Brockbank Elementary had a very special visitor on Tuesday, December 20, Santa Claus came to visit! He asked the students if they had been naughty or nice? The students were very excited to see Santa!

Second-grade students at Brockbank Elementary celebrated the Christmas season by presenting a special program on December 20, 2011 to their parents and grandparents. The students enjoyed entertaining their families by singing several Christmas songs. After the program, the students and their parents returned to their classroom to decorate gingerbread houses. It was a fun day!

Brockbank Elementary first-graders celebrated the holiday season by having a Polar Express Day on December 20. They earned this day by meeting their classroom reading goals. Each first-grade class had to fill their Polar Express train car and in order to accomplish this, each student had to read at least six books. As a reward for meeting this goal, students got to wear pajamas to school; make Polar Express trains out of HoHo's, starlight mints, and chocolate bells; make engineer hats out of paper; and received a bell to wear. That afternoon they got to watch the movie, "Polar Express".

Third-grade students in Mrs. Carolyn Creer's class, once a week, go into Mrs. Tara Farr's kindergarten class and help the students. Each kindergarten student gets a third-grade buddy to work with, whether it be reading to each other, practicing flash cards, or just helping the student with whatever they are working on. Whenever there is a holiday, or at least once a month, the students get to do a fun activity together. On December 16, they got to make Christmas trees made out of ice cream cones, covered with frosting, and decorated with candy.

Recently Brockbank students had a special person come and read to them. Mrs. Santa Claus came and read to several classrooms. She read, "Mrs. Claus Explains It All" by Elsbeth Claus. It is a book about Santa, the elves, and the North Pole. In the book Mrs. Claus answers all the important questions all kids want to know; How does Santa get into houses that don't have chimneys? What is his favorite kind of cookie? Where do his elves come from? Can all reindeer fly?

Brockbank fifth-grade students had a great time making Christmas presents for their parents or grandparents. Each student made a hand-stitched Christmas picture that took many hours of hard work. The students were so excited that many students asked to make a second or even third hand-stitched picture!

Brockbank Elementary recently got in the holiday spirit by holding their annual food drive. The student council sponsored the drive and worked hard to get all the students excited about it. To help get the students motivated, they decided to have each student decide if they wanted to be on team BYU or team University of Utah. Students brought in cans as a contest between red and blue to see who could bring in the most cans. It was a great success! Team BYU won but really everyone wins because all together Brockbank donated over 1,400 cans of food to the Utah County Food Bank.

Mrs. Tara Farr's afternoon kindergarten class recently had a special visitor come and read a story to them. Mr. Jeff Loreen, a sixth grade teacher at Sierra Bonita, who also happens to be husband to Mrs. Cynthia Loreen (fifth-grade teacher at Brockbank) and dad to Kade (student in Mrs. Farr's class) read the book, "Pigs At Christmas" written by Arlene Dubanevich. Mr. Loreen entertained the students imitating different pig voices while telling the story. All of the students enjoyed the story especially Kade who loved having his dad come to school.

First-graders in Mrs. Lisa Bird's class recently read the book, "Harry's House" by Angela Shelf Medearis. In the book a mom helps her little girl build a doghouse. After reading the book students had the experience of making their own dog houses. The students showed a lot of creativity in making their houses and were very proud of them.