December Part 2!

So it took me a little longer than I thought it would to get to this second blog post.....but hey it was still December less than 2 days ago right??  So I am not that late!  As with every break, I had high hopes for myself on all the things I would accomplish, but each time something seems to 'come up' and distract me....this time its name was Grey's Anatomy....

Can anyone else relate??  The struggle is real.

As excited as I am for all the amazing things 2016 will bring, I am a little sad that December is over--it is such a fun time to teach!  I always have SO many things I want to do and not enough time to do them.  I already blogged about our Elf Adventures we do all December long here.

One of the first things we do is Reindeer.  I LOVE doing research with my kinders.  They absolutely love learning facts and new vocabulary words.  We use a mixture of my own creations and Deanna Jump's reindeer unit.  First we read and learn all about reindeer.  We record our learning on a can/have/are chart and then they make their own All About Reindeer books.  They love showing off what they have learned!  I display these on their clips in the hallway for all to see.

 We then make reindeer glyphs from Deanna Jump's reindeer unit.  We display these right next to our books!

Then we move on to one of my All-Time favorite lessons!  I have been doing these since my 2nd year of teaching and I love it just as much every year!

We read the book Santa's Stuck by Rhonda Gowler Greene.  If you don't have this book in your December collection, you are missing out!  It is about Santa eating too many cookies and treats, getting fatter, and then getting stuck in a chimney.  Excellent for problem/solution and cause/effect.  We then make text to self connections and write what we would do if we found Santa stuck in our chimney.  Their ideas are always hilarious and so creative!  We then make our Santa's in the chimney and glue on our writing--voila adorable December bulletin board!!

And finally, I have saved the best for last--our parent gifts!  I think it is so important to have the kiddos make something special and personalized to give to their parents.  I have done all sorts of things over the years--most involving painting hands and/or glitter--eek!!  While they turned out nicely in the end, it was always pretty stressful with 25 kinders to paint or glitter up and I dreaded the actual process of making them.  So about 3 years ago we came up with a better idea and I have never looked back!  :)

Students write and decorate a card for their mom/dad/grandma/grandpa/whoever they choose.  

Now for the fun part--photo booth!!  We have all sorts of Christmas props--snowman, elf, Santa, reindeer, etc.  I let the students choose what they want to be, snap a pic, print them out, and put them in the cards they made. 

SO MUCH fun and SO MUCH less stress than my previous adventures in parent gifts!  Parents adore them!

Well I think that pretty much sums up the end of 2015 in my classroom!  Thanks for joining and Happy 2016!!