S'morenaments

We finally made it to the last week of school. I don't know about you, but the full moon and the excitement of Christmas is about to do in my kiddos! I think they will burst soon. I am thankful tomorrow is Friday and the last day before break. It couldn't have come soon enough!

I wanted to share with you the parent gift my kiddos made this year. I know its a bit late, but you can have it for next year! I have one kiddo who doesn't celebrate Christmas, so I wanted something that all the kiddos could make. We made S'morenaments! (I can't believe it but  my hubby came up with that!)

I think they turned out really cute. I used a large sheet of brown foamie paper and foamie marshmallows. I was super excited when I found these. I found them a while ago and have been trying to come up with a reason to buy them! I added the small sticker photo from the kiddos school pictures and make a s'more ornament. The tag says "Spread S'more Love!" And that was it! Super easy (and cheap!) I did use the special foamie glue this time and it does work :) Sorry the final picture is a bit blurry, camera issues that day. Not sure if it was the camera or the operator! 

Advent Calendar

What a busy and fun time of year! Currently in my classroom we are reading one of my favorite stories, The Gingerbread Man! Check out my post of gingerbread man activities here. I do many of the same things each year. I will add a few new ones this year and will post pics soon (saw a cute idea in the hallway and plan on stealing that idea!). 

Today, I want to share with you something I did with my two girls at home. We love activities and crafts in my house and this advent calendar was a great way to combine both. I searched a few ideas on pinterest and ending up combining  a few I found. 

To make the calendar I used the following:

24 clothespins

24 envelopes with tags (I found mine at Target in the Christmas tag aisle. There were 12 in each package and cost about $4 each)

Liquid glue

Glitter

Activities

I used my Cricut cutter to make the numbers and glued the numbers on each envelope. I did a pattern of green and red. My 6 year old is really into patterns right now! 

Next, I sat down with our December Calendar and picked the activities based on what we had going each night. So if we were really busy, I picked an easy activity for that night. 

Last, we made the glitter clothespins! I found a few links on Pinterest. One said to use double sided tape but I didn't like the results. I used good ol' Elmer's liquid glue. I bought green, red, sliver and gold glitter. We did our shaking in a shoebox lid to contain the glitter mess :) 

Here is my list of activities. Some of the items have links to Pinterest where I found the ideas/things to print. 

Happy Holidays!

Advent Calendar Ideas

1. buy a toy to donate

2. Make a paper plate wreath

3. Snowball fight with cottonballs

4. Read a Christmas Story

5. Pick stuffed animals to donate: Stuffed Animals for Emergencies is an organization that accepts gently used stuffed animals, small toys, books and blankets. 

6. Watch Frosty

7. Decorate Christmas cookies

8. Christmas tree footprint craft

9. Make Christmas card for a friend

10. Write letter to Santa

11. Color Christmas pictures-Grinch and Who Christmas tree

12. Christmas Tree bowling

13. Go to a friend's house

14. Decorate Christmas tree

15. Go see Santa

16 Paint nails red and green

17. Make a gingerbread book (I found mine on TpT. Sorry for some reason I forgot to pin it!)

18. Watch Mickey's Christmas Carol

19. make a Christmas craft

20. Drive around neighborhood to look at lights

21. Gingerbread houses

22. Make gingerbread man cookies (I use the Betty Crocker bag mix. Super easy!)

23. Snowmen milk jugs

24. Open special presents (pjs!)

Here are the links to the advent calendars I found:

http://www.pinterest.com/pin/94575660898791424/

http://www.pinterest.com/pin/94575660898833498/

I did keep a hand written copy (in cursive) on the fridge of our activities so I could check it and make sure I was prepared for the evenings activity! 

Good luck and have fun with your family this holiday season!!

. 

Ants in the Pants!

I don't know about you, but my kiddos get antsy through out the day! Sitting and listening and talking all day is tough work for a 4 year old. So I created a "Brain Break Box." When I notice the kiddos getting the wiggles, I pull out the box and away we go! I am ALWAYS amazed at how much more focused they are after a quick 5 minute movement activity. It's a great way to get gross motor in, crossing the mid-line and just some good ol' fashioned fun!

I used 2 cans, one marked "To Do" and one marked "Done." I put the activities on sticks and put all of the sticks in the "To Do" can. I also assembled the materials for all of the activities and keep those in the box as well. This makes it easy to grab and I'm not searching for items when the kiddos are already restless!

I searched on Pinterest for some ideas and added some of my own. Below is my list and pictures of my box.

Some activities are found here at my Pinterest board. 

1. The Big Push

2. Hand Pushes

3. Ball Walk

4. Sid the Sloth video is found here on my Pinterest Board.

5. Seasame Street Video is found here on  my Pinterest Board

6. 5, 4, 3, 2,1 -5 jumping jacks, 4 spins, 3 hops,2 skips and 1 walk around the room.

7. The Hokey Pokey

8. Find it fast-call out a number, shape, color

9. Simon Says

10. Dance with ribbons

11. Animal Movemets

12.Instruments with Music

13. Bean Bag Toss

14. Run in place for 10 seconds repeat. 

15. 5 jumping jacks-repeat 5X

I would love to hear your ideas for getting the wiggles out! Please share, so I can add to my box. 

It's Already October!

I can hardly believe that it is already October! I haven't been on this blog since school started up in August and I am sorry. The start of the year was CRAZY!! Four days into the new school year, I moved rooms all while teaching!! It was very stressful. Then I had to establish the routines all over again in the new space and now before I know it, its the 24th of October! I promise I will be better this year and back on track.

We started our Fall unit this past week. I love fall. It is my favorite season. 

The vocabulary focus for this unit is: red, green, yellow, orange, brown, rake, raking, leaf pile, trunk, branch, squirrel acorn, scarecrow, leaves and tree.

Last week we read "There was an Old Lady Who Swallowed Some Leaves." The kids just love this book! They think it is hysterical that she swallows all of those things! As a follow up lesson we did a sequencing page. We colored the objects by listening for directions. Then we glued the pictures in order.

To get the free printables click here

We also took a nature hike around the school. We went looking for tree trunks, leaves, branches etc. The kiddos just love it! Everyone gets a clipboard and has to color in the picture as we find it. I wish I could remember where I got this from, but I don't sorry!

The following day we reviewed the nature items we collected and made sensory jars. Oh how fun that was!! The kiddos were very excited. This was a language lesson. The focus was "I will put a ___________ in the jar." Each kiddo had to say what they wanted to put in the jar. I found the sensory jar idea on Pinterest. Find it on my board here.

To fill the jars put the nature items in first. Then add 1/3 cup vegetable oil and fill the rest with water colored yellow! 

At the writing center the next day, we drew pictures of the jars. 

Happy fall!

Iciscles

It is winter here in lovely Michigan and it is COLD!! In my classroom we have been talking about winter items and we read The Mitten. One of my fellow teachers is also teaching winter and had this wonderful idea about teaching icicles. She allowed me to take pictures and post about here!

First, she had the kiddos cut large triangles from foil. Then she had the kiddos add glitter for the shine! I loved how the icicles turned out. She used the icicles to decorate her bulletin board. 

Making gingerbread houses

I know this post is a few weeks late, but I left for the holiday break and forgot to email myself the pictures! Well at least you will have it for next year. 

For the end of our gingerbread unit, we made gingerbread houses. I LOVE this activity! To make the house you will need:
* small milk carton for each kiddo
* graham crackers
* glue gun
* frosting
* candies
* knife for each kiddo

I assembled all of the houses before I started the lesson. I find this is easiest when working with little ones. To start wash out the milk carton and let it dry. Then I glue the top closed using the hot glue gun. I don't know about you, but I love using my hot glue gun! It can do so much!!

After that step is finished, you move on the messy step! Break the graham crackers in half, glue one cracker onto each side of the milk carton. This will take 2 crackers per milk carton.

Next, break the graham crackers in quarters (you will end up with rectangles). Glue the rectangles on the top of the milk carton to create the roof.  I like a small overhang on my roof. Line up one side with the edge of the milk carton, the other side will overhang a bit and that is OK. 

The last step is to break smaller pieces to fit on the ends. There will be some overhang and that is OK. After the glue dries, I crumble the corners down. It won't be perfect, but it will get covered with frosting and candies so no worries!!

Now, on to the fun part! Decorate the house with frosting and yummy candies!! 

To send the houses home, I hot glued the houses to the plate and wrapped in a plastic bag. I attached a note that the houses were not edible! 

The Gingerbread Man

Run, Run as fast as you can! You can't catch me I'm the gingerbread man!

This is another of my favorite stories. My daughters and I still pretend to be the gingerbread man whenever we run (They are 5 and 3 so this is still fun. I might cry the day this stops being fun). I usually teach this story after Thanksgiving and before the Christmas unit. It is a good unit for between Thanksgiving and Christmas and I feel every child should know this story!

The vocabulary focus for this unit was verbs, verbs, verbs. I did have some nouns, but I really focused on the action words from the story. Here is my list:
old woman, old man, boy, gingerbread man, farmers, bear, wolf, fox, gingerbread house, cookie cutters, eat, bake, decorate, run, stir, roll, rest, and shout.

Here is the link to the vocab I used. It is on Google Drive. It does not have the characters, sorry.

Cookie cutter, bake, decorate and rest turned out to be the most difficult for my kiddos.

To kick of the unit, I hid the characters in pockets. Each kiddo pulled out a character and named it. Then we talked about (well tried to talk about) what story it could be. The gingerbread man kind of gave it away! Then we read the story and I set out the characters as they appeared in the story. I read the story twice this day. To make my puppets, I simply scanned the pages from the book. I really wanted the characters to look the same. I did use an old man and old woman from previous made set because there weren't any good pics in the book of the old man and old woman.

The next day the kiddos acted out the story! What fun! Everyone got a turn to be the gingerbread man and the fox. Now, in the version I read, the gingerbread man does not cross a river. 

The kiddos and I made gingerbread playdough. This is your basic playdough recipe with cinnamon, nutmeg and cloves added for scent and coloring. I'm sorry, I didn't measure just had fun shaking the ingredients in the bowl! The kiddos love to shake :) **Note you will  not need any food coloring for this recipe. 

The basic playdough recipe is 

1 cup flour                                        1 cup water
2 tsp. cream of tartar                         2 Tbsp. cooking oil
1/2 cup salt                                      food coloring
In heavy saucepan, mix dry ingredients.  Add water, oil and food coloring.  Cook 3 min. or until mixture pulls away from side of pan.  Knead slightly in hands when cool.  Put in a ziplock bag.

My favorite part of this lesson is of course making gingerbread man cookies!! This lesson I really focused on the verbs. Stir, roll, cut, bake, run away, decorate. In the morning we made the cookies. Then those naughty cookies ran away!! In each location the cookies left us a clue as to where to run next.
We used a bag recipe. Betty Crocker makes a good bag mix.
**Note: if you plan on rolling out the cookies to make gingerbread men, chill the dough for at least 20 minutes. It will roll so much nicer. Trust me. I always forget.

Here is an example of one of my clues:

Run, run as fast as you can you can't catch me I'm the gingerbread man! I ran to the teacher you see on Tuesdays and Thursdays. (this was their speech teacher.)

I had about 5 clues. We finally found the naughty cookies in the audiology room in the sound booth. I forgot to take pictures sorry!!

The next day we acted out the story again. Each kiddo pretending to be a different character. Then for the big grand finale, we went into another class and acted the story out for them! What fun. Again, I forgot to take pictures. Sorry, I was to busy being the narrator.

The characters in the version I read wear clothes and don't look anything like the real animals. So one day we sorted bears, wolves, foxes and cookies. I set out the character puppets and had  stack of pictures. Each kiddo took turns drawing a card and telling me what it was.
T: What is it?
S: It is a bear.

The language focus here was It.

Here is the link to the pictures I used. Let me know if there are any issues accessing the link. It is on Google Drive.

For our last big lesson we read "Gingerbread Baby" and focused on the house. All of my students wanted to call it a gingerbread man house! We really focused on just the gingerbread house. So of course we made gingerbread houses! In the next post, I will outline how we made these super easy, non-edible houses. I also remembered to take a ton of pictures!