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Holiday
Ideas
Candy Day (After Halloween)
We
all know that the day after Halloween is a "lost" day
for students! They are so tired from their candy high
and late night Trick-or-Treating. Here's a great way to
spend that day in the classroom, which will keep the
students focused and learning at the same time. Each
child will bring in their favorite piece of candy that
they got the night before. Each subject area of the day
will focus on a different lesson where you will use the
candy.
Math- Students will create a tally chart of the
candy they brought in as a class. They will then create
a graph that shows their data.
Reading- (I don't know if this is really a "reading"
activity, but we do Venn Diagrams in Reading, so I'm
putting into this category anyway!) Get a LARGE piece of
butcher/bulletin board paper and draw a huge Venn
Diagram on it. Brainstorm on the board ways that they
can sort their candy. For example, chocolate and
not-chocolate or heavy and light, or colorful and not
colorful. Then, have children add their candy to the
appropriate section of the Venn Diagram. Discuss.
Science- We are currently studying Rocks and
Minerals, and I teach the children how to observe rocks
and minerals in detail, as good Geologists do! They
observe everything from color, texture to length, width,
circumference, and weight. In keeping with our Earth
Materials unit, students will observe their candy, as
they do their rocks and minerals. They will also take
apart their candy to find the "minerals" that it's made
up of! They can then eat their candy.
Writing- Using the observations taken in
Science, students will create a descriptive writing of
their candy. They will use their 5 senses to describe
the way it tasted, smelled, felt, looked, and sounded
when eaten.
If
anyone has any other great candy ideas to add to this
section, please email me!
A Yummy Idea for Read Across America Day
I lost my picture, so I will explain
it. You'll need Chocolate
Doughnut Holes, white/red life savers, vanilla frosting,
and
mini-m&ms!
Use
the chocolate doughnut hole as the face of the Cat in
the Hat. Then, use frosting to stick on two eyes. Layer
the red/white life savers to create a hat on top of the
doughnut hole.
Candy Hearts Letter Writing
Click for
my instructions page
Click here for
candy heart clipart
Holiday Math
Pumpkin Math
Valentines Day Math
Jellybean Math
Thanksgiving bulletin boards and readers theatre!
Two ideas for you for the
Thanksgiving holidays!
1. For your bulletin boards, brainstorm a list of
all the important people in your school. Assign each
child to one of those people and have them write a thank
you letter to them. Take the child's picture with the
person they wrote to, and put it all together on a
bulletin board titled: Thanks For Giving! Click
HERE
to see mine!
2. Every year we present a play entitled Thanks
Me. Afterward, we every parent brings something to
contribute to our own classroom Thanksgiving feast. The
play is about a robot who teaches the true meaning of
Thanksgiving to a group of students. You can break the
robot part into a few parts if it's too much for your
students to memorize. Click
HERE
to read the play!
3.
This year, I wanted to try something different for our
play. I found and adapted a play from online called
A Turkey Takes a Stand.
I also re-wrote the book "T'was
The Night Before Thanksgiving" and each
child had their own part. It turned out very cute!
Mothers Day or Fathers Day Gifts
Here's a fast and easy way to create
a Mothers Day or Fathers Day present. For the Mothers, I
have my students list their
top ten reasons why they love mom. I type them up
and give them cardstock already cut to a bookmark size.
The kids decorate the bookmarks, glue on the typed top
ten list, and I laminate them. I punch a hole at the
top, and then insert a ribbon into the hole. The kids
can either bead the ribbon, or just tie it in a bow.
For
Fathers Day, I have the kids write The ABCs of
Fatherhood- an acrostic version of what it means to be a
father. For example: A is for always being there for me.
B is for believing in me. Etc...
You
can swap these ideas around, too. You can make the
bookmark for the fathers and the ABCs of Motherhood for
the moms.
Handprint Calendar- Great holiday gift idea!
Ever get
stuck on a holiday gift for your students to make for
their parents? I've always done calendars, which allow
students to practice their calendar skills by numbering
blank calendars for the year ahead. This also is a
lasting gift for the parents throughout the next 12
months! The only problem? The kids have to draw 12
pictures to go with the calendar! Ugh, it takes
forever!!! Excitingly, I just recently found this idea
for a Handprint Calendar, which I can't wait to try
because it seems to be something that might not take as
much time as my old idea. When you see it, you'll
understand. The teacher can help the kids make the
pictures (probably one minute per student) and the other
kids can be working on numbering their calendars (or
another activity) at the same time!
Handprint Calendars
**On a side note, I did this for the holiday project
this year and it turned out great, but it took
FOREVER!!! If you do this, you might want to do a few a
month, even starting in September, to make sure you're
done by December!
Other Holiday Gifts For Parents
This
year we made Cookies in a Jar. They came out so cute! It
used measuring skills and was pretty simple to put
together. Here is a great website that has tons of
cookie in a jar recipes:
www.cookieinajar.com
We
also made Hot Cocoa Cones at our class party. These were
VERY easy to make, and cheap! To find out how to make
these, click
HERE!
Graphics by
Snowgirl and
Susie's Graphics |
