Christmas Activities

Here are some of the Christmas activities we have done this month. We made big paper candy canes. Students had to tear the paper stripes and I helped them glitter their names. (Ugh, glitter.....I use it but once a year!)

Another activity is our Grinch activity. We read the book and did a little brainstorming on what the Grinch could do to make Christmas better. Then we completed the story. Students colored a Grinch topper. I found this activity on a blog, but I can't remember where. The kids love doing it. Then we wrapped up the day by watching the movie.You can grab this activity here or by clicking on the picture.

We also made a Christmas tree by putting our numbers in order. Students colored their tree, then glued on the number ornaments and cut the whole thing out. We put them in our classroom window because they looked so nice. You can get this activity here or by clicking on the picture.

Enjoy your last week of school! I know I am!

Gingerbread Week

It is Gingerbread Week! We have a lot of fun this week, especially because it is the last week before Winter Break. But, I still want my students to work on language arts and listening skills. We do hunt the Gingerbread Man all over school. He's a sneaky little guy. We also make our Gingerbread Man: Escape Prevention Plan (a unit my class LOVES every year and available on TpT). This year we will be working on a story study. We will be comparing the different versions of the Gingerbread Man (and there are A LOT!) Below is a copy of the book we make about our stories. This book is for beginners. There are no writing lines. I chose to leave out the lines because I do not want my students to get stuck on the idea of writing a formal sentence. I want them to be brave enough to try and write about the story. Even if all I get are color words, I will praise their efforts and make suggestions so that next time that student will feel brave enough to try and write a little more. Take a look at this free story study and I hope you can do this with your own class.

Gingerbread Man Story Study

As a family project this week I am asking my students to decorate and write about their gingerbread man. I have formal lines on this sheet because I want parents to help them complete a sentence. They can make their gingerbread man into anything they want. Then they have to finish the sentence "My gingerbread man is ___________." This gets the parents thinking about their child's writing as well and helping the kids with their writing by providing a starter to the sentence.

My gingerbread man is ______________.

I hope you and your class have a MERRY CHRISTMAS!!

And a very merry WINTER BREAK!