Holidays Update

We had a busy 3 days prior to our winter break.  Below are some pictures that I managed to get amidst all the activity!

Tuesday we had Polar Express day and all wore our pajamas.  The kids thought this was great!

We decorated our own wrapping paper.  I just brought in sheets of brown bulletin board paper and let them decorate any way they'd like with crayons.  Our most proud accomplishment was learning how to draw a star on our paper! :)  I can't find a picture of our parent gift, so I'll have to upload that when I get back to school in January. 

Have you ever shopping after a holiday and bought stuff for your classroom not knowing what you are going to do with it?  This project resulted for such a shopping trip.  I found felt Christmas trees at Target last year 90% off, which made a 3 pack 10 cents!  I gave students a plate of sequins and a bottle of glue and let them go.  They were really cute!  Too bad Target didn't have these again this year.

What did you pick up on a shopping trip that turned out to be a great project?

Silence for Sandy Hook Elementary

Gingerbread Galore

We are in an "off" week from our reading curriculum, so we are in our gingerbread/holiday glory!  My students are learning lots and having a great time!  The pictures below are from our labs (centers).


Making gingerbread houses.  Brown lunch bags stuffed with newspaper, scalloped scrapbook paper and foam stickers (bucket for $3.60 at Michaels!). We are making a gingerbread village in the hallway.

This little guy is quite proud of his gingerbread house!

The gingerbread bakery is in full swing!  Hats are made from a 3" band of poster board and a plastic grocery bag.  They LOVE these "cooker" (chef/baker) hats!  I saw a similar one on Julie Lee's blog.  Students are using homemade gingerbread play dough to make their bakery creations.  The cookie cutters were in a 6 pack from the Dollar Tree.

This guy is very proud to be a chef!  The gingerbread man spatula is from Hobby Lobby.  It was $2 (originally $3.99, 50% off).  It was so cute, I had to go back for another one!

Making boats to help the gingerbread man safely cross the river.  Items available: plastic cups,  plastic  cafeteria containers, poster board, straws, toothpicks, clay, glue, scissors and tape.  Each student got a marshmallow gingerbread man to "rescue" and get safely across the river.

Testing out the gingerbread man's boat.  It floats!  This is a great problem solving activity for students!

We are measuring using cubes.  Students are measuring length, area and perimeter.  I have been impressed with how many students have remembered the correct terms to share what they are measuring.

What are you doing to celebrate the winter holidays?  I'd love some party ideas for next week!

Merry and Bright

It has been a busy few weeks, and the next 8 days of school will prove to be crazy as well!  I just wanted to share my little plan for a holiday picture of each of my students. I saw many cute pictures popping up on Pinterest (of course) for the holidays and knew I wanted to include something in my parent gift.

I purchased a clearance 16x20 photo mat at Hobby Lobby and glittery letters.  It was then just wrapped in a strand of 50 LED lights.  The kids loved it!  The lettering at the bottom says "Merry and Bright".  I wish I would have used all green letters so it would have shown up better.