December 16, 2011

Christmas in our classroom

First off... Today was our LAST DAY of school before Christmas break.
Thank goodness. I was spent. So were the kids. We all need this break!

Here is a little of what we have been up to:

Activities
This week we had the kids rotate around to each of our classes to learn about differnt December holidays. 

I didn't take any pictures, but when the kids got to my class I read a couple of Hanukkah books, taught them the Driedal song, and played Driedal in small groups.

We also read "Elf Elementary".

and made elf art (from Teacher Bits and Bobs) and elf applications (from The First Grade Parade). They turned out super cute!




Polar Express Day
We ended the week with a Polar Express Day today.  We read the book, went over vocabulary, punched our tickets, made our chairs into train rows, and watched the movie.
During the movie I served the kids "hot chocolate"- chocolate milk with marshmallows and cookies.

After the movie the kids did a little retelling activity.

During lunch I ordered the class pizza and we celebrated our DIBELS scores. All but 4 beat their goals (made benchmark or higher).  I was very proud of their hard work on the big reading test this winter!



When the kids were out at recess, Santa came and wrote a note on our white board.  He also left each student a bell to thank them for believing! I always love doing this- they get soo excited!



Gifts for Parents
For their parents, the kids made Santa-hand cards
 And ornaments.
This was my first year doing these ornaments. It was extremely stressful for me while the kids were making them, but they turned out soooo cute. It was worth it.

The kids mixed glue, green pain, and oatmeal in a bowl.
They then shaped it (around a dixie cup) to be in the shape of a wreath.
We added glitter and red pom poms.
We let them dry for 3 days, then flipped them over for a couple of more days.
Las we added school pictures with a message on the back and ribbon to hang.

The kids made snowman gift bags to wrap their ornaments.
I thought these turned out super cute as well!


Gifts for Students
I ordered gift tags from Etsy and printed them off at Kinkos.
I stapled them to bags of candy for them to take home.


Gifts for me
I teach in a low income school/area and gifts are usually very interesting.
My students really try and are so thoughtful.

Here is what I got this year:


But this one takes the cake:
An egg.
The boy was so careful giving it to me. He said "For Christmas I'm giving you a baby chick. If you keep it warm, a chick will come out on Christmas day." Wow. That was followed by "I stole it from my Mom's fridge". Awesome.

Bless his little heart.

Happy winter break to all of you who finished today.... and for those of you not done ....
You can do it!!


6 comments:

Jamie said...

What a FUN week! We had Polar Express day today too :)

That's so funny the student brought you an egg!

Enjoy your break girl! You deserve it!

spelsue said...

Looks like you will need to track down an unfertilized egg and an incubator! It would be a great lesson to watch the "gift" hatch.

Anonymous said...

Congrats on getting them to rock that test!! :)

Love that you got an egg, hilarious!! Those parent gifts are so cute.

Enjoy your break :)

The Wallace Family said...

I didn't think we would ever make it to Christmas
Break!! So glad we did. I also work in a low income school but I think the egg takes the cake for presents haha. What a smart little kid:). I'm so jealous of all the fun you had with your kids before Christmas. We aren't allowed to do any of that:(. Hope you and your family have a great Christmas
break!!!

Miss Kindergarten said...

How cute is everything!! I was just thinking about you the other day...how are your migraines?? Any better?

hadar

Elle Sees said...

How freaking cute! Enjoy your break.