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Holidays

Run, Run for These Gingerbread Activities

There are so many activities you can do with your students during Christmas time that it can get overwhelming to try to do it all. Yet, I ALWAYS try to do it all because I can’t seem to let anything go. Gingerbread activities are some of my favorite to do during this season. The first and second grade teachers and I have started a tradition at our school where we mix our classes and students get to design gingerbread houses. This activity, plus a gingerbread man in class project, make for a perfect gingerbread filled day! Here are two gingerbread activities that are too much fun to give up!

Design a Gingerbread House

Like I said, my kiddos, the first graders and the second graders all get to design their own gingerbread house. The day before this event, parent volunteers assemble these houses. (Tip- use very sturdy plates, a large tub of royal icing and milk cartons for extra support.) Then, the day of, I split my class into three and some kids go into the other rooms and they get to go to town on designing a gingerbread house. Many kids get very creative and add a front or backyard! It’s an activity where students surprise you on their creativity and attention to detail.

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Gingerbread Man Project

For this activity, students try to disguise a gingerbread house so the gingerbread man won’t get eaten by the old lady or any animals. This project is apart of my Kindergarten Projects for the Years growing bundle. It can be used as a take home project or in class. Since I didn’t have enough time to send home the project, I chose bits and pieces of the project and students completed it in class. Check out this project here.

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5 Key Benefits of Using Write the Room in Your Classroom

Don’t you love finding activities that get your students up and moving? I do too! That’s why I absolutely love Write the Room activities. This simple idea of putting words up around the classroom and having students write them on a recording sheet is so engaging and can be a great learning tool. I use Write the Room during all sorts of subjects – math, writing, language arts and more! I’ve found that there are many advantages to using this activity. Here are the 5 key benefits of using Write the Room in your classroom.

Write the Room Benefits

1. Not just another worksheet

Although in reality this activity requires a worksheet (recording sheet), this is not just another typical, paper and pencil, do at your seat worksheet. Students have to move their bodies all around the room to search for the words they need to record. I use this activity during the holidays to get students excited for the upcoming season or as a review of something we’ve learned recently.

2. Handwriting Practice

This activity gets students to practice their writing and handwriting. My kindergarteners benefit from constantly observing the right way to write, tracing words and letters, and practicing writing on their own in order for them to be able to communicate through writing. We focus on handwriting a few times a week and the proper way to write the letters and numbers. Write the Room is an awesome way for them to practice their handwriting without making them trace and write the same letter for a whole page.

3. Beginning Letter Recognition

In kindergarten, it’s important for students to learn their letter sounds as it makes reading and sounding out easier. Write the Room helps students focus on beginning letters and sounds. Along with all the themed words in a certain Write the Room resource, there is a picture that matches. When students find a word, they must look on their recording sheet for the beginning letter. As they write the word, they are thinking of the picture and are able to practice sounding out the word.

4. Builds Vocabulary

Write the Room is a good way to build your students vocabulary. You could use this activity to begin your science or social studies unit using key vocabulary as the Write the Room words. Sign up for my newsletter and receive a Community Helpers Write the Room FREEBIE! I also use Write the Room to build vocabulary around the holidays. Students match the picture to the word during this activity and then notice the word in our seasonal books. Students feel so proud when they know how to read a fancy word!

5. Review Activity or Assessment

This activity can be utilized as a review activity or assessment. After I teach nouns for a few weeks, students show me what they know by completing a write the room (nouns edition). In kindergarten, we learn what a noun is and students practice distinguishing between the different kinds of nouns. During this Write the Room, students find a noun card and have to decide if it is a person, place, thing or animal. Through this activity, we review what they’ve learned and I can decide if I need to continue to work on nouns or if we can move on to something else.

Have you used Write the Room in your classroom? How does it benefit your students? Leave a comment below!

Resources

Check out the different Write the Room resources I have in my TpT store. *Save a TON by purchasing my Seasonal Write the Room Growing Bundle!*

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A Unique Way to Use Elf on the Shelf in the Classroom

Elf on the Shelf is typically known for getting into trouble and doing mischievous things. Not my Elf! My classroom elf promotes kindness throughout the holiday season in my kindergarten classroom.

The Inspiration

I am obsessed with everything the holidays have to bring! My favorite time of year is right before Thanksgiving and throughout the month of December. This is when we start to cozy up by the fire, set out decorations, light scented candles and spend quality time with our friends and families. It’s also a time of fun activities in our classrooms as well as reflection on what a great year it’s been.

The holidays in the classroom can be a tricky time. It’s hard to balance doing exciting activities to celebrate the holidays while still managing to teach the academics and not let your students spiral out of control.

The Classroom Elf

I’ve always loved Elf on a Shelf and the magic he inspires. (Not to mention students are always on their best behavior while the elf is watching.) And, I love using my creativity to make our elf get into trouble. However, I wanted to give our elf a bigger purpose. So last year, our classroom elf, Elfie, challenged us each day to complete an act of kindness.

The Letters

Each morning, my students find our classroom elf in a different spot of the room, up to some sort of silliness, next to a letter. The letter explains what the elf is doing and encourages the class to spread kindness or Christmas cheer through a specific action.

For example, I introduce my elf by having him sit in one of our buckets we use for bucket filling. Through this letter, he tells students to spread kindness through writing a bucket filler for someone they wouldn’t normally write one for.

These letters state many different ways students can share joy through the holiday. From giving a hug or smile, to donating old books or clothes, these letters give students as young as kindergarten concrete ideas of how to show love and spread kindness.

Check out my Classroom Elf: Promoting Kindness here.

Week Long Lesson Plans for St. Patrick’s Day

Giving students a hands on lesson is probably the most beneficial way they can learn because it creates an experience for them that they will remember. Combine a hands on lesson with a holiday and the excitement and enthusiasm is at an all time high! St. Patrick’s Day is one of my favorite holidays to celebrate.. both in my classroom and personal life. I’ve created a TpT resource with multiple hands on activities to do in your classroom for St. Patrick’s Day.. starting off with a Poem from Lucky the Leprechaun himself. Click here to check out my St. Patrick’s Day resource.

Inside the Resource

Growing Shamrocks

To begin our St. Patrick’s Day celebration, students plant shamrocks in little pots of gold. We do this a few weeks before the actual day so we can take our plants home on the 17th. I order the plants and pots from Amazon. After a few days, students begin to see progress on their lucky plants and we write and draw what we observe.

Leprechaun Traps

Another tradition in my classroom is building leprechaun traps. I start this activity off with a poem from Lucky the Leprechaun. (Click here to get the poem for free.) Students love creating leprechaun traps and setting them out on the 16th. When they come to school the next day, we find destruction in our classroom, yet no caught leprechauns.. the leprechauns are usually kind enough to leave gold coins or Carmel candies in each of the traps though! To prepare for this activity, students brainstorm how they’d like to create their trap and draw a blueprint. Then they create a list of what materials they’ll need. The lists of materials that the students write help me get parent volunteers to donate the needed materials so my kinders can best create their visioned trap.

How to Catch a Leprechaun Writing

Then I have students write about how they plan to catch a leprechaun with their trap. After students see if they caught a leprechaun, they reflect through a writing prompt. I love finding ways to incorporate cross-curricular lessons while having fun and celebrating a holiday. Click here to check out this resource!

I’d love to hear what kinds of activities you do in your classroom for St. Patrick’s Day. Leave a comment below!

Creating Christmas Magic in the Classroom

One of the things I love most about teaching kindergarten is the ability to go ALL out on every holiday. It’s like a built in addendum to our contract that in kindergarten, you must celebrate everything and anything! This year, I incorporated many fun, engaging and also educational Christmas lessons to spread the magical joy in my kinder room.

Elfie

This is my fourth year using Elf on the Shelf in my classroom. I use Elf on the Shelf in a unique way, to encourage acts of kindness throughout the holiday season. The first day our elf arrived, students spotted him immediately! Some of my kids had an elf in their home and knew the rules so I wasn’t surprised when one of my students shouted “don’t touch him!” Each day, students look forward to seeing where our elf was in the room and what shenanigans he was into! I start our day by reading the letter from Elfie and discussing what act of kindness he challenges us to try. Find a full list of acts of kindness and what the elf does in my TpT store through this here.

Polar Express

The last week before break, I’ve made it a tradition to celebrate Polar Express week. This is where I take a break from our language arts and math curriculum and incorporate different lessons all about the Polar Express. I purchased a few different TpT products to make this week happen. I use The Polar Express by Teaching in High Heels for our “write the room”, to compare and contrast the book and the movie and to describe our time on the Polar Express through our five senses. I use All Aboard the Polar Express by Free Falling in SDC to make our conductor or reindeer hats. Last, I use The Polar Express: Book Companion by The Curious Catfish for my North Pole tickets and my writing craftivity.

I’ve also come across a few freebies on TpT that I incorporate into my week of everything Polar Express. My absolute favorite lesson I’ve used during this week the past few years is the sequencing activity from Erica Bohrer’s Polar Express Movie and Craft Activities – FREE. I do this whole class first, then students sequence on their very own Polar Express train. This week is very language arts heavy, but this freebie Polar Express Doubles/Doubles Plus 1 by Studly Peaches is a fun way to incorporate math, with various versions of a five in a row game. The Polar Express has been one of my all time favorite Christmas stories since I was a little kid and bringing this love to my kindergarteners makes for a very magical week before Christmas break.

Gingerbread House

I am so blessed to work at a school with the BEST co-workers. This year, our lower school team teachers (grades k-2) are some of my best friends. We planned a kindergarten through second grade gingerbread house decorating party! Parent volunteers brought in graham crackers, icing, and candy. The day before our party, our volunteers assembled our houses and then day of we had a few parents help pass out the candy or fill up student’s cups with extra icing. Every year, I am amazed with student’s creativity!

Parent Gift

Each year, I’ve made a different parent gift for students to give to their parents. I’ve never been super impressed with anything I’ve had them do in the past so I turned to my favorite addiction – Pinterest. After browsing pinterest for what seemed like hours, I settled on a salt dough handprint ornament that the students paint to look like Santa.

This was a very ambitious project but with only 15 students and the help of my assistant teacher, we were able to accomplish these gifts and they turned out AMAZING! Check out this link to see the full tutorial of how to make these ornaments. Students loved seeing their handprint after I baked the dough and felt so proud when they turned their handprint into a Santa ornament.

What kinds of traditions do you have in your classroom around the holidays? This time of year is very hectic but also extremely magical. I wish you and your students a happy holidays and restful winter break!

Turkey Tuesday

One of the most exciting parts of teaching kindergarten is being able to use your creativity (especially during the holidays)! By the time October hits, it feels like we’re off and running with nonstop activities until Christmas break. I try to incorporate art once a week to go along with a monthly theme or a holiday that is coming up. The best thing about kinder art is that they all look SO different by the time these little creators are finished.

To celebrate Thanksgiving, we made turkeys out of paper plates (half a plate), tissue paper and construction paper. I used parts of the turkey template in Kelly Morgan’s Thanksgiving Everything Pack. I’ve had this resource of hers for a few years now and have used this template in various ways throughout the years. Not only does this pack have this craftivity (love that word!) but she has language arts, math, social studies and other resources all related to Thanksgiving. Total TpT jackpot!

We pasted the tissue paper squares to the paper plate by painting over them with liquid starch.
Not only does the starch make the papers stick, but it creates a shiny coat for the turkey’s feathers. Creating the turkey’s feathers was all that my kinders could handle for one day so we let the liquid starch dry and saved the turkey body and parts for the next day.

In my first year teaching, when I did craftivities like this, I would hand out each construction paper separately and it would be hard to manage since all students were cutting and gluing at different paces. I would be stressing out, running back and forth, handing different pieces to different students. Now, I’ve found that handing out all papers at once is less chaotic and actually more fun for the kids because they can be a little more creative. I put my sample on the board incase students want a reference of what the end goal is but I’ve found that some students don’t want to look at the model; they want to do their own thing! Teachers all have different ways of leading projects depending on their style and their students. What works in your classroom? How do you manage art projects?

I love that the same art project can produce such different results. What types of Thanksgiving projects do you do in your classrooms?