Christmas Activities Galore!!!

It's the busiest time of the year!  And I just love it!  The Christmas tree is up, lights are twinkling, and your room is filled with child created decorations.  I wanted to drop in to share some Elf ideas and some Christmas activities we have been working on for the past few weeks!  I team teach Kindergarten, so we actually have two elves.  We wrapped each up in burlap and added to cute tag and letter from The First Grade Parade.  The office called down to let us know we had a special delivery.

Holly was lead teacher that day, so she read The Elf on the Shelf book to them.  And yes, we wear a headset!  We got the voice amplifier from Amazon and it has been a lifesaver.  It's especially great when you are teaching 40 kindergarteners in one classroom!

We had two elves to name, a boy and a girl.  Frosty and Elsa won.  I tried really hard to convince them on voting for Snowflake for the girl's name.  No such luck...

We did a directed drawing of this precious little elf from Learning with Mrs. Parker.  They were super cute and easy!  I just love directed drawings!

In the free Elf pack, there were these little elf circles for a sight word game.  We also used the elves for our table captains.  We clip the the elf to a nameplate at each table.  That person is the table captain for the day.  They pass out and take up items throughout the day.  We rotate the elf each day.  We call them our special elf helper.  

Another cute freebie I found is by Teacher to the Core.  She has some great classroom management ideas, like this cute little jar.  You have to check it out!

Our students really loved Turkey Trouble during November.  I knew they would just love Turkey Claus by Wendi Silvano, too.  This book was a great transition from Thanksgiving to Christmas.

We used the book to practice making predictions.  It's perfect for that skill.  Since it's kindergarten, most students illustrated their thinking.  We have a few who are beginning to explain their thinking with sentences.

Holly took our turkey labeling anchor chart and Santa'd it up!  Is that even a word?!!

We made these fun Turkey Claus craftivities. 

Another fun, new book we tried out this season was the new Click, Clack, Ho! Ho! Ho! story by Doreen Cronin.  

In the story, Duck is at it again and decides to go down the chimney on Christmas Eve.  It's almost time for Santa and Duck get stuck in the chimney.  This book was great for problem and solution.  After the story, we put together these Duck crafts.  The kids thought they were hysterical!

Do you have this book?  It's the cutest!  It sparked the most fun conversations between the students.  It's perfect for a how-to writing activity.  Our kinders weren't really ready for that quite yet.  So, we just did a fun craft and attached this little sentence strip.  It was a much-needed quick craftivity to decorate our hallway.

 

Saxon Phonics is mandated in our district.  Our letter of study last week was the letter R.  We do a four day rotation for each letter.  So, on the fifth day, we usually do an art project related to that letter.  We thought it would be perfect to do this Rudolph directed drawing from ARTventurous.  We used black crayon to outline the pencil and filled in the rest with watercolor paint.  They turned out really cute!

So, those were a few of my favorites from December in kindergarten.  Christmas break has officially begun!  I am still in my pajamas and I'm loving it!!!  Have a great time off and a Merry Christmas!!!