Showing posts with label holidays. Show all posts
Showing posts with label holidays. Show all posts
Hi guys!! Welcome to another Thoughts on Thursday! Thanks for joining Kristi and I for December's topic: Your Favorite Christmas Traditions!

I love Christmas! It really is the most wonderful time of the year. There is so much going on all around the city and the state and the Internet and everything!

I know in our family we always do Christmas in a big way. One reason: my grandmother was born on Christmas Eve and we have her birthday party every year on that day. We do it themed and have the best time.

One year we did the Grinch!

We also have our Elf, Sparkle. She has a pet reindeer, Ginger. And graphic tees. 
We've had Sparkle for about 7 years now. She comes each Thanksgiving and hangs out with us. 

Another family tradition is the purchase of our Hallmark Keepsake ornament for the year. This year it's bittersweet because it's the final ornament in the Santa's Sweet Ride series. We started this when Carly was six and this is the tenth and final one. 

Carly and I watch movies starting Thanksgiving day. Sometimes sooner. Okay a lot of times sooner!!
Hot chocolate and movie time!! That's our favorite things to do!

In the classroom I love to decorate for Christmas!! I know that not all of my kiddos celebrate Christmas, but we can still have fun with the themes and activities!!



We even have a classroom scout elf!! 


This year I'm doing it with my sixth graders. They love it, too! It's just something fun and new for them. And they are only 11 years old!! 

Though one of them did touch Gatsby and he was sick. They wrote him get well soon notes!! 

He brought stickers!! 

And of course we love playing all sorts of Christmas themed games!! My favorite, any math game that let's us have fun and celebrate the season!!
These are from my Addition and Subtraction shortcuts centers. These centers help with Mental Math. They are helpful for reinforcing mental shortcuts like adding and subtracting 10 or 20 and doubles and doubles plus 1.  


And because I love Christmas and you so much, here's a little Christmas present!! Here is a FREE center for place value sorting. 


Well thank you so much for stopping by and reading up on my Christmas traditions, both in and out of the classroom!

Make sure to check out the linkup below to read about other Christmas traditions from my teacher friends! 

Join us for the next Thoughts on Thursday: January 5th!

Happy Holidays!


Happy Saturday to all! January has been the fastest month by far! I dont know where all my time went but I am looking forward to the next few weeks. We are having a ball in first grade! Lots of fun stuff and learning going on. 

I wanted to share with you a Valentine's activity pack that I use in my classroom. I've created some ELA and math games that will liven up any classroom while reinforcing key skills. 




Compound Hearts game



Matching Math Hearts game - helping with the skill of double digit to single digit addition

Word Sort Sounds of –ed



Valentine Rhyming Words game

Valentine Fill in the Blank

Valentine Word Search

Valentine Mystery Picture for 120 chart

Whole group math game idea - now this one is so much fun!! First you have to pull out your trusty old 120 board for the whole group. 
Lay it out. Next print out, cut apart, and fold up the problem cards: 
 

I went to the Teacher Best Friend Store (aka Dollar Tree) and grabbed some adorable plastic heart containers. 

I stuffed them in the boxes and we played. Children took turns choosing a box and solving the problem. They covered the number on the 120 board with a red lace heart doily, also from the DT!
 

Voila! We had a heart when we finished! They went back to their desks to complete the mystery picture for extra reinforcement. So much fun! I placed the large activity in a center so they could play  by themselves. 

To round out the pack, I included some Game Title Cover for Centers

I print out the covers, cut out, and glue onto brown clasp envelopes. Run through the laminator and then you can store the pieces to the games inside. They hold up quite awhile. 

As always, my newest products are free for a limited time :)

Check it out and grab your freebie now {{HERE}} in my TpT store. 

Happy Teaching!


In honor of Martin Luther King, Jr. Day, we read books and did a great activity to reinforce the amazing contributions this man has given to the world. 

We started by reading this book. 
It's such a great book to introduce MLK to the kiddos because it's simple language, colorful pictures, and kids can relate to the story. 

Then we talked about our differences as a class. The kids looked at each other and told one or two things that they liked about their classmate and how the differences made them a great person. 
They held out their arms and talked about different colors and how that made everyone special and unique!!


Then we did an activity from First Grade Wow! Great stuff over there!! 
 I brought in a lot of different apples and talked about how they were different on the outside.  Then I cut the apples in half so we could see the insides - there were all the same!


And bonus - each one has a star inside, just like each of us!

To finish the lesson everyone got a paper that read one of his favorite quotes, "Not the color of our skin, but the content of our character."
(click for a copy)


They drew pictures and wrote about what they thought Martin's dream meant and how it has been realized today. Great job kiddos!!








How do you celebrate Dr. King? 

Happy Teaching!!




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