Today's Christmas activities............

 Cute tin from the dollar tree for storing this game in!

 Christmas bookmarks from Walmart

 

 

Reindeer counting clip cards, you can get yours here!

Reindeer counting worksheet also here!

A fun book "That's not Santa", Santa looses his red suit and tries out other costumes but none of them look like Santa!

 
After reading the book we played a game online where you can dress Santa, it was fun seeing the different costumes the kiddies put together for him! Check it out here!

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We counted presents on our Christmas tree counting mats!

Practiced our number writing on these beautiful Christmas worksheets!

 And played an alphabet matching game, these are actually small circles I made with my 1 inch punch and Christmas  alphabet stickers from the 97 cents section at Walmart.

I love the little gift card tins for storage this game goes in this cute little tin!!

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I have been looking all over for some cute Christmas Crafts I haven't tried yet so I am looking forward to reading all the wonderful things I know you will all post. I love to craft, before teaching I created things with  my kids at home all the time. Here are a few of my favorite projects........

Using this template from www.daniellesplace.com we make our own elves on the shelves, I put the kids picture on the face - they were so cute last year but I was so horrible at taking pictures before blogging I never even got one!

Reindeer cards, using one piece of brown paper folded in half and cut out the bottom to make the two legs, the piece left over makes the head and antlers, a red pompom nose and wiggly eyes plus a strip of black for the hoofs and the kids write a message inside to their parents. We've also made these and recorded reindeer facts inside for a cute display.

We made these presents using rectangular pieces of white card stock - marble painted, cut a small strip off the top glue a picture in between the pieces and add a mini bow! We put these under our hand print trees. You have probably all seen the trees made from hand prints - we did individual trees with each families hands (I sent home green paper and asked that they trace and cut out a set of hands for each family member) mounted on red paper and with their presents underneath.

I am looking for new ideas and can't wait to see what you are all doing!

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There are only 15 days between Thanksgiving Break and Christmas Break for us this year! That means we had to get busy with Christmas right away! Here's what we did on day one of Christmas in the classroom...

 

I made the Christmas tree from green poster board and cut it to fit in the pocket chart, the lights were made years ago simple black outline clip art with letters inside,  printed on colored card stock, the kids matched upper to lower case on the tree. 

 

 

 

We played a Christmas memory game I made by cutting the scrapbook paper I picked up for 97 cents at Wal-mart with the circle cutter and adding the cute stickers I got from the target dollar spot to the back, laminated and stored in this super cute gift card tin I also picked up at target.

 

Sorting, counting, and patterning with Christmas erasers from Wal-mart.

Christmas puzzles from none other than the target dollar spot.

and cute Christmas pencils in a Christmas tin for small group work (again dollar spot finds!).
 
We also enjoyed some great Christmas books - see my previous post below to see which ones are my favorites and grab a freebie!

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I absolutly LOVE Christmas, and Books so this is a great post for me to be able to write!! I set up my Christmas books today, the kids were so excited as they walked into the room and saw the display. They were itching to get over there and have a look at all the new books I'd put out!

 I gave them some extra time to browse, and shared a few of my favorites with them! Here they are....

 

 

I love this last book because it makes the kids think about more than Santa and gifts. I made a little freebie to go with it and hope you can use it - it really is a great book and has inspired me to write some poetry that I have actually had published!

Can't wait to see everyone else's favorites for Christmas!

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I am enjoying the glow of the tree

 Here it is completed with all my presents wrapped underneath!

And I've made a couple activities I wanted to share with all of you! ENJOY

This one is called "Jingle Jingle" and you play just like the gobble gobble game I posted for thanksgiving

 These are patterns cards I will use in the pocket chart center


And here's a worksheet to go along with the pocket chart patterns!

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Yes we are still in school! We have a half day today to make up for the long days of conferences we put in in October, this is the first break of any kind we've gotten this year! Report cards are due Tue. and we don't get any extra time to do them at school so I will be working on them over break .......ugg! But defiantly not before I enjoy some much needed rest and relaxation with my family!

We are having a "mini" Thanksgiving Celebration in my classroom today! Here's what we are doing........

Turkey crafts, created by putting together a variety of sources to make it somewhat my own!

Oreos and Juice (what could be better than that???) When I was teaching early elementary full time we made our own pumpkin pies  but I don't have enough time this year as I only get each group of kiddos for 30 minutes at a time.

Thanksgiving Bingo - I whipped these up last night as my printer decided not to print again and I couldn't print the cute version I downloaded - I have a TON of stickers that were given to me by a friend who retired after 34 years of teaching 2nd grade. I used the thanksgiving ones to make this bingo game and I still have about 150 sheets of them.

Thanksgiving Stories........These are a few of my favorites - the kids really enjoyed them too!

Hope everyone else is enjoying their break! I know I can't wait for mine to start!!

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Holly over at Crisscross Applesauce in First Grade gave me the Sunshine award this week! I was so excited to see her email! I LOVE Holly, she always leaves wonderful comments on my blog! I know when I post something I can count on at least one comment from her! She is also from Michigan like me so we've been able to relate on some important changes our legislators here are making to the education system. So a great big THANK YOU to Holly for the award and all your support it really has made my day more than once!

Here are the "rules" for this award:

1. Thank the person who gave this award and write a post about it.
2. Answer the following questions below.
3. And pass the award to 10~12 fabulous bloggers, link their blogs and let them know you awarded them. 

My answers to the questions:

• Favorite color? Green
• Favorite animal?  I know this will shock some people but I really don't like animals, sorry! We do have a dog that I'm a little attached to since we got him as a little bitty - fit in my hand - pup and have had him for almost five years now, but I am not so attached that he is really like family.
• Favorite number? 14 (just randomly made that up, I don't know why!)
• Favorite drink? Dr. Pepper and Hot chocolate
• Facebook or Twitter? Facebook
• Your passion? Teaching!and Serving God!
• Giving or getting presents? Giving - I love, love, love buying stuff for others!
• Favorite day?  Friday for sure!
• Favorite flowers? Tulips

and now to pass this wonderful award on to some wonderful bloggers.....here they are:













      Wild about K and Differentiation Station Love all of these blogs and so many more! Thanks again to Holly for recognizing me!!

 

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