Holidays by P. and F. McKissack (good for Hanukkah, Christmas and Kwanzaa)

Happy Reading!

These are a few of my favorite computer sites for students...

Storyline Online: A great read aloud site for kids. You may also set the read aloud to include captions.

http://www.storylineonline.net/

Bees and Honey: This site is great for beginning keyboarders. Other introduction computer games can also be accessed from this site.

http://www.tvokids.com/framesets/bby.html?game=66

ABCya: This is a free web site for elementary school students which have links for grades K-5.

http://www.abcya.com/

Starfall: This site is used by teachers and parents to support children in their efforts to read. Primarily designed for ages kindergarten through second grade.

http://www.starfall.com/

Happy Holidays from Highcroft!

This week has been exciting to say the least. We have continuted to read Kevin O'Malley books in many of the classes to prepare for his upcoming visit. Grades 3-5 have visited Kevin O'Malley's web page and enjoyed a great laugh. Several students accessed the school visit link to get a glimpse of what the author/illustrator was like during one of his visits to a school. We also accessed his image links. Students are continuing to vote for their favorite book written by Kevin O'Malley on the bulletin board outside the media center door.

Students in Ms. Bass' class enjoyed the book, So you want to be an inventor, by Judith St. George. Classes checked out one book for winter break/track out.

Friday afternoon all students at Highcroft enjoyed our annual Holiday Sing-A-Long. All students in K-5 participated. Teachers also continued the tradition of singing "In the fifth year of Highcroft" and a special skit was performed at the end of the singalong which included Mr. Barger as Santa, Mrs. Hughes, Ms. Horning, Mrs. Sullivan, Mrs. Wetherell, Mr. Nichols, Mario, and Mr. Marsh as the Grinch in a "dancing with the stars" performance.