It's The Most Wonderful Time of the Year

The weather created a 3 day week this past week.  The time off was appreciated, however, December energy is already hard to control. For my class, Wednesday was a mixture of pure excitement and cooped up energy.  With the weekend, it had almost been a week since we had been in school.  Snowflake decided to go on strike Wednesday evening because they just needed reminders about being kind to others.  Thursday morning, it promoted a great discussion during morning meeting about what a strike even is as well as why they thought she went on strike.  They told me they needed to be better listeners and bucket fillers.  

One of the things that I enjoy about teaching is that even though routine and structure are a necessity no two days are the same just as each class from year to year varies.  It is always interesting to see the impact of ideas and lessons from year to year.  Friday, Snowflake was in a kissing booth.  If you want the free printable, you can find it here.  I knew the booth needed something after our conversation on Thursday so the note was the perfect accessory.  They thought this was bigger than her going on strike  They also thought the elf kisses (chocolate chips) were funny.

 

We continue to work on our independence during daily 5 reading and math.  Some days are better than others.  It is only fitting that Snowfkake would share her love of books with us!  On Monday, she will be reading some of my favorite holiday stories but she is also bringing a new book to us.  A parent brought this book to me and told me she hadn't shared that she bought it with her child in case it could work in to Snowflake's adventures.  I am excited to share it with them.  The parent bought it at Target if you are interested.

The hardest part of the snow days in December is making up things that you can't make up in January and February.  The gingerbread man brought us letters from Israel, Sweden, and Germany this week.  When I had initially planned these countries, I had planned for 5 days!  We still cooked latkes and enjoyed applesauce.  We also played the dreidel game which they loved!!  We had the opportunity to talk about half, add, and subtract. We have been working on our addition fluency with a game, the train game using Unifix cubes and a die.  At math stations, they have also used the game to practice subtraction even though I haven't officially introduced it.  We will probably play the dreidel game in the Spring to further the concept of subtraction and half.  We also received gingerbread men and used tallies to graph which part if the body we ate first.  We labeled the gingerbread using interactive writing.  We also decorated homemade gingerbread men (or women) using icing and sprinkles.  We made St. Lucia's Day crowns and ate cinnamon rolls when we visited Sweden.

 

We have been story mapping various versions of gingerbread stories.  It has provided such great conversation about books! Specifically, we have compared and contrasted characters, setting, and the endings.  When we talked about the two versions of the gingerbread boy, they referenced the Paul Galdone version looking old.  Then one of my little boys said, "you know like 1986". The year, I was their age!  I also loved sharing The Gingerbread Girl with them because it stunned them when she outfoxed the fox.  We also had a great conversation about what that means as well as sly as a fox.

 

When we visited Germany, we learned that the tradition of trees began there.  We worked on these ornaments for our families.  They provided an opportunity to practice following directions because my little learners still struggle with multiple steps.  We painted the trees and let them dry.  In the afternoon, they picked out buttons and glued them on while I called them to hot glue the bow.  I love how each tree reflects them as well as me.  I love buttons and bows! Nevermind that I do not sew.

I still have a reindeer my kindergarten teacher made me so every year that I have taught kindergarten I have made my class reindeers.  My grandma usually helps cut things out.  This year, I packaged whoopers and cherry sours with a printable about reindeer noses.  I also added the reindeer food they made when we visited Antartica and some grinch dust.  I will send these home with them later this week.  I have a sibling of a child that I had in K who is now in fifth grade.  I have had a reindeer hanging on my classroom door all season.  Last week, she says to me "my sister has one of these".  Sometimes it is the littlest of things!

Next week is one of my favorites! I love sharing classic stories with them, making memories, and reflecting on our journey so far. 

Oh, The Weather Outside is Frightful

I have been planning December in the back of my mind for over a month now.  When I realized that I had less instructional days than usual because of Thanksgiving being later this year, it sent me into a panic. And then...

Snow! It is freezing here.  I am not a fan.  I will take the snow day as long as payment doesn't come due in May.  So now add in the fact that my 15 tightly packed days has now turned into 14.  Needless to say we were busy this week! 

 

A special delivery cam Monday! Monday morning, we actually received a call from the office that we had a package.  I sent a couple of responsible children down to get it.  They were less than impressed.  I will never win an Oscar but I can sell a child or a class on this.  The acting took over when one of my little boys told me the gingerbread man was not real therefore the letters could not be either.  As serious as I could be, I looked at him and said well it is postmarked from him.  The first letter was postmarked with our town.  The letter simply introduced the class to his journey to the North Pole.  The various letters also bring a way to learn about the culture or something related to what the gingerbread man is doing.  This one, he left us strips of paper to order to make a tree.  Although, it is not overly exciting, the trees hanging in the room makes it joyful.  It is also fun to see children's finished work.  The differences are interesting.  If you would like the delivery label from Santa, you can find it here on Kinder Craze's blog. 

 

Next, we received a letter from Mexico.  The gingerbread man also sent us the book The Legend of the Poinsettia.  We read the story and learned about the celebration of Los Posadas.  We made tissue paper poinsettias.  I love the way these turned out!

 

Again, an opportunity to see their personalities in their work.  I love the way these bring spirit to the hallway!

 

Meanwhile, Snowflake was less than impressed with our classroom kindness.  She means business.  They were not overly impressed with her simple message but it did spark lots if conversation.  They were perplexed as to why she didn't move more than what she did.

On the third day, the gingerbread man was in Antarctica looking for reindeers but all he had found were penguins.  They didn't make the correlation of Snowflake's antlers.  She got out one of my favorite puzzles and was playing reindeer games.  The gingerbread man also sent us ingredients for reindeer food.  The class was very interested in this and so it became an opportunity to engage them.  They had lots of questions about how the reindeers would come, if they would really eat the glitter, when to put it out. The reindeer labels can be found here. 

 

One of the responsibilities, at least in my opinion, is to make sure that children have some keepsakes to give their families.  Thanks to Pinterest and one of my team mates, I decided to make these reindeer ornaments.  On Wednesday, I painted each of their hands.  When the possibility of snow became more of a reality, Thursday became a race of getting them laminated so I could work on them if I was stuck at home. Mission accomplished!

The reindeer food labels can be found here.  The gingerbread man went to Africa next.  We talked about Kwanzaa and read K is for Kwanzaa.  The gingerbread man sent us supplies to make Kwanzaa mats for our Winter party. 

 

On Wednesday afternoon, I decided it was time for something major for Snowflake.  So early Thursday a.m., I was hanging red and green crepe paper up on the outside of the classroom as well as the bathroom entrance.  I dyed the toilet water green and it needed something just a bit more.  Ribbon makes everything better so a bow would do!  When they came in, they were more interested in finding out where she might be than they had been in previous days.  For some reason, they couldn't get over this.  Some of the boys were fascinated with the fact that Snowflake poops green.  I read her note after morning meeting.  These printables and others can be found here.  

 

The other elf in the pictures are from the local paper and a promotion called Where's the Elf.  Cash prizes are involved so since I am already participating, I decided to include the elf so I could use twitter and Instagram to share Snowflake's adventures.  You never know what might happen, right?

I do not do well with redundant questions.  My least favorites... "when is recess" and "when is lunch".  This time of the year, they will ask everyday about the next most exciting event.  Part of my job is helping them understand that Christmas is one day of the month.  It happens in December.  I am a big fan of counting back to help children deal with the excitement.  This is our countdown to Christmas.  I made it over the thanksgiving holiday.  You can find directions here.  It literally keeps them from asking me "how many days until Christmas" and helps them visually count back.  One child started to ask one day during our math lesson and turned around looked at the countdown and stopped mid sentence.  Perfect use of my time and who doesn't love to look at something cute?

We also started using a graphic organizer on our white board to talk about the characters, setting and various ways the different versions of the gingerbread stories end.  It is fun listening to them compare and contrast the stories.  

Does your classroom have an elf? What ways is your classroom elf incorporated into children's learning?