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!!

December Part 1--Elf Adventures!

Wow!!  I have been slacking at this whole blogging adventure lately!

In my defense, December is a crazy (but wonderful!) month for me.  First of all, I am a teacher and it is December:

So there's that.

Also in December, I have my birthday (a big one this year).  Here is a pic from my birthday dinner:

I may be biased, but he is so handsome isn't he??  :)

Our anniversary is also in December, as well as the holidays (and holiday parties) of course!  So while it is busy, I am loving it....I am thinking we could rename it 'Spoil Danielle Month' possibly?  Seems to be a more accurate name  ;)

Anyway, back to something remotely teaching related....since we have been up to so much since I have blogged, I decided I will split this into 2 posts.  This one will be mainly about my main December classroom management and engagement strategy:  Our elf!

I LOVE having a classroom elf for a couple reasons--one being it is just plain fun.  I have heard some teachers don't like the idea of a 'naughty elf'.  My response to that is our elf is not 'naughty', he is more 'silly'.  He does things like sleeps in a tissue box, takes a bubble bath (in mini marshmallows), builds a Christmas tree with unifix cubes, etc.  He also sometimes brings us things such as books or festive pencils.  So nothing naughty, just something fun for the students to look forward to finding each day.  Any time they are engaged and having fun, they are way more motivated to 'work' and learn!

The first thing we do is write a letter to Santa asking him if we could have an elf for our classroom.  These are so sweet!

 Just as evidence of what I was saying about student interest and engagement being key to motivating them, below is one of my MOST reluctant writers.  He has no interest in writing time, and even in December it is still like pulling teeth getting him to write any letters/words--I am lucky if I can get a picture that is not just a scribble.

 Do you see all that writing????  With no help from me!  All of a sudden he had a purpose (motivation) for writing and he was ALL about it!  He wanted Santa to give us that elf!  :)

Next, our elf arrives in a very special package.  I have our secretary or nurse bring it down in the morning as if it just got delivered.  He comes with a special note from Santa explaining all we need to know to take care of our special elf.

My kiddos voted to name him 'Magic' this year.  Each day we came in, we found what silly Magic had done today and wrote about it in our Elf Adventures Journal.  You can download the journal for free by clicking on the picture below.  Once again, their writing is awesome because they love it!

This is when he made a 'snow angel' in our glitter.

And as for behavior management, Magic works wonders!!  I constantly remind them he is watching.  And every morning he leaves a few notes on the desks of students that he thinks had extra special behavior the day before.  

These are like magic!  They will work SO hard to get a note from the elf the next day!

All of these items and lots more are part of my Elf Adventures Pack.  Click on the image to check it out.  It is so much fun!!

Whew that was a lot for now!  I had a feeling I would need 2 posts for everything!!  I will be back with December Part 2 shortly!!