Embracing the Elf Activities

Hi everyone, I hope you are surviving the last few weeks before Christmas break with your students.  It is a hectic time for teachers as we try to keep our students engaged during the day and then work to finish all of our Christmas home projects at night.  Even though it is a tiring time, I love teaching during the month of December.  If your students are anything like mine there is a lot of talk in our classroom about the Elf on the Shelf, his or her pet reindeer or pet dog.  I like to capitalize on my students' interests when teaching.  If they are engaged it makes my job so much easier.  Here are some ways I have embraced the "Elf"

 Math

I am currently teaching data management and pictographs.  To help keep my students interest I decided to put cards with a picture of a boy elf, a girl elf and a reindeer pet in a brown paper bag.  Students take turn drawing the cards out of the bag and using tally marks to record their results.  The students then use their data to make a pictograph.

There is something about using the Elf that suddenly causes all my students to want to see who is hiding in Santa's Bag.

If you think the "Elf" might help you teach pictographs, you can get it here

Language Arts

If you haven't ordered the book "Memoirs of an Elf" from Scholastic you should.  My students love the story and it is a great book to get students writing about Elves and their adventures.  

I love giving students hashtags and having them write about the "Elfie" they made.  Below are just some that I have used with my class.

If you own the book and would like this writing activity, you can get it here.

To help your students write about the Elf and answer that popular question "How do you spell?", you may want to download this FREEBIE.

Hang in there, only ten more days until a much needed break!

Christmas Countdown Fun and some FREEBIES

With seven days to go to the Christmas break, I am pulling out all the stops to keep my students engaged and learning at this exciting time of the year.  Over the years I have set up a number of ways to countdown the days to our break.

1.  Secret read alouds

Each year I order some new Christmas books from Scholastic using my bonus points and then I wrap them up in Christmas wrapping paper and put them on display.  Each day after our recess break I pick one student to open one book.  My students get so excited to see which book is hidden behind the wrapping paper.  This year I also ordered some books that come with a CD which can be played while a student holds the book.  I really love the few minutes break you can get when a CD is playing in your class during this time of year.

2.  Chocolate Advent Calendar

Each year I buy a chocolate advent calendar (peanut-free of course) for my students to use to count down the days to Christmas.  My students have all been given a number in the class.  I use the numbers to help with distributing supplies and books at the beginning of the year.  On the day of each student's number they get to look on the advent calendar and find their number and then open the door to receive their chocolate.  For example:  student #1 gets to pick their chocolate on Day 1.  If their number falls on the weekend they get to open their chocolate on Monday.  Some days I forget about the chocolate calendar but my students never do.  They know their day!

3.  Elf on the Shelf

Whether you love him/her or not, it is a part of many students Christmas traditions so I have decided to embrace the elf and use it to my advantage.  I find the Elf is a great motivator for writing.  I find even my most reluctant writers will always want to write in their journal about where the Elf was hidden and what he/she was doing.  One of my favourite activities is to have students design their own Elf and write about what makes a good one #santahelpers #toptoymakers.

This is also a great companion activity to go with the book "Memoirs of an Elf" by Devin Scillian and Illustrated by Tim Bowers.  I think this is now one of my favorite read alouds and my students love that the elf is texting and taking "elfies" instead of "selfies"

You can check out my Take An Elfie unit here!

4.  Christmas Solve the Room 

Students find it harder to sit this time of year so I try to get them up and moving every chance I get.  Students love working with a partner to move around the class and I love that they are still practicing their math.

Christmas Place Value Solve The Room

If you teach multiplication and division, try this freebie with your students to see if they would like participating in a solve the room type activity.

Operation Christmas Multiplying and Dividing Whole Numbers

5.  Gingerbread Ornaments

Applesauce and ground cinnamon mixed together make a great parent present.  Grab my recipe here.  Students have to measure the ingredients so it is a great way to sneak in some math at the same time.

Waiting to be decorated with some glitter and a ribbon!

6.  Reindeer Cam

Indoor recess or lunch play is just a bit easier when you have the Reindeer Cam playing.  My students love watching the reindeer move around the field.  It seems to keep their attention while they eat.  Check it out by visiting the Reindeer Cam.

I hope some of these ideas help you to countdown and plan for the busy few days before the Christmas break.  Happy Holidays to you and enjoy your time away from school!

Jane Feener

When Student Interests and Teachers Strength Collide

First, I teach kinder.  But,  what I have to say doesn’t matter what grade you teach.  As teachers, we can sometimes lose ourselves and we can be moved away from our own personal philosophy of teaching.   It can be hard to find ourselves again at times.  What is you strength?  Really?  What is it?  You can be good at a lot of things but what is it that you do that perhaps people in your grade level are constantly asking you about or help with?  Think about what you are constantly getting complimented on.  Something you do that is instinctive – it’s second nature to you and you enjoy it.  Once you can really pinpoint that quality in yourself, ask yourself, “where is it seen in my teaching?  In my classroom?  Did I abandon it? Is it non-existent?”   If it isn’t apparent to you and you cannot identify it in your teaching then try to find a way to bring it in because that is where your best teaching will surface.     

The pictures that follow will show you exactly what I am talking about in a nutshell.  It wasn't planned at all. I followed my students interest and went with it.  We are actually still in the process because they just discovered the acorns! There were many other learning outcomes but below are just a few. 

Let me tell you.  I found that I became my most creative and resourceful self when I challenged myself to pull from what I had and be creative to find a hands on approach to teach the standard(s).  I believe this to be true for kids too (think about how resourceful and how creative people are when they do not have anything).  I stopped telling them what they were going to do and they started telling me how we could do it. The difference between that statement is HUGE. The kids started coming up with “ outside the box” solutions. They were more engaged and activities became more hands on and self created.  The motivation was high and children learned.  

Pinterest can be overwhelming, inspiring, and at times to be honest – very depressing.  That is if you find yourself asking yourself, “How do they do it? And  How do they keep up?”  As a side note – remember you are seeing the best of the best of activities in pictures and  with a mute button.   So it seems like a lot but you are seeing a menagerie of many teachers activities all at once and it’s constantly in your face.  If you find yourself trying to keep up with the teacher next door and life as a teacher has become much like keeping up with the Jones then hopefully this post will help you remember your inner qualities and strengths and remind you that YOU ARE GREAT!

If you find you are interested in these type of ornaments that require very little in terms of costs and you want the ornament/craft imbedded in the academic curriculum you can check the units out below. Just click on the picture or HERE.

To follow up on the acorn felt tutorial I should have pictures posted late tomorrow since we will be finishing them up.  You can click HERE to go to my blog for the update. 

My strength is creating things and reading how-to books to figure out how to create things I am curious about.  I have been slowly writing "how-to"" student readers (sort of like a beginners manual). Students read, and follow instructions and diagrams to create something. 

Before you go . . . don't forget to share in the comments your strength and how you use it in your teaching/class to inspire us. 

Warm regards,

Tonya Leslie 

Christmas Traditions in the Classroom

December is a great time to teach about traditions, especially Christmas traditions.  And what better way to introduce and explore Christmas traditions than to create and experience your very own Christmas traditions in the classroom?!

1. Set Up the Classroom Christmas Tree Together- I love handing out branches to each student and then calling them up to help me place the branches on the tree.  But the best part of all is when we string the lights and I light up the tree for the first time!  The excitement and amazement in the kids eyes simply makes it all so wonderful!

2. Hang Students' Ornaments- To make our tree even more personalized and memorable, ask students to bring in an ornament from home with their name written on it to decorate the tree.  Before students are encouraged to hang their ornament on the tree, we do a quick Show-and-Tell which makes for a sweet memory for all!

3. Celebrate Christmas Around the World with Food- Nothing makes students or anyone for that matter, happier than FOOD!  Sure, arts and crafts make learning about Christmas Around the World fun, but what kids love most is tasting the traditional Christmas FOOD that goes along with each country!  Here's a sample of different foods that you can serve.

England- Pudding
France- Cheese/Cake
Italy- Goldfish (Italians eat seafood for Christmas)
USA-Cookies & Milk (Snack for Santa Claus)

4. Exchange Family Recipes- Send home a recipe template and ask parents to help their child share their family's favorite recipe.  Once completed and returned, bring out the crayons, markers, and glitter galore and encourage students to decorate their recipe template and exchange them at the class Christmas Party.  Students love sharing their own family favorite recipe and getting to take one home to share with their own family!

5. Make Gingerbread Houses- Making Gingerbread houses at our Christmas Party is one of my favorite traditions in the classroom!  Using empty milk cartons, graham crackers, icing, and a plethora of candy and sprinkles, students always have the best of times creating their own mini-gingerbread houses.  After completing them, students place them in an empty shoebox to take home.  But...the shoebox is not just any ordinary shoebox, it is wrapped with Christmas paper and decorated that was done at home as a family project!  Why place the gingerbread house in a shoebox?  Simply because I have found that it is the easiest and safest way for their gingerbread houses to stay in one piece from school onto the bus and then home!

There are so many wonderful classroom Christmas traditions out there!  What's yours?

Resources You May Be Interested In:

     

Gingerbread Pirates- A Gingerbread Freebie

We are all about gingerbread this year!  I am starting out our gingerbread unit with the book the Gingerbread Pirates.  This is a great book to incorporate gingerbread and the Christmas spirit of believing.

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Let me tell you a little about my book and freebie!  This year I am focusing our Christmas unit around the Gingerbread Pirates!  I am so excited to dive into a new unit!  To go along with the Gingerbread Pirates I made a compound word match.  Right now my first graders are working on retell to increase our DIBELS scores.  I made a foldable brochure over sequence of events, contractions, and favorite part of the book.   Click herefor the freebie!

Happy Teaching!

Gingerbread and "Elfies"

Hi everyone, it is Jane checking in once again.  I find this time of year so busy that I almost forgot to blog! One of the things I have enjoyed most about blogging this year is that the blog posts act as a record of some of the things I am trying in my class.  It is like having an electronic plan book of the school year.

One thing I have learned since moving down to Grade 2 is that this time of year in the primary classroom is exhausting and primary students love anything to do with gingerbread and elves.

Gingerbread Fun

We have been reading all kinds of books about gingerbread.  We have been learning about adjectives and nouns, comparing the books and focusing on sequencing the events in the stories.  

 After reading the Gingerbread Baby, students made a disguise for their gingerbread baby and then wrote about their disguise and why they chose it.  The Batman disguise was one of my favourites!

Next, we watched the YouTube video where Jan Brett shows step by step how to draw the gingerbread baby.  My students were so quiet and worked so hard to draw her gingerbread baby.  Here is a picture of their finished products posted on our classroom door.  If you want a nice quiet activity for the upcoming week you may want to give it a try.  

How to draw Gingerbread Baby

Finally, we made gingerbread ornaments for the students to bring home as a gift for their parents.  This is a very simple recipe using ground cinnamon and applesauce.  You can find the recipe and how to make them here.   We will put the finishing touches on them this week after they dry. 

Gingerbread Ornaments

Take an "Elfie"

Memoirs of an Elf

I ordered Memoirs of an Elf from Scholastic this year and my students have really enjoyed the book.  In the book, Sparky the Elf likes to take "Elfies" instead of "Selfies" of himself with his cell phone.  The students really liked the term "Elfies" so I knew I had to design something to go with this cute book.  I came up with "Take an Elfie".  I had students pick from five different cell phone templates and then draw either themselves as an elf or another elf.  (A lot of the students wanted to draw their Elf on the Shelf). When they finish drawing their elf they have to pick a writing page which includes a hashtag to tell about what their elf is doing in the picture (Is it Christmas Eve? Are they helping Santa, etc., )  I can't wait to display the finished products!

Take An Elfie

You can find this activity here.  

Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays everyone!  I hope you enjoy your time off with your family and get a much needed rest.

Making A List...Checkin' It Twice!

Have you tackled all of your Christmas shopping? Well, December sure came around quickly and it hit me last weekend {as I watched the Black Friday craziness on the news!} that I had yet to purchase a single present - eeeeek! 

Thankfully, my sister is on top of her game and she gave me a swift kick to get started! She also shared how she keeps herself organized during the holidays. I fancied it up and I'm sharing with you to help you get started and/or organized! 

This is not my actual list {because I'm told that these people "read" my blog and I don't want to spoil their presents, nor can I afford a new car or house for my parents!} but here's a peek at how I would use this organizer! 

Simply type in the name, gift and price. Then, you can mark if you've purchased, wrapped and sent these presents off! 

Want a copy of this editable list? Click the picture below! 

I used Kimberly Geswein's KG Somebody That I Used to Know, so unless you have this font on your computer, it may look a little wonky when you open the file! You can download the font for free {for personal use!} Or, just use your favorite font on your computer! 

Hope this helps you stay organized this Christmas season!