Elves

Our district went to school through December 22, so we were desperate for fun and engaging activities to keep our kiddos occupied this week. One lesson I did was on Elf Day. (By assigning a Christmas symbol to each day it narrowed down the crazy a teensy bit, I think). We read Elf Memoirs by Devin Scillian and Elf Elementary by Edward Miller. We talked about some of the Christmas traditions mentioned in the book and I led them to a discussion about Christmas cards. ("It's sooo boring when we have to get our picture taken for our card.") Then each kiddo got to choose a card and someone in their life they'd like to send it to. We then used our sight words to write a sentence in the card, and signed our name using our best handwriting. One of my lovelies wrote her card for me! 

PS- We also made Elf Selfies to go with the new book, The Christmas Selfie Contest by Rosie Greening!

Reindeer

'Twas the week before Christmas and Kindergarten was crazy! To keep kids focused this week but still in the holiday spirit, we've been reading tons of books. 

One of my favorites to read each aloud (I know I always say that!) is a nonfiction book called Reindeer by Mary Ann McDonald. I'm not sure if it's still available, but it's super informational and at a level even little kids can understand. On Reindeer Day we read the book and created this chart recalling facts about reindeer. The next day, as I pointed to each part of the picture, even though most of my kids can't read they were able to tell me what they knew about reindeer. Then of course we pretended to be reindeer and had to line up by name in order for lunch. Rudolph was first, of course! 

Birdseed Ornaments

One of my favorite Christmas stories is The Night Tree by Eve Bunting. After reading the story, my kiddos made their own birdseed ornaments using gelatin, birdseed, boiling water (electric kettle for the win!) straws, and cookie cutters. There are tons of recipes online but my favorite is from Debbie at One Little Project. They took a day to dry but the kids loved them! 

I pulled up the materials needed as we measured each ingredient into bowls (pairs shared) and then we followed directions step-by-step. Our PALs tutor came in to help so that was fabulous!