Holiday Photo Booth

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We did a Holiday Photo Booth as one of the stations at our party today.  SOOOOO awesome!

Lots to Celebrate!

Not only did we have our Holiday Party today, we had TWO other celebrations: one birthday (on the 21st) and a half-birthday (on the 22nd).  What a fun day to celebrate!

Birthday Boy

Half-Birthday Boy

High School Holiday Choir Concert

The high school choir invited ALL of Falcon Ridge over for a mini-concert today!  They helped us get into the spirit of the season with songs such as Carol of the Bells and Home for the Holidays.  Thank you!!

Gingerbread Houses

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Today we had our annual first grade gingerbread house decorating event!  As usual, the kids loved making (and eating) their creations!  Thanks to everyone who donated supplies for this fun project.  Happy Holidays!

Half-Birthday!

Today we celebrated our first HALF-Birthday for one of our friends whose birthday is in June.  We hope you enjoyed your special day!

Kindness Boomerang

Check out this video we saw at our All School Meeting today as we presented all of the gifts we bought with our Holiday Sharing money.  What a great message for all of our kids!  They are all so kind and generous!

Happy Birthday!

One more November birthday to celebrate!  We hope you enjoyed your special day!

Rudy Roo

Today some actors from CLIMB theater came to Falcon Ridge to perform a play about a character named Rudy Roo.  Rudy learned about being disrespectful and how he could change the way he did and said things to show respect to his classmates, his school and the environment.  A great lesson for all!

Lunch in the Classroom

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Lunch in the classroom is a great time for guests to come and visit us for just for the fun of it!  Thanks to those of you who came and visited with us today.  If you weren't able to make it, don't worry!  Our next one will be on February 27th!

Veterans Day

This day is always so special for me and for my family.  My grandfathers were both in the Army and fought in WWII.  My dad was in the Air Force and was in South Korea during the Korean Conflict and the Vietnam War.  And, my brother was in the Marines in Baghdad, Iraq during the Iraq War.  I am so very proud of all of them for their courage and their service to our country!  

The Falcon Ridge Veterans Day program is such a special moment for our students and our community.  We have a lot of children who have veterans in their families and so it is important that we take time to honor them on this day.  Mr. Eric Madsen, a parent at Falcon Ridge, gave a speech about his time spent in the Marine Corps.  The High School Band played a tribute to the branches of the military.  The New Prague Color Guard was on hand to open and close our ceremony.  

We had several special guests visit our classroom after the program.  Each year, my dad comes to talk with my students about his time in the Air Force as an EOD bomb specialist.  We also had Greta's grandpa George join us this year.  George was also in the Air Force during the Vietnam War and worked as an air policeman.  Both were happy to answer questions from our firsties and to be part of our celebration today! Ian's grandpa also came to our ceremony to be with him and his brother George!

Bus Rider of the Month!

Each month the bus drivers choose a rider from their bus who shows REAP (Respect Effort Attitude and Pride) on a regular basis.  This month one of our classmates was chosen from her bus!  We are SO proud of you sweetheart!  Congratulations!

Going On A Safari

The last story in our anthology was about the animals you may see if you went on a safari.  To get us in the mood we watched the following video (which the kids thought was totally hilarious!) and played around on this site: http://pbskids.org/mamamirabelle/games_photo_safari.html

Happy Birthday Sweetie!

On our first school day of November, we had our first November birthday!  We sure gave this sweetie the royal treatment today!

The Great Halloween Candy Give Back

The Great Halloween Candy Give Back runs from November 3 - 6.  Students are encouraged to bring back a portion of their Halloween candy to be sent to our troops overseas.  Thank you for your generous donations!!

Happy Halloween!

Make a picture slideshow

Elsa, a gangster, a robot - oh my!  We had lots of fun at our Harvest Party this afternoon.  We made mini-donut spiders, played Witch Pitch and Roll and Cover Spider, spun a spiderweb, made a pinecone spider and did a science experiment.  Thanks to all of our volunteers!  Have a fun and safe Halloween!

Bird Feeders

Our first anthology is all about how people and animals interact with one another.  After reading one of our stories called Get The Egg! there were some instructions on how to make a bird feeder.  We had just gotten a large shipment of pinecones from the Blaschko family so we decided to try the project out!  It was a super fun way to help the feathered friends who live in our backyards!  We hope they attract some beautiful birds for your family to enjoy.

Game Truck Visits Falcon Ridge!

Today a Game Truck visited Falcon Ridge as a reward for those students who sold 25 items or more for our Chip Shoppe fundraiser!  We had one friend from our class who reached this goal.  He said it was AWESOME!

Science Museum Field Trip

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We had an AWESOME time at the Science Museum of Minnesota today!  First we got to spend about 20 minutes in the Butterfly House which was UH-mazing!  The butterflies literally landed right on the kids.  They were in butterfly heaven :)  Then, after a quick lunch, we got to watch the Omni Theatre show called "The Flight of the Butterflies".  The Omni experience is incredible, in and of itself, but this particular show is outstanding.  What a great way to celebrate our science study of life cycles!

We had a boy!

One of our chrysalises hatched today!  We had a boy :)  Ask your firstie how we knew it was a boy.  We read a story called Gotta Go! Gotta Go! to learn more about where our butterfly would be going after we release him this afternoon.

Dozinky Days!

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We had SO much fun celebrating Dozinky Days!  We started our day by greeting each other with "Dobre rano" - Good Morning in Czech.  My mom and dad (Elizabeth and David Bruzek) and Greta's grandma (Denie Sticha) came to help us make kolacky.  We listened to Josef Jirik's dad play the concertina and saw his kroj (Czech costume).  We colored some fun Czech pictures and enjoyed lots of great polka music too!

Alphabet Review

We finished our review of the alphabet - letter names and sounds!  We used the StoryBots to help us.  If your firstie wants to watch them again, here is the first one.  At the end you will be able to click on the next letter, and so on...  Enjoy!

IPICK

Today we learned how to choose "good fit" books.  We got to choose 10 books that are "good fits" for our book bags.  These books will help us become more fluent readers and help us to practice the new strategies we are learning about reading.  Watch the video below to hear a song about the the acronym IPICK that we used when selecting our books.