Winter ONEderland!

Amelia’s Winter ONEderland!

This past weekend, we took our one year old son to Amelia’s first birthday part.  The theme of the birthday was winter and the decorations all involved something that had to do with winter.  As my husband, son, and I entered the event we were greeted by Santa’s helpers dressed in white.  The two girls told us to put our signatures and messages on the doll house and informed us were we should sit.  The room had Christmas lights all over and the tables were decorated with snowmen wearing a pink tutu and pearl necklaces.  It all looked amazing!  Santa and Santa’s elves visited the event, gave out balloons, and did face paint for the kids.  There was also a food station, candy station, and hot chocolate station. My one year old son was terrified of Santa but my son definitely enjoyed all the fun activities with his friends.

Vocabulary:

1.      Theme-an overall idea of something

2.      Decorations- to decorate or embellish something.

3.      Greet-to say hello

4.      Signature-to sign your name

5.      Event- a party, meeting, reunion etc.

6.      Terrified-to be scared

Grammar Point:

Pronouns take the place of a noun.  For example, some pronouns are he, she, them, they, it, us, ours, and many more.

Grammar Activity:

From the list above underline as many of the nouns and try to replace them with a pronoun.  Do the best that you can. 

            Ex:  ‘Santa’ can be replaced by ‘he’

Matching Activity:

1.      Theme                         A.  to decorate or embellish something

2.      Decorations                 B. to sign your name

3.      Greet                           C. to be scared

4.      Signature                     D. to say hello

5.      Event                           E. a party, meeting, reunion etc.

6.      Terrified                      F. an overall idea of something

A Reindeer For Christmas

A Reindeer For Christmas

By Kenn Nesbitt

Dear Santa, this Christmas my list is quite small.

In fact, I need practically nothing at all.

My list is so short and so easy to read

because there's just one thing I actually need.

A reindeer for Christmas is all I require;

a reindeer, of course, who's an excellent flier.

I really don't care if it's Dasher or Dancer.

I'm okay with Cupid or Comet or Prancer.

Please don't think I'm greedy; I only want one.

You won't even miss him, and I'll have such fun.

I promise I'll feed him and treat him just right,

and take him out flying around every night.

You see, I'm not selfish. So, for my surprise

this Christmas, please bring me a reindeer that flies.

But if my request is a bit much for you,

I guess that an iPod will just have to do.

Vocabulary:

1.     Reindeer- a large deer (many times known as Santas reindeer).

2.     Require- something that is needed

3.     Greedy-to always want something and want to be wealthy with money or materials

4.     Selfish- to only care about yourself

5.     Request- to ask for something

6.     I-Pod- a media players that stores and plays music

Grammar Point:

Nouns describe a person, place or thing.  Nouns are usually the first things children learn. Some examples of nouns are dog, Maria, The Empire State Building, and a pencil.

Grammar Activity:

In the poem above there are a variety of different nouns.  Can you pick them all out and write them down on a piece of paper.?  How many did you find?

Acitivity:

Pick out the nouns for the list below.  Place a check next to each word that is a noun and an X next to the words that are not nouns.

1.     Samantha_______

2.     Molloy College_______

3.     Delicious________

4.     Television______

5.     Warm_____

6.     Cake______

Elf on a Shelf

Christmas is a Special Time

It’s an opportunity to spend the days shopping for Christmas gifts and to spend some time with friends and family.  The holidays mean carols, lights, church, Santa Claus, and snow and we cannot forget the gifts.

For me Christmas is a time of fun and laughter with family, but to my seven year old cousin Ivan, Christmas means something else.  My aunt just got my cousin the “Elf on a Shelf”.  For me this was something I had not heard of and was astonished when I soon found out what it was.  While I was visiting, I saw a cute little toy elf sitting on the living room table.  As I go to pick it up I was startled by Ivan who yelled “Don’t touch him”.  I instantaneously dropped the toy and soon found out the story behind the little guy.  The elf is Santa’s little helper and notifies Santa whether Ivan had been behaving or acting bad.  Every night the elf moves to a different place in the house because when the kids are sleeping he goes to the North Pole to inform Santa and when he returns sits at a different place.  So, Ivan now behaves tremendously well and makes sure no one touches his elf. 

Vocabulary:

1.      Opportunity: to have a chance

2.      Astonished: to be surprised

3.      Startled: to be shocked or amazed at something

4.      Instantaneously:  to do something immediately/right away

5.      Notify: to let someone know about something or to inform someone

6.      North Pole: Where Santa Claus lives

7.      Tremendously: means the same as extremely

Grammar Point:

Conjunctions are words that join simple sentence to make a compound sentence.  An easy was to remember conjuctions is with the acronym FANBOYS, which stands for: for, and, nor, but, or, yet, and so.

Grammar Activity:

Can you write five sentences using the FANBOYs conjunctions below. 

Ex: For me Christmas is a time of fun and laughter with family, but to my seven year old cousin     Ivan, Christmas means something else.

1.      ______________________________________________________________________

2.      ______________________________________________________________________

3.      ______________________________________________________________________

4.      ______________________________________________________________________

5.      ______________________________________________________________________

Cloze Activity:

Use the vocabulary words from above to fill in the blanks in the following sentences.

1.      Macys had a big sale and I had the __________________ to buy a coat at half the regular price.

2.      It snows a lot in the _________________, and it is where Santa lives.

3.      I received a lot of gifts for Christmas and I felt ___________________________ happy.

4.      I was ________________ to find out that it snowed in November when it wasn’t even winter yet.

5.      I told my sister to ______________ me when the package arrive so that I could go pick it up.

6.      I was ____________________ when my brother scared me.

7.      The little girl drank her milk __________________ so that she could go out and play.

What are Adverbs?

The Puppy

The puppy runs happily,
The puppy runs  happily, disturbingly,
Runs happily, disturbingly, weirdly,
Happily, disturbingly, weirdly, calmly,
When it sees food.

Vocabulary:

1.      Disturbingly- to bother or distract

2.      Weirdly-something that is strange

3.      Calmly- feeling relaxed with no stress

Grammar Point:

An adverb is a part of speech that modifies verbs or any part of speech other than nouns.  Many times adverbs end in the ending –ly. 

Grammar Activity:

Look at the adverb poem above and on a piece of paper write down all the adverbs that you find.  There should be a total of four adverbs.  Would you change any of them?  If so, which ones and with what word?

Activity:

Follow the following format and make your own adverb poem.

Line 1 : Noun
Line 2 : Same noun + verb + adverb 1
Line3 : Same noun + verb + adverb 1, adverb 2
Line 4 : Verb + adverb 1, adverb 2, adverb 3
Line 5 : Adverb 1, adverb 2, adverb 3, adverb 4
Line 6 : Phrase or clause showing condition, time or place.