Items filtered by date: November 2011

13 pages. An easy reader that reviews color and number words. Children read the sentence and practice writing the number and number word. They draw that many lights and color them the appropriate color.

13 pages. Students will enjoy cutting and gluing the matching pictures to their booklet as they help Santa get ready for his big night.

Have Your Students Make Them As Christmas Gifts, Or Give Them To Your Students As A Sweet Treat!

A crafty teacher shared her idea of making reindeer noses on one of the chat boards I enjoy. I thought it was really cute.

I've also seen it pinned on Pinterest, so I'm clueless of who to give credit to.   I've included a poem and given you my version here.

I think your students would have fun making a bag of chocolate reindeer noses as a gift for their parents or grandma and grandpa.  Keeping this in mind, I designed a poem-card to go with them, and a header they can color.

They are also easy enough for a teacher to whip together to give to an entire class on their last day before vacation, and make adorable party favors if your child has a December birthday.

Here's How:

• I thought that Whoppers would make the perfect size for a Reindeer's nose.
• I found the best deal for these malted milk balls at Big Lots.  The bag is only $6. My 39 oz. bag had 501 brown reindeer noses inside!
• Yes I counted them all, so you wouldn’t have to wonder. That lets you make 62 bags! (You need 8 brown noses to represent 8 of Santa’s reindeer!)

On Dasher, Dancer, Prancer, Vixen, Comet, Cupid, Donner, and Blitzen!

• You might want to share this idea with another teacher and cut your cost in ½ or make them with/for your students and send the rest as treats for your own child.
• I hit the Jackpot when I checked our Dollar Store looking for Rudolph’s red nose.  They had a bag of the same-size bubblegum that contained 44 pieces with only 4 color options inside!  (red, green, yellow and blue).
• I looked for bags that had a lot of red.  The 2 bags I purchased had 13 and 14 red pieces in them!

• Snack Baggies are also sold at The Dollar Store and make the perfect container.
• Run off my header, have students color it, and glue to a green strip of construction paper for pizzazz and you’re in business.
• You can staple the header to the Baggie or use Scotch tape.

• Have children press their thumb in a brown stamp pad to make a reindeer head.  Add antlers and facial details with crayons or markers. 
• Students write their names in an ABAB pattern with a green and red crayon and color the holly for that finishing touch!
• Children glue their completed picture on a sheet of red construction paper.

• Set up the ingredients as a center on a TV tray or small table.  Put the noses in two different bowls with plastic spoons.  Allow students to count 9 brown balls into their bag + 1 red one which will = 10 (I work with base 10 all year so this is perfect!).
• Students take their Baggie back to their workstation and may now eat 1 BROWN nose. 10 – 1 = 9 reindeer noses.  Encourage students to say the equations.
• STRESS that they can only eat 1 and that it can only be a brown nose.  It’s a nice way to review addition and subtraction and a great way to avoid begging and continuous questions of: “Can I please have one?” After all, it’s hard to be little and not tempted with a bowl of chocolate Whoppers!

Click on the link to view/download Reindeer Noses 

After they’ve finished their gift, have them continue with another math extension and visit meilistudios to figure out how old they are in Rudolph years!

Thank you for visiting today.  Feel free to PIN anything you think others may find worthwhile.

"If you don't like the road you're walking on, start paving another one!" -Dolly Parton

Cylinder Santa Windsock: A Great Keepsake for Christmas!

The cylinder is one of the tricky 3-D shapes for my Y5’s to grasp, so I try to do things with cans and toilet paper rolls.

We also make at least one windsock a month and December is the perfect time to make one that will become a treasured keepsake.

Cylinder Santa is not that difficult, and reviews a variety of flat shapes as well as brings home the vocabulary word cylinder!

Here’s How:

• Depending on the ethnicity of your students, choose a facial color construction paper for Santa’s face.
• This will be the cylinder.
• I use the smaller sheets of construction paper and glued them together so that my paper is 21 inches long.

• Run off my templates on a duplo.
• Click on the link to view/print the Cylinder Santa Handprint Windsock patterns OR...
• Click on this link to print the Cylinder Santa handprint windsock patterns, pictures and this article's directions.  Cylinder Santa Handprint Windsock "Stuff"
• Cut Santa’s brim strips on a paper cutter.
• To cut down on time, and because my students are younger (this is a lot of cutting) I have the holly leaves, nose, mouth, and eyes pre-cut.

• A room helper has also traced and cut their hands the day before.  She traces once, and then cuts 4 hands at a time, then paperclips them together.
• Students cut out their hat and circle pom pom.
• They fold the hat down and glue their circle pom pom to the point.

• Teachers always want to know why my cotton fur always looks so real and my students don’t glue the whole cotton ball on their artwork, even when they are told not to.
• It’s because I have them pre-rip the balls apart ahead of time, making it a contest to see who can make the nicest pile of ripped up cotton FLUFF!
• Since I’ve been doing that, their piles no longer resemble a cotton ball, their fingers get a wonderful fine motor work out, and their artwork from Santa’s cap to adorable sheep, look very realistic!

• Put a dollop of tacky glue on a small paper plate. Students use their index finger or a Q-tip to rub glue over their circle pom pom and then pinch pieces of fluff and stick the cotton pieces to the sticky surface.
• Have them repeat the process for Santa’s brim.
• I have the pre-cut pieces lying out at a table.  Once children have completed the fur step, they pick up the appropriate pieces and return to their workspace and glue Santa’s face on.

• Remember to model how to do this before your students make their own Santa windsock.  You will then have a sample to hang up in front of the class for them to refer to.
• When children are gluing on santa’s mustache remind them not to glue down the ends so that they can fold them forward giving a 3-D effect.
• Younger students may need help fanning out their handprints as they glue on Santa’s beard under his smiling lips.

Special Extra's:

• Students come up to the "Trimmings" center to work one-on-one with me.
• At this time, I let them rub their pointer finger in dry pink rouge powder so they can give their Santa some cheeks. Copper and bronze also look nice.
• I’ve experimented with other things, and like this even better than chalk. My students think this is “way cool” especially the girls.

• I use double-sided green pin-dot scrapbook paper for the holly leaves.  One side is darker than the other and gives their Santa just a bit more pizzazz than plain construction paper.
• Children choose two red sequins and a ruby flat-backed rhinestone for the 3^rd berry. They adhere them in a cluster in the center of the leaves with glue dots.
• I make veins on the leaves with Elmer’s glue and they sprinkle green glitter over the top.

• Set aside to dry and then using a glue stick, rub a stripe of glue down one side of their paper and roll their Santa into a cylinder.
• Staple top and bottom for durability.
• Punch a hole on either side, suspend with yarn, and hang from the ceiling.

• The Santa Cylinder Windsocks look darling running along the top of a wall in the hallway.
• A black Ellison die-cut caption can read:  “Here’s Ho Ho Hoping you have a very Merry Christmas!  Better behave; our Santa’s are watching!”

Do you have a tip you can share of how you teach the cylinder shape or a fun Christmas craft?  I'd enjoy hearing from you! diane@teachwithme.com

Be sure to pop back tomorrow and I'll share a fun reindeer puppet that you can make out of a lunch bag!

11 pages. A fun way to review some basic shapes as well as the 3-D cylinder shape. Santa's hand print beard makes this an adorable keepsake!

Another Quick, and Easy Keepsake!  This Is A Fun Center Too.

I do all sorts of fingerprint activities with my Y5’s. Among other things, it’s a great marker for 10-frames and a fun way for students to show an ABAB pattern.

Stamp pad ink is easily cleaned off an index finger with a sanitary wipe and I can set up a center on a TV tray.

Fingerprints pressed on art projects become keepsakes. Keeping that in mind, I try to design a few quick and easy ornaments that also involve some sort of standard.

The fingerprint tree involves a triangle + the concept of +1 more in each of the 4 rows, so my Y5’s come out with 10 green prints.  We work with base 10 though December so this is perfect.  To finish it off, they add a brown print for the trunk.

If you want your tree to be fuller, you can simply let your students do as many prints as they can fit as seen in the other sample.

Here's How:

Run off copies of the patterns.  The large trees are run off on emerald green construction paper, the smaller one on white construction paper.  This makes things nice and stiff.

You might not be able to tell on the photo, but I found some pale green marbled copy paper, which added a bit more pizzazz to my tree, so I used that.

I find that children are more coordinated using “Mr. Pointer”, but that their “thumb” often leaves a better -fatter” print, especially if you’re doing this one-on-one with a young child.

Make sure you remind them to press their finger on to the stamp pad every time, so they have enough ink to make a nice print.

Run off copies of the poem and trim them.  Students glue them on the bottom of the back of their trees.  A red heart sticker above the poem adds pizzazz.

Using a green crayon, have students sign their name and the year.   Teacher punches a hole at the top, adds a reinforcement circle and yarn tie.  A sparkly star at the top on both sides is also a nice accent.

Click on the link to view/print the Fingerprint Christmas tree patterns. If you'd like photo's + the article that has directions click on this link. Fingerprint Christmas tree "Stuff"

Let's Decorate:

Little ones will often want to “decorate” their trees.  They usually get carried away and you can’t see their prints any more, but they do look cute decorated.

What you can do, if you have the time, is let them make two.  Put a dollop of a variety of colors of paint on small paper plates.

Rest a Q-tip for each color on the plate. Instruct students to dab a tiny dot on their trees.  Demonstrating this, and having a completed sample is the only way to go.

They can also dab on tiny dots of Elmer’s glue and then put on a sequin, or sprinkle with one color of glitter.

It’s a good idea to have an adult supervising these stations, as most little ones have so much fun decorating, they don’t know when to stop.

I hope you have a “tree-mendous” time with your little one(s) making memories

Do you have a fun ornament that you make?  I'd enjoy hearing from you! diane@teachwithme.com  Be sure to pop in tomorrow and make a Keepsake Santa Handprint Windsock!

8 pages. A terrific way to review the concept of +1 more and counting to 10 all the while producing a lovely keepsake ornament! Includes a poem for the back.

Build A Tree!

I like to dream up games that double as art projects and review report card standards so that I’m multi-tasking during busy December days.  The Strip Tree Dice Game fits the bill.

Here’s How To Make It:

• Run off the strips on green construction paper and cut on a paper cutter.
• One side will make one tree the other another tree.

• You can laminate the construction paper before you cut the pieces out and make this an in-class game you use every year, or skip the lamination, and simply have it as a game your students can take home.

• This makes a fun activity for the day before vacation or for your class party day.
• If you want to do it now, it also makes a lovely December bulletin board! Simply staple them to a black background with the header: "Tree-mendous work!"


• As a game, students can play with a partner.
• I like to play with large foam dice.  They don’t make any noise and they stay on the tables.

• If you don’t want the students to re-use the pieces as a game, and you want to turn it into a lovely art project, have students glue the pieces down as they roll the dice.
• I use a star punch to expedite cutting out this piece.
• Make sure you remind students to put the glue on the side with the NUMBER on it.

• A royal blue construction paper background looks awesome.
• Give students a dollop of white paint and a Q-tip and they can dab on a flurrie of flakes to add a bit more pizzazz.

• So that their tree turns out with the appropriate proportions, students must decide to build it from the top down or the bottom up depending on what number they roll first.  i.e. if they roll a 1 they will start from the top and go down.

• They glue the star first and then they must roll 2 more 1’s to be able to glue the other two small green pieces down.
• If they roll a 6 they will start from the bottom and go up.  They would start with the brown trunk and then need to roll another 6 to put the longest green #6 strip down after that.

• If they roll anything else they must skip their turn until they roll one of those numbers.
• After they roll all three 1’s then they must roll a 2 then a 3 and so on.
• When they roll their 2nd 6 and start from the bottom, they must then roll a 5, 4, 3 and so on.

• Children glue their red heart on last and write their name on it.
• Demonstrate how to play the game by showing students an example of both top down and bottom up examples so that they understand.

• Have a completed sample so that they can see the shortest to longest pattern.
• Point out that there should be a space in between each rectangle.

• Review the shapes with your students.  How many rectangles are there?  Did they count the big blue one? How many squares?  What other shapes do they see? 
• Click on the link to view/print the Christmas Tree Dice Game