Christmas Symmetry

I found this cute and fun symmetry activity in a mailbox magazine.  All you do is pick out 4 different Christmas shapes.  I chose a snowman, tree, snowflake, and gingerbread man.  I used our die cuts and cut them out on white paper.  I talked to the students about how both sides have to be the exact same.  Then I handed out the shapes and had the students fold them in half.  Then I had them trace over the fold with a black crayon.  They glued the shapes on construction paper that they divided into 4 equal pieces.  Then they decorated their shapes.

They had a lot of fun with this activity.  They also loved that it was Christmas themed.  They felt like they were doing more of a craft than a math lesson.  This is one I will do each year!

Quick Christmas Craft

My kids were overloaded with assessments and work last week.  I had some extra time on one of the days and wanted to do a craft with them.  The problem was that I didn't have anything planned.  So, I went straight to my go to Christmas craft. (I got the idea from Oriental Trading)  This is an easy craft and the materials are ones that you always have on hand in a classroom.  The kids loved it and they turned out cute as always!

Popsicle Stick Snowman

Materials:  9 popsicle sticks (per child), black & white paint, red construction paper, googly eyes, orange foam, and yellow stars

Directions:

1.  Get 8 popsicle sticks.  Paint 3/4 of each stick white.  These can be painted straight across or at a slant.  Then paint 1 popsicle stick black.

2.  Paint the other part of the 8 sticks black.
3.  Push the 8 black and white sticks together.  Glue the the black stick straight across the 8 sticks.  This is going to be the rim of the snowman's hat.

4.  Cut the red construction paper in to strips.  Glue a strip above the black popsicle stick.
5.  Glue the star, googly eyes, and orange nose onto the snowman.
6.  Paint or draw (with a sharpie) the snowman's mouth.

Christmas Writing

It's already Christmas time!! I can't believe how fast this year is flying by.  The two weeks before Christmas break I like to review previous skills and spend time on writing.  We have done quite a few writing projects already this week.  The first writing activity was a persuasive writing.  They had to pretend they were a reindeer and convince Santa to choose them to guide the sleigh for Christmas Eve. This is a lot like the Thanksgiving Persuasive writing. Since it was a familiar skill, they really enjoyed it and really improved.  The other writing activity we did was a descriptive writing.  They had to color an ornament and then write a descriptive paragraph.  They really enjoyed guessing who colored each ornament.  These are a few of the many writing activities that are in my Christmas Writing Packet.  If you would like to check it out, head to my TPT store or click HERE.

Thanksgiving Writing and FREEBIE!!

I know I am a little late posting this on the blog, but I wanted to be able to display my students' writing examples!

For Thanksgiving, we only have a 2 day week.  I like to do writing activities during these 2 days.  We did a narrative story, a persuasive writing, and a descriptive writing.  For the narrative story, I gave the students the prompt "Pretend you wake up on Thanksgiving morning and you are a turkey...."  All of the stories turned out so good!  This was by far the best writing they have done all year!!  When they finished their writing, the colored turkeys to paste around the paper.  You can check out our Scaredy Cats that were very similar.  For the persuasive writing, they had to choose to have Tom the Turkey or Pat the Pig for Thanksgiving dinner.  They had to persuade me to want their choice for dinner.  This was a great time to explain why we should use a variety of descriptive words instead of just using good and bad.  Finally, for the descriptive writing, they had to create their own recipe for a turkey.  The ideas ranged from chocolate turkey to a fruit turkey recipe.  They glued the pages onto construction paper to take home to their parents.  All of these ideas are in my 21 page Thanksgiving Writing Packet.  You can get it at my TPT store.  Just click HERE.

Narrative

I woke up Thanksgiving morning and was a turkey....

Persuasive Writings

Turkey Recipes

Thanksgiving FREEBIE!!!!

Have students make a bracelet with colored beads to help them retell about the first Thanksgiving.  To download the story and directions from my TPT store, click HERE.

Crafty Thanksgiving Plates

For Thanksgiving, we made turkey plates.  I wanted something fun and cute for them to take home, but most importantly I wanted something that they wouldn't toss into the trash as soon as they got there.  The kids LOVED this craft, and the parents have enjoyed it too!!

Materials:  orange paint, green paint, yellow paint, brown paint, red paint, black paint, sharpies, plates (I got mine from the Dollar Tree for $1!!!), and high gloss finishing spray.

I brought the students back to my table one at a time.  I painted their palm and thumb brown and the other fingers orange, red, yellow, and green.  I placed their hand on the plate and pressed down.  Once the hand print dried, I had them write Happy Thanksgiving and their name in a sharpie.  Then they put their finishing touches on their turkeys. I let these dry for a day or so and then sprayed them with the finishing spray.

I am really excited about how these turned out!! I was also surprised with how excited the kids were.  I can't wait to start our Cookies For Santa plates!!!

Cyber Monday Sale

Teachers Pay Teachers is throwing a huge sale on Monday, November 28th.  They will be offering 10% off on top of products that are already on sale.  I will be participating in the sale.  All my products will be 20% off.  So, that is 30% off products!!  Just be sure to use the code below!

Daily 5 Tasks

 I wanted a cute and organized way to display which task of the Daily 5 the students would be visiting.  I found these cute task cards somewhere online over the summer.  I printed and laminated them.  Then I taped them to a metal strip that is under the board in the classroom.  I put magnets on the back of the monkeys that I used at the beginning of the year. {You can see that post HERE}  This helps the students and me know what task they are suppose to be doing.