Merry Christmas Everyone!
I wish you all a very Merry Christmas, and since it is Christmas, I will share an excerpt from my favorite Christmas book. I have made it somewhat of my own personal tradition to read this story every year at Christmas time to anyone who will listen, and I especially love to read the story to children!
“And I thought about the Angel of the Lord–Gladys, with her skinny legs and her dirty sneakers sticking out from under her robe, yelling at all of us, everywhere: ” Hey! Unto you a child is born!” –The Best Christmas Pageant Ever by Barbara Robinson
I hope you will enjoy this story, too!
How Can You Use Your Spare String of Christmas Lights?
You can easily find a string of Christmas lights at this time of year. One year my mentor gave me the idea to put a string of lights around a bulletin board with this clever title: See Your Name in Lights. Post any type of student work and ta-da…a stellar bulletin board. The great thing about this title is that you can leave the bulletin board up after Christmas since it doesn’t actually refer to the season or to a holiday. It always makes me sad to put so much work into a bulletin board for Christmas, and then the holiday is over since we are only in school about two weeks out of December. At this particular school we didn’t have any actual bulletin boards, so this isn’t as artsy as one I have made in the past. We had to staple/push pin things into the drywall (shhh don’t tell), and the drywall doesn’t hold much. For example, you could staple little sunglasses into the wall to resemble Hollywood stars and use metallic silver border to make the lights reflect like a real sign.
Edible and VERY Cute Indian Village
Well, I have just dirtied up just about every dish in the kitchen and had fun doing so…thanks to an image I saw on pinterest! I found this recipe at Christie’s blog for making teepee cone cupcakes, and decided to try it. I am bringing it over to my friend’s dinner tomorrow. I am hoping the kids will love them. I didn’t do this for anything school related, however, if you are studying Indians and pilgrims, you could have the cupcake cones ready made for the students to decorate. The only things I did differently than the recipe at Christie’s blog is I used a large foil roaster pan instead, and I iced the bottom of the cones in addition to using the chocolate. I couldn’t find leaf sprinkles at Wal-mart or Hobby Lobby, so I sifted through some colored ones I had and took out the pink and blue (I know ridiculous!). Sadly, the stocker at Wal-mart told me that they had replaced the leaf sprinkles with Christmas sprinkles–and to think Thanksgiving isn’t even officially here!
Another Festive Winter Christmas Door!
My colleague is still creating envy among the ranks and giving himself more to do. Here is yet another fabulous Christmas or winter door. The paper is a little wrinkly at the top but he still created a very handsome little snowman :). Sorry, I know the picture isn’t the best quality.
Did You Know Peppermint Candies Grow?
This is too cute not to try!!! I learned that peppermints grow from a very talented kindergarten teacher. Every Christmas season, she has her students plant peppermints in a cup of dirt. Students put glitter in the dirt for fertilizer and then just wait. In a few days, a small candy cane has emerged “growing in the cup”. In another few days, a candy cane of larger stature has “grown”. Children are oh so excited that their peppermint grew to such a large stature! Of course behind the scenes, their teacher is placing a small candy cane in the cup when the children have gone for the day, and then replacing the small candy cane with a larger candy cane. This all for the amazement and wonder in children’s eyes that comes from the magic of Christmas.
Try These Compelling Fall Pumpkin Activities…
I so look forward to a crisp fall day after the humid triple digit temperatures we have had in the south. I am already wanting to hang my fall wreath on the door! Maybe it will hasten fall weather. 🙂 With the fall weather I always think of this pumpkin unit I taught with my precious third graders in which the students all did math investigations with pumpkins. The following are pictures of the activities we did with the unit. I also made the lessons available on Teachers Pay Teachers. I added one lesson to it –pumpkin lines– to make it a full week unit. We measured pumpkin’s weight, circumference, height, and counted the seeds (eeew so messy, but fun!) Take a look below.
Body Benchmarks: Inch Thumbs
Pumpkin Height
Doing Pumpkin Calculations from "Pumpkin Patch Math Investigations"
Yuck!
Counting seeds
Making Arrays to Count Pumpkin Seeds
Pumpkin Seed Arrays
Total Counted Seeds from One Pumpkin
A Trick to Get Your Students to Line Up Quietly
I have personally witnessed two teachers use this in their classes and it works exceptionally well. The novelty will wear off after time, but it works well for students at this point in the year when summer break and friends are all that is on children’s minds.
- Buy a feather boa.
- Tell your students to put their heads down on their desks and close their eyes.
- Tell them when you pass by and touch them with the feather boa they can line up.
This seems to have a magical effect because feathers are quiet and those who are in line are in suspense waiting to see who will be feathered next.
Flip Flops…Spring Bulletin Board Idea
I happened across this bulletin board when I visited another school for professional development. I couldn’t resist snapping a picture of it because of the clever flip flops that the children made. They wrote simple sentences on them, however they would make nice places to write a published piece of short poetry about summer or spring time.
Too Many Papers Collecting On Your Desk? Try This
In the busy school day, papers can easily be placed haphazardly on your desk and other surfaces. To help keep papers organized, make files for each topic you teach. If you run off extra copies instead of throwing them away, keep the extras in your files. You will be able to use them for students who need extra practice, to lend to another teacher, and to use next year. Making a file for each month when the year starts will allow you to place seasonal worksheets, ideas, or bulletin board supplies in an easy to find location. If you happen to find a Valentine’s Day activity in November, you can file it in your February file and easily find it when the occasion approaches. Also, create a binder for professional development handouts, newsletters, and memos so you may easily refer to them when needed. Keep student work separated in paper trays by subject or class and immediately clip them together or put them in a folder before removing them to keep them from getting mixed up. In order to maintain organization of paper flow, make sure to set up your file system before the school year begins so that each paper will have a place. If the school year begins without a filing system, you are most likely not going to take the time to create one in the midst of the flurry of school activities, and your paper piles will rival Mt. Everest.
Do You Need a Creative Idea for a February Bulletin Board?
- This is a picture of a bulletin board used for displaying student work of a volume activity. The candy box has brown snap cubes in it which were used to represent chocolate pieces. Students built their own “candy box” with grid paper and measured its volume with snap cubes. The nets below the red heart display are “candy boxes” students built. They measured the volume using snap cubes. They wrote the answer in cubic units on the back of their box. While students are passing by, they can look at the nets and figure out the volume. There is an answer key beside the boxes so students can check their work.
Valentine Volume - Interactive
- Bulletin Board
