It's nearly Christmas!!! The countdown is on!
November 29-December 3, 2021
Our students are so very excited for all things Santa that we wanted to start the new month by reflecting on the true meaning of Christmas. We created this large class Advent calendar! Each day we will remove a "door" (number) and try the challenge underneath. What I like about this is that some challenges extend to the families so students can try it at home!
I just added this to my December Religion pack so if you already own that please go back and re-download (I also added a few other fun activities/printables/lessons).
We will be starting with Measurement in math. Our focus in Term 1 is only on length and height (which is actually so much fun to teach!). I know it's probably one of the harder units for the students but we make our activities hands-on so they are all eager to try!
We start by using our names to discuss longer/shorter.
We build a co-created rules for measurement chart and refer to it often during the week. I like to use my hands to show students where to start and stop.
This is one of the activities we start off with in small groups - using the pre-made Unifix cube strips (or you can use real ones) to measure zoo animals. I also like to leave out a basket of plastic animals and various measurement tools and have students try it on their own.
For those students that need a little extra practise we will use these cards which already show how each item is measured (students have to count to find out answer) but I like these because we can reinforce our 4 measurement rules.
You can read more about how I teach measurement and download your 1-week lesson plans for FREE by clicking HERE.
We will also be playing this fun game (all month long LOL!) - Christmas Cookie CRUNCH!
Reach into the tin and pull out a cookie. Read the word - get a point! But if you get the CRUNCH cookie you have to put all of your cookies back!
Here are a couple of provocations I set up for this week!
I thought the students would be interested in learning about magnets.
Who doesn't love Christmas time!?!? Let's tell a Christmas story on this play mat (which is just a large piece of white felt I bought at Michaels years ago). I painted extra blocks with acrylic paint to resemble houses. And the plastic Christmas village pieces are from Dollarama a few years back.
You can download my weekly plans for FREE by clicking the picture below.
December 6-10, 2021
We are in full Christmas mode in the classroom!
With only a couple of weeks left before the holidays, we are finishing our Christmas presents to our families (shhhh....pictures coming soon!) and wrapping up a few more small units in math. This week it's all about number lines!
I love teaching number lines because the activities are very hands on.
We will start by building a large class number line together then work on rebuilding it in small groups (you can even print these one per student to make).
A fun game to play is guess my number!
My students love the end of the day because I usually set aside 15-20 minutes to play a game, read a book, or do a fun activity. I made this Guess What? Christmas game over the weekend to get ready for Christmas!
I project the slide on my interactive whiteboard and read the clues.
Then I slide the bar to reveal the answer!
Here's another favourite we play throughout the year - I just switch the theme - this one is all about Santa! It's called Find It! Santa -> you hide the Santa picture behind one card, students choose a card and read it, then reveal what's behind! If they find Santa they win!
*These packs are EDITABLE and also come with ready-made cards including 30 sight words and number cards to 10 in a variety of ways (numerals, tally marks, dice, etc.)*
This will take us a couple of days to do as there are SOOOOOO many activities included! I can't wait!
We made Christmas wrapping paper to wrap our presents for our family!
We have been learning how to draw pictures using simple shapes over the past few months. We practiced drawing simple Christmas pictures (even students tried!) and wrote a simple sentence using our sentence strips to help us.
You can find these sentence strips in my "I Can Write #1" pack in my TpT store. I like to leave these out at my Writing Centre and in each table top bin.
You can download my weekly plans for FREE by clicking the picture below.
December 13-17, 2021
It's the LAST WEEK OF SCHOOL before the Winter Break! WHOOOO HOOOOO!
We plan on making this week so much fun!
Our focus in religion is on celebrating the birth of Baby Jesus. We will be reading more stories about Christmas and completing our own Nativity book to take home and retell to our families.
You can find so many activities/lessons/printables in my December Religion pack if you are looking for things to do to celebrate Christmas.
We will be focusing on list writing again (it's just the perfect time of year for that!) - I am bringing in a bunch of toy flyers and having students write their favourite toys on a list. They can draw or cut/paste the pictures beside the words they write.
All of my writing activities come from my "I Can Write!" packs.
In math we are started a new mini-unit all about Comparing Sets. Last week we learned about number lines so this is the perfect compliment to that unit!
We will start by learning new vocabulary with the help of these posters (there are 9 different vocabulary posters included!).
We will start the week using numbers to 5 -> which sets are MORE (or greater) than 5 and which are LESS than 5.
Students will partner up and play flip it, build it and compare.
We will roll the die and build sets that are LESS than and GREATER than the number we rolled.
You can download my weekly plans for FREE by clicking the picture below.
Wishing everyone a very happy holiday break and see you back in 2022!
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