Reindeer games!

It's the last week before Christmas!!! My survival strategy this week is to focus on REINDEER. I started with a schema chart on this AMAZING reindeer that my hubby made me.

Isn't he just so fat and cute?!

I read about schema charts {HERE} and loved the idea! The basic concept is that you have a place for students' schemas (what they think they know about a topic). As you research the topic, you add new learning. If something a child thought turns out to be wrong, you move it under misconceptions. This helps kids see that learning is an ever-evolving process of adding to and changing what we know. For reindeer, I added a special section of things only Santa's reindeer can do  =)  By the way, we worked on this chart all week, so it's definitely more than a 1 day kind of thing.

There aren't a lot of reindeer non-fiction books, but I did find some good websites. I compiled the websites into this powerpoint...feel free to use, change it, or ignore it!

Click {HERE} for the PPT

I also found this video. HILARIOUS!!!!!! If you do nothing else with this blog, WATCH THIS VIDEO!!!! You will NOT regret it!



To add a fiction-twist to this, we are reading one of my ALL-TIME favorite chapter books this week: Reindeer DO Wear Striped Underwear. The kids are hooked from the title, and I use this book to predict what's going to happen based on the chapter titles.

Another favorite fiction book about reindeer is Who'll Pull Santa's Sleigh Tonight? It's similar to Reindeer DO Wear Striped Underwear so we'll compare and contrast the 2 books.

Finally, I'm going to try my first directed drawing this week! I've been seeing this idea pop up on different blogs, and this one about reindeers is too perfect not to try! Isn't this guy a cutie?

Click {HERE} to learn more!

Oh, I can't forget the reindeer pokey!

You put your antlers in

You take you antlers out

You put your antlers in

And you shake them all about!

You do the reindeer pokey and you turn yourself around.

That's what it's all about!

Repeat with hooves, red nose, fluffy tail (that always gets kids laughing), and reindeer body.

So those are our reindeer games and the key to my Christmas sanity!

Fa La La La Link Up: Holiday Freebies!

Teaching in December is NOT for the faint of heart! However, Primary Powers is making the week before the holidays a little easier with this FABULOUS freebie swap! Check it out if you need some activities to get you through the next week.

It's time to sequence!!! We've been reading holiday stories and putting them in order. Here are my favorite holiday books to sequence:

 

 

 

Here's our response to There was an Old Lady who Swallowed a Bell

 

And here's the TPT freebie for the above craft

 

I also made a Christmas freebie to help my kids with ten frames. It focuses on numbers in the teens.

Click {HERE} to grab this freebie

In un-Freebie news...

My awesome team has been keeping our kids focused by doing a unit on holidays around the world. Each teacher picked a country with a special holiday tradition. The kindergarten classes rotate to a different teacher each morning and learn about that country. They fill out an informational book and make a craft.


They made a suit case to take with them on their trip...

 

...and they fill it with these cute crafts that they make for each country!

 

Then they practice their map skills by finding the country on the map.

Here's the TPT pack we used
Not a freebie, but super cute!

 

 

And finally...

 

My kids won the canned food drive! We replenished local food banks AND won an ice-cream sundae party (Let's not get too nit-picky over which one of those reasons was the main motivator...). Yippee!!

 

They even made us a banner!

 

Happy Holidays!!!!  

A Christmas Conversation Linky

The Inspired Apple has a fun new linky all about Christmas traditions!! This is just the de-stresser I need while getting ready for Christmas. That, and the birthday cake milkshake that my wonderful hubby is bringing me from Zaxby's. Mmm...what a perfect combination for a perfect evening  =)