Sunday Rewind - Tis The Season

Yes Tis The Season – the season of exhaustion joy when the littles are full of anticipation of the red suited gentleman visiting them.  They are sure they have been “good” this year.

I try to limit myself to one art project each week but this time of the year there are sooooo many cute projects.  We started off this season of celebration by making a count down Santa.  Each day the kids can add a cotton ball as a type of advent calendar.  They were adorable.  This was the perfect lead in to our writing letters to Santa.

I work to make this a learning experience not just a lengthy list of gadgets, devices, and tiny bits of plastic that our kiddos are hoping Santa will leave under their tree.  In the letters, the kids introduce themselves, ask Santa a few questions, thank Santa for the gifts from last year, request a gift for this year, warn Santa about any potential problems at their houses, and tell him what they are doing for him.

I believe gratitude has to be taught, modeled, and reinforced throughout the year.  I am always a little shocked surprised at the number of children that can’t remember what they received for Christmas the year before.

We spent a week writing letters to Santa. My teaching partner had shared this wonderful writing project from Jessica Meacham’s blog.  You can read her original post here. We both loved it so much we have incorporated it into our December writing. 

The letters were darling and had a depth that letters in the past were lacking.

We even learned how to address an envelope.

Now that our letters are off to the North Pole, we can work on making a few fun Christmas projects.

One of my favorites is this green construction paper wreath.  It is beautiful in its simplicity.

We are also making a Rudolf with an “I like” pattern poem writing to go along with it.

I like

I like……..

I like …….

I like……..

I like……..

I like……..

But I don’t like…….

The poem can be seasonal

and related to the winter

holidays or make it more

general.

Together, they make a great bulletin board display.

Our final project will be a gift to our parents.  Each student will make a Santa ornament.  This year I went with plastic fillable ornaments instead of the class ones.  Nothing makes me more nervous than glass balls in the hands of 6 year olds so I switched to plastic this year. 

The filling is red construction paper strips that the kids wrap around a pencil and then stuff into the ornament.  The belt is self stick felt.  The kids paint on the belt with gold sparkle paint. 

I love keepsake ornaments and I always smile as I decorate my own tree and see the many ornaments  that I have received from my own children, friends, colleagues, and former students. The mister and I do a lot of "Do you remember when...?" 

What special things are you doing in your classrooms this month?

Tis the Season - I wish for you a season full of joy, gratitude, and blessings.

~Clara @ Teaching 365

Sunday Rewind - Teacher Appreciation Week and Parent Volunteers

This past month we had Teacher Appreciation Week at our school and my parents outdid themselves. Let's see --- Starbucks deliveries, Chipotle lunch, a banner decorating the front of the outside of my classroom, flowers, and a huge stash of gift cards to my favorite places. I have the most creative crew of parents this year.  The gift cards were tucked into a grapevine wreath.  What teacher doesn't love a few gift cards. The kids also brought in cute things that teachers love - Ticonderoga pencils and flowers. My favorites were the hand drawn cards where the kids assured me that I am the BEST.TEACHER.EVER.  At least until they get their awesome 2nd grade teachers.

Now it's my turn to show my appreciation to my parents for all of their hard work volunteering in my classroom this year.  I am blessed with a huge group of volunteers - 14!!! Yep 14!  They work with small groups of kids and prep mounds of materials for me - making copies, cutting out laminating, collating and stapling little decodable books.  You get the idea. Last year I made homemade salt scrub for my volunteers.  This year I think I will bake some yummy Peanut Butter Blossom cookies with Hershey's kisses on top. I found a cute parent volunteer tag here Parent Volunteer Gift Tag from The Teacher Wife.

Just about perfect to add to the cookie bags. 

Peanut Butter Blossom Cookies - You can find the recipe on the back of a large bag of Hershey's Kisses.

How do you honor your parent volunteers?  I would love to hear your ideas.


~ Clara at Teaching 365

Sunflowers and Ladybugs in First Grade

Christmas Fun

The last few weeks have been filled with first grade fun.  We made several  holiday crafts including a rudolph, a wreath, and a dancing Santa.  The kids had so much fun.  And... we still had lots of time for practicing our reading skills and math facts.

We made Santa ornaments for our parent Christmas gifts.  I had seen the project floating around Pinterest and decided to take the plunge.  The kids loved them and they turned out so cute.  The only downside was using glass ornaments.  We had a few breaks.  Next year I will try to find some plastic ones that won't be so fragile.

Here are some pictures of a few of our other holiday activities:

We decorated Christmas trees.  The kids made them 24 different ways and they were all adorable.Go Niners.

 We wrote letters to Santa and the first graders did a great job with their letter writing.  I made copies to share with their parents before sending them off to Santa.  Later in the month Elves visited our classroom and hand delivered Santa's replies to their requests.  Gotta love those middle school language arts teachers that are willing to help with a little holiday magic.

When the new year begins, it is back to Common Core, a new science unit on Weather, lots of phonics and reading practice, and telling time and graphing in Math.  We are working with  new pacing guides for both language arts and math.

Wishing everyone a very Happy New Year full of learning and first grade fun.

~ Clara

First Grade Sunflowers and Ladybugs