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!