The Polar Express

 "On Christmas Eve, many years ago, I lay quietly in my bed.  I did not rustle the sheets.  I breathed slowly and silently.  I was listening for a sound -- a sound a friend had told me I'd never hear -- the ringing bells of Santa's sleigh."

This week will be all about The Polar Express (one of my favorite books).  We will read the book online at storylineonline where the story is read by Lou Diamond Phillips.  We will also read the book the traditional way.
On Wednesday, we will have a Polar Express pajama day.  Everyone, including teachers, will wear their pajamas.  This is always a big hit with the kinderkids.  We will watch the movie, have hot chocolate and cookies, and hope that a special surprise arrives.

We always make the hot chocolate and keep it warm in a crock pot.  This is what I did last year.

1 gallon white milk
1 container chocolate syrup
Mix together in the crockpot early in the morning.

I read on Pro-Teacher that some people just purchase a gallon on chocolate milk and warm it in the crockpot.  Simple and only one thing to buy.

I am going to use the words from the movie about the hot chocolate as a poem this week.  I will copy onto chart paper and read it all week along with the Cocoa poem.

Hot Chocolate

 Here, we’ve only got one rule:

Never ever let it cool!

Keep it cooking in the pot,

Then you've got- Hot choc-o-lat!

Hot! Hot! Ooh, we got it!

Hot! Hot! Hey, we got it!

Hot! Hot! Say, we got it!

Hot chocolate!

Cocoa 

Cocoa is a delicious treat.

It is yummy, dark and sweet.

With a marshmallow on the top,

I will drink every drop.

There are is an emergent reader on marcias-lesson-links.com  that I will be using this week.

We will also be sequencing The Polar Express using this picture.

We will do some drawing about the gifts in Santa's bag with this from http://www.polarexpress.com/games-fun.