1-2-3 Come Plan A Christmas Party With Me
The day before any vacation can be pretty wild, as children are bound to be filled with lots of energy. Their excitement for the season finds some of them not sleeping well, so you have cranky pants to deal with too.
Because of this, I planned all sorts of educational games and especially fun activities for the last day before Christmas break. Our official "party" was "supposed" to take place at the end of the day. Let's face it, when it's Halloween or Christmas time, the entire day might as well be a "party" and by the time the "end of the day" rolled around, my Y5's were also pretty much done and tired as well.
Wearing my Santa hat and jingle bell necklace, I told my students that we'd be doing extra special lessons, games, crafts etc as part of our "party" and that we'd be having a great time all day, ending quietly with our gift book exchange and snack. I never once had a child say: "When is the party going to start?" They were also happily focused, busy learning all day, just in a different way.
Behavior was wonderful, because they got the chance to get the wiggles out throughout the day. Gross motor activities were a part of our report card standards, so even our dancing and prancing around was legit. To keep children calm, I also played soothing Christmas music throughout the day.
I've compiled a list with brief explanations, of all of my favorite classroom Christmas games that I've played with my students over the years. They are quick, easy, educational and fun. Most of them require little or no preparation. (Woo hoo!) I ho-ho- hope you find something that will fit in perfectly for your party day. It's so important to give students brain breaks to keep them refreshed. Click on the link to view/download the Christmas Games packet which includes 36 games!
I've up-dated the packet to include stationery for students to write how many words they can think of using the letters in Merry Christmas.
Give students 5-10 minutes to work on this individually, then have them work in groups of 3 or 4 to combine their lists. Remind children that they can make more words by adding an s or es to make plurals. (A teachable moment.) Contractions are another option, or ask students how many of their classmates' names can be made with those letters.
What team had the most? Put my list on an overhead; did they think of words that weren’t on my list? Have them guess-timate how many words are on the list and then have them count them to see who has the closest guess. (I thought of 657!)
Make a copy of the list and have students circle all of the words that they don’t know. For whatever time remains, challenge them to look up as many words as they can and then share one or two with the class.
Here are a few other table top lessons you could plug in to cover standards in a game-type fashion; also, any of the winter alphabet cards that I've been posting, would work well. All those letter packets include a 3-page tip list of ideas, including games to play.
If you're set for party day, but want something for that busy first day when you return after break, any of these snowman themed activities would also work.
This snowman matching game is a lot of fun and reinforces numbers, number words, counting and tally marks. It also includes a keepsake "craftivity." Click on the link to view/download the Snowman Number Puzzles.
Help reinforce upper and lowercase letters + numbers from 1-20 with an "I Spy" game. Teen numbers are sometimes toughies for little ones. Practicing with an "I Spy" game makes it more interesting. My Y5's enjoyed playing "I Spy" daily. It was a fun way for them to practice, as well as a quick and easy way for me to whole-group assess.
Teacher starts by calling out a number or letter; students trace it and then raise their hand when they are done. I could tell at a glance who was having difficulty. Play continued with different children taking a turn to choose the number or letter for classmates to find.
The worksheet served double-duty, as I'd tell my students to take it home to play again with a family member, this time circling the letter/number. Click on the link to view/download the Snow Spy packet.
Finally, students catch on fast to the concept of small-medium and large, as well as the difference between a 2D and 3D shape, when they can do a hands-on craftivity.
This was the reason behind "Snowman Melt" "My snowman was 3 snowballs, 3 spheres with a hat, now he's melted into 3 circles that are flat!" Click on the link to view/download it.
For more games and activities click on the link to visit Miss Mary's Victorian and Vintage archive.
If you're looking for some online Christmas games for your kiddo's to play as a computer center, I found a site that lists over 1,000.
Make sure you play any online games first to make sure that they are age and content-appropriate for your kiddo & educations.
For more ideas and FREEBIES, check out my winter Pinterest boards. They are themed and filled with lots of creative fun. I spend a lot of time searching the web for interesting and educational FREE stuff, so you don't have to. You can also click on this December link to pop on over to that section of TeachWithMe.
Once there, you'll find categories for the following: Christmas, Elves, Gingerbread, Ornaments, Reindeer, Santa, Snowmen, Snowflakes & Wreaths. Lots of these activities would also be terrific for your last day or Classroom Christmas party, particularly the ornament section if you're looking for a quick craft to do as a center.
That's it for today. I hope you found some "We're Winding Down" tips and FREEBIES for those last few days before you can collapse, rest, rejoice and get energized for next year! Feel free to PIN away.
"A good conscience is a continual Christmas." -Benjamin Franklin
1-2-3 Come Make A Name Ornament With Me
I'm not sure about your kiddos, but as the last day before vacation neared, I could sense the energy levels climbing. To help them stay focused, I always tried to do a few hands-on "craftivities" that my students would really enjoy, but also wanted to include standards to keep the administration content as well.
With that in mind, I designed the Keepsake Name Ornament packet. It's a quick, easy & fun Christmas ornament that helps reinforce your students' names, letter recognition, vowel identification, capitalization, graphing, counting and addition! Woo hoo!
This would be a wonderful center on the last day before vacation, or a special "craftivity" to do for your Christmas party day.
I've included upper as well as lowercase letter tiles that your students trim and glue to a strip of construction paper. I used red & green, but just one color looks nice too.
While children are at lunch or recess, laminate your students' completed projects and have a room helper cut them out, punch a hole at the top & add a yarn tie.
Gluing on a school photo makes them even more special, and even though the ornament spells their name, have them write their name and the date on the back.
For some math fun, I've included two point value charts, so your students can practice a bit of addition, by adding up the point value of their letters.
Use the chart with point values to 4, with younger students, and the chart with numbers to 26, for older students. Because their total will be large, have children figure out the place value of their name using this grand total.
There's an ornament worksheet to record their answer, along with other data, so that you can review consonants and vowels as well. Students can color this ornament, or simply run off on a variety of colors of copy paper.
Vowels are also reviewed, with a graphing extension. There's a graph for the total number of letters in your students' names too. As you can see, I've packed in all sorts of math extensions in this simple ornament "craftivity".
To add to the fun, I've included a "secret" coded Christmas message that you can challenge your students to solve. Students refer to the point value poster to figure out what the sentence says.
Make it a "speed" game, and see who can decode the message first. To save you time, I put two on a page for quick printing, and included an answer key. Click on the link to view/download the Keepsake Name Ornament activities.
Thanks for visiting today. As always, my December days fly by. I've got to get to the post office today or my family in Wisconsin, won't get their goodies in time for Christmas. Wishing you a stress-free day.
"May voices join with the multitude of the heavenly host to proclaim His glory. May hearts be filled with His everlasting song of joy and peace this Christmas season." -Unknown
1-2-3 Come Do Some Christmas Coin Activities With Me
Here is a quick, easy and fun game to help reinforce coins (penny, nickel, dime & quarter) that would be perfect for a December math activity, or your Christmas party day.
You can run off the Christmas tree on green construction paper and have students trim, or simply run off the template on white paper and have children color their tree.
Pass out a set of paper coins to each student. They color and cut them out, and then pick a partner, taking turns rolling a dice four times.
Their 1st roll equals how many penny ornaments they will glue to their tree, the 2nd roll is for nickels and so on.
I've included a poster for you to hang up for children to refer to. To practice more math, I've provided a worksheet extension for the game, where students fill in data.
There are several options for different levels of study. I've also included completed samples to help clarify things.
For more coin identification practice, there's also a "color the coins" worksheet. Color words are also reinforced.
One worksheet simply has students count the coins; another has them count each type of coin and then total them.
Click on the link to view/download the Cent-sational Tree Trimming packet.
If you'd like to see all of the FREE money activities I have on TeachWithMe, click on the link to pop on over to that section of my site. One of the things I think you may find particularly helpful, might be the coin anchor charts.
Thanks for visiting. Our refrigerator "died" Friday, so I have some major clean & toss chores to get to, before the new one arrives this afternoon. Wishing you a happy and productive day.
"Magic makes believers out of everyone, especially at Christmas." -Unknown
1-2-3 Come Do Some Gingerbread-Themed Writing With Me
Writing is a lot more fun for your students if you incorporate it with a theme that you're doing. Since gingerbread seems to be really popular, I decided to design a few writing activities involving this sweet December treat.
My students really enjoyed making class books. They are a quick, easy and fun writing prompt for them. Completed projects, were favorite books during free reading time.
For the Gingerbread On The Run class book, students complete the writing prompt and illustrate their page. Collect, collate and add the cover to make a sweet class book. There are 2 options for the student writing page.
This class book, is also an interesting and fun way to review action verbs as well as nouns. I've included a completed sample that you can use to help explain the lesson to your kiddos. Click on the link to view/download the Gingerbread on the Run class-made book.
While I was working on this activity, I thought it would be helpful to make some gingerbread-themed parts of speech anchor charts.
The posters include one for nouns, verbs, adjectives, pronouns and adverbs.
For more writing practice, I made up several simple descriptive writing worksheets, which basically help review the use of adjectives in a fun way.
I've included completed samples to share with your students, such as the one pictured, which asks them to use their 5 senses to write sentences about a gingerbread man.
Click on the link to view/download the Gingerbread Descriptive Writing Worksheets.
Finally, you can use the adorable gingerbread house craftivity, as a writing prompt (If I were a gingerbread cookie...) , or send it home, as a home-school connection for the entire family to take part in.
A note home is included in the packet, along with a "Merry Christmas From Our House To Yours" template. Children glue a family photo inside and have all of their family members sign it.
Completed projects make a sweet December bulletin board. Little ones, especially enjoy seeing a family photograph while they're at school.
Click on the link to view/download the Gingerbread House Writing Prompt Craftivity.
Thanks for visiting. The sun is shining and it's not too cold out, so it's time to take my poodle pup, Chloe, for a brisk walk. Wishing you a fun-filled day.
"Enthusiasm is contagious, so start an epidemic." -Unknown
1-2-3 Come Make An Adorable Keepsake Ornament With Me
Making fingerprint snowmen, is not my original idea. Several mail rings I follow were talking about them, so I Googled snowmen fingerprint ornaments and found a dozen or so examples, thus I don’t know who to give credit to. The idea is to paint the top of a child’s hand with white paint and press it on a clear plastic or blue glass ornament. They then turn their fingerprints into snowmen by adding details.
I know many teachers have 30+ students or teach 2 classes of Y5’s or K, so this could get a bit expensive, as well as tricky sending home something that could possibly break. I thought why not try this with paper to see how it would turn out and the results were darling, inexpensive and extremely easy for a 4-year-old to work on. You can jazz them up a bit by adding aluminum foil tops, flat-backed jewels and scrapbook paper hats! My hats are a triangle, square and oval shape, with rectangle brims, and the ornament is a circle, so you can have a mini-shape review and cover a report card standard. (Woo hoo!) To make this easier, I also painted only the 1st 3 fingers.
Here’s How:
- Make a circle template and run it off on blue construction paper.
- Have children cut out their circle ornament.
- Students write their name on the back.
- Glue a sheet of aluminum foil on cardstock.
- Make an ornament topper template out of cardstock from my master.
- Trace it on the aluminum foil card stock.
- Give each student a topper to cut out. You may want these pre-cut for younger children, or to expedite the project.
- Students glue the topper to their ornament.
- Hole punch the top and put a reinforcement hole over it.
- Add a yarn tie so they can hang their ornament on the tree.
- Allow children to choose 3 flat-backed jewels and have them stick them across the topper with glue dots.
- Paint students first 3 fingers (4 if they have a small hand) and the very top of their palm with white acrylic paint.
- I use metallic white because it gives an opalescent frosty glow.
Have students count to 5 before you lift up their fingers.- Set aside to dry. (Takes about 5-10 minutes.)
Pre-cut hat pieces. One sheet of scrapbook paper per color, will be enough for an entire class. - I chose red, black and green paper. You can’t really tell on the photo, but the paper is pin dot, striped, and printed.
- Children choose hats and glue them to their snowmen. (Review shapes with them as a mini-lesson.)
- Children use Flair markers to make eyes, noses, mouths, scarves, and buttons on their snowmen. (Markers: Orange, black, green, red, blue, pink, & purple)
- Just an FYI: Tell your students to use DIFFERENT colors for each snowman’s scarf, and that their eyes should be different than their nose, mouth & buttons or you’ll have some students using one color for everything.
- You might want to let students practice making a snowman on a sheet of scratch paper while their ornament is drying and doodle different designs while they wait, then choose which one they like best.
- Make an example to show them so you have a sample.
Click on the link to view/print the snowman fingerprint ornament pattern. 
So that parents will know that these snowmen are made from their child’s fingerprints, I also wrote a poem. One year we made a different fingerprint piece of art and one mom didn’t have a clue that it was her daughter’s prints until someone happened to mention it. “I loved it because she made it, now I love it even more!”
I put the color poem in DOC format so you can change the date in case you want to use it every year as an annual ornament activity. Click on the link to view/print the snowman fingerprint poem. Otherwise, there are two fill-in-the-blank options in the packet. One is in color, the other is in black and white, so your students can color it themselves.
If you still want to make the handprint idea into a gift, rather than just a paper keepsake. but are worried about the glass aspect of an ornament or want to keep the expense down, why not put their prints on a painted blue tin can and fill with peppermints or put their prints on a baby food jar and insert a tea light and tie a bow around the top, or make it into a picture frame and make the frames out of Popsicle sticks.
I've also made adorable banners by gluing a Popsicle stick to the top of a 4x6 piece of felt. The yarn hanger is glued under the Popsicle stick. These snowman prints would look darling on navy blue felt too. Once the paint has dried they'd be easy to paint. Hats & scarves can be dabbed on with Q-tips. These would look sweet suspended from a doorknob, making this a nice January craftivity when things aren't quite so hectic.
If you'd like to make a gift for grandma, ask mommy to donate a potholder. You can get them in pairs at The Dollar store if you can handle the cost. These prints would be adorable on those. The Dollar Store also sells hot pad coasters in pairs in navy, red and dark green. A Q-tip dabbed in white would add a nice little "blizzard" to round out the snow scene!
Thanks for visiting. I have a bit more shopping to do, so it's time to go warm up the car and brave the hustle bustle. Wishing you a cozy day filled with wonder.
"Do the thing you fear and the death of fear is certain." -Ralph Waldo Emerson
