Book Character Parade

On Halloween we had a "Book Character Parade." The students could dress up as their favorite character and show their costume and book off for their fellow students.

 

Mother's Day Artwork

As gifts to their mothers, the students painted ceramic wall tiles with their handprint and polka-dots. I then added a ribbon on the back with hot glue.

Tagxedo: Shaped Word Clouds

While searching for something else online, I came across a site called Tagxedo. Tagxedo is similar to Wordle except that you can choose what shape you want your word cloud to be displayed in along with the colors. I can see so many possibilities for this with my first graders. They could use the word clouds as graphic organizers to brainstorm ideas in a fun and exciting way. They could type adjectives to describe the various shapes such as the animals. They could use the word clouds to create gifts for their families at various holidays such as Christmas, Mother's Day, and Father's Day. They could use them to create beautiful affirmations as a part of Capturing Kids' Hearts. They could use the United States template to list historical characters. So many different things...

Here are two examples from Tagxedo that I created by copying in the URL to Bishop's Blackboard.

 

Holidays Around the World: Germany

As a part of our unit on holidays around the world, we read and then sang "O Christmas Tree" with the book version by Debbie Trafton O'Neal and read The Legend of the Christmas Tree by Pat Matuszak. We discussed the how the tradition of the Christmas tree began and how the tradition of using candles at Christmas time began. The students then created their own tree out of hearts (we reviewed number patterns as we created them - the numbers decreased by one with each layer). The students then added a heart and yellow hole punches to decorate their tree. They then drew lines under the yellow hole punches to turn them into candles to symbolizes that candles were once placed on Christmas trees in Germany.

My Top Ten Christmas Ideas!!!

Since a large number of my "followers" are fellow teachers and because I know teachers like to get ahead, I thought I would post a few of my favorite Christmas ideas that we have done in my class in one place. You can also use the search feature on the side to find additional ideas. Click on the links below to see pictures and detailed descriptions of the lessons.

1. Christmas Tree Doubles - Dot paint ornaments on paper Christmas trees to practice addition.
2. Stockings Descriptive Writing - Send home paper stockings for students to decorate however they wish. Students will write about their stockings in class and then hang them on the class fireplace.
3. Better to Give Than to Receive - Read Auntie Claus by Elise Primavera to learn about character traits.
4. Affirmation Tree - Display a large tree inside or outside of the classroom with blank ornaments. The students write affirmations to one another and add to the tree.
5. Santa Study - Research, compare, and contrast the role of Santa Claus around the world including his name, appearance, transportation, etc.
6. Polar Express Day - Wear pajamas, read the story, drink hot chocolate...enjoy!
7. Classroom Christmas Tree with Book Covers - Print out pictures of your students' favorite books and laminate. Hot glue an ornament hook on and the students can add them to the tree.
8. Christmas Story Maps - Read Too Many Tamales by Gary Soto and Merry Christmas Strega Nona by Tomie dePaola to discuss the different elements of a story. Create story maps for both stories and then create a Double Bubble Map or Venn Diagram to compare the stories.
9. The Snowman - Read The Snowman by Raymond Briggs or watch the movie (great for the day before Christmas break). Have the students create their own snowman out of construction paper. These are great to leave hanging in the hallway as a transition to January.
10. Fact Family Wreaths - Have the students create wreaths from paper pattern blocks. You can download the wreath pattern from PreKinders. You can download the recording sheet that I made to go along with the wreath pattern at my TPT store for FREE. You can download the printable pattern blocks here.