I've decided to switch it up a bit here on my blog. Instead of a new blog post each week, I'll be adding on everything I do for the month of December here. Then I'll post everything we do in January on a new post, and so on. I had a few colleagues suggest that and I like this idea! Let me know what you think!
CHRISTMAS VILLAGE
My students really love playing and making up stories. I painted a few extra blocks we had and added props (Christmas village items from Dollarama) to turn this into a Christmas Village storytelling area. It was an instant hit!
WHERE DO WE LIVE?
Last month, we mailed post cards to our pen pals around the world and we started receiving some back!
HOLIDAY COOKIE SHOP
Our Holiday Cookie Shop is open for business! Come and stop by and grab a cookie or two!
I found these cookies a couple of years back at Target, but you can easily make your own using felt or foam!
You can find this Dramatic Centre in my Holiday Cookie Shop pack on TpT.
THE GINGERBREAD MAN STORY
This is one of my favourite stories for this time of year.
A few years back I made a Gingerbread Man felt board. Honestly, it's so easy to make! I have a whole tutorial on how I make these HERE if you'd like to read about it!
I also set up this Gingerbread Man Write the Room centre.
My students really like to Write Around the Room, and I change the activities every couple of weeks.
You can find this Write the Room pack here in my TpT store.
DECORATE A TREE USING LOOSE PARTS
When I found these large felt trees at Dollar Tree last weekend I knew they would be perfect for a provocation! I left out a bunch of loose parts and invited students to decorate them and take a photo of their creations.
NUMBER SENSE - MATH GAMES
We played a lot of math games focusing on Number Sense this week. I promise to do a full blog post during the Christmas Break all about the games I introduce and play with my students but here's a peek...
DON'T GET THE RED DOT
Choose a card and show that many on the 10-frame. Choose another card and either add or take away counters to show the number. BUT...don't get the red dot! You will have to clear your board and start again!
DOMINO PARKING LOT
Use the dominoes to fill the parking lot. Add the dots and place them in the correct spot.
Can you fill your board?
MATCH ME
Choose a card (10-frame, numeral, tally marks, etc.) and match it to the board.
STACK A TOWER
Can you stack the cubes to make a tower? Look closely at the number and build it!
ROLLING TO 12
This is a bit more challenging - take 2 dice and add them. Find the sum on your mat and cover it. Can you cover all of the numbers?
You can find all of these games (and SO MUCH more!) in my Number Sense pack on TpT.
ROLL-A-SANTA
I made this game to help students with subitizing (identifying numbers instantaneously - not by counting). It's a FREE download in my TpT store. I printed it on transparency paper and left it out at my light table but you can also set it up as a table top game.
DECORATE A TREE
My students have been loving all of the number sense games we have been playing over the past few weeks so I created this game. I found all of the Christmas loose parts at either the Dollar store or my own house.
GINGERBREAD PLAYDOUGH
I set out these Gingerbread mats at the Playdough Centre. Students can either decorate the gingerbread person or roll Playdough balls to fill the 10-frame with the correct amount (and add buttons to him also!).
BUTTON FUN AT THE LIGHT TABLE
I printed these 3 images on transparency paper and left them at the light table along with red, green and white buttons for students to create!
ALPHABET TRAINS
One of the literacy activities I left out this week was to have students match these picture cards to the trains by beginning sounds.
You can find the above activities in my new "Let's Play - Christmas" pack on TpT.
CHRISTMAS COOKIE "CRUNCH"
This game was such a hit! I made a bunch of Christmas "cookies" and wrote sight words on them. I also printed cookies that say "CRUNCH". Students reached in and chose a cookie. They read the sight word and kept the cookie as a point. If they chose the "CRUNCH" cookie they put all of their cookies back!
*I think the reason this game was such a hit was also because students LOVED that the cookies were in a Christmas tin!*
You can find this game in my TpT store if you are interested.
CHRISTMAS COOKIE CUTTER STUDENT GIFTS
I have been giving a variety of gifts to my students at Christmas over the years. This one is my favourite!
I bought Christmas cookie cutters at Michaels (you can also find something similar at Dollarama or Walmart).
I made a recipe page to go along with the cookie cutter - and personalized my name on top!
You can download these editable recipe pages by clicking below.
CHRISTMAS GIFTS
This year our students made these adorable (and easy!) gifts for their families.
We took their photo in front of the green screen using the Green Screen by Do Ink app.
They painted and glued together a craft stick frame and decorated it.
These large pine cones were donated by a local florist and they are perfect to make Christmas tree ornaments!
Of course we had the students make homemade wrapping paper (this year we stamped prints on tissue paper).
CHRISTMAS WORDS
I printed these Christmas pictures and had students practice sounding out the word and writing what they hear.
You can download these cards for FREE by clicking the picture below.
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