December 18, 2009

Dear Families,

Thank you for the generous gifts and surprises this week. I loved the homemade Christmas tree poster with all of the kids’ names and their decorations! Hopefully you were able to see the final product too (hung on the door)! Thank you also for the cards and kind wishes. I appreciate all the support and generosity!

This week was filled with many busy activities. We spent much of the time finishing our holiday presents for you! These presents are a combination of writing, art, social studies, and computer skills. We also learned how to make pop-up cards for you! We hope you like our gift and will be able to use it next year!

We also had several special events this week such as a fire drill on Monday, making snowflakes with our buddies on Tuesday, watching the Upper Grade Musical on Wednesday, and we had music with Ms. Disney on Thursday! Mrs. Kang (Woojin’s mother) even brought her violin during music class and accompanied us while we sang and danced to “Jingle Bells!” Thank you!

Today was our Polar Express Day! The classroom was set-up like a train when the kids arrived in the morning. They sat down in the train just like the children in the book (who are also wearing their pajamas!). I read them the Polar Express story and each child received a silver bell just like in the story. The children on the Polar Express also drank hot chocolate, so we did as well! We also did a kindness activity where we delivered hot chocolate to all the teachers and staff around the school. One of the most important concepts for me during the holiday season is for students to understand “giving”. So often, kids are self-centered and focused on receiving gifts and wanting more. I hope that we can teach kids that giving and helping others is so much more rewarding then getting something. Afterwards, we watched the movie version of Polar Express!

I hope your family has a wonderful holiday vacation. I plan on staying local the first week to hang out with my family and my husband’s family (they all live in the area). We are spending Christmas at my sister’s house in Santa Clara. During the second week, my husband and I plan on going to Tahoe to snowboard a few days. This is my favorite time of the year and I just know it’s going to fly by! I will see you all when we return on Monday, January 4th. For those of you who are traveling, I hope you have safe travels! Happy 2010!