December Holidays Power Point

Here is a powerpoint I made while teaching. I had students that celebrated all different holidays in December. So to acknowledge each one, I made a short,11 slide, powerpoint that explains each one. Included are:
Christmas (both secular and religious), Hanukkah, Kwanzaa, & Ramadan.

 

If you are interested and to help save time and money, you can find it at Teachers Pay Teachers by clicking here. Or at Teachers Notebook by clicking here. Merry Christmas!

* Make sure to click on the tab on the home page above to see all my PowerPoints.*

Nativity Thematic Unit

I know I keep jumping back and forth between Thanksgiving and Christmas, but I wanted to get this on the blog so you can have it ready.
I have my Nativity Thematic Unit ready. *Don't forget to click on the "Thematic Unit" tab at the top of the blog to see my whole list of thematic units.*

Here it is!

40 pages of printables, activities and teaching ideas for Preschoolers and Early Kindergarteners. I make these for my own children, so they change based on their needs and levels. To purchase it at Teachers Pay Teachers click here. To find it at Teachers Notebook click here.

Below are also a few pictures of what you will see inside the unit.

I've included measuring activities and an early story comprehension page for my youngest. I also have a page of my favorite websites and blogs to use along with this unit.

 

Comprehension page

Merry Christmas and God Bless!

Thanksgiving Activities

My older son has the whole week off for Thanksgiving. So in preparation of my two boys being with each other all day, inside every day this week I began coming up with things to keep them busy.

1. Playing outside in the Texas ice. Then inside for a very long and fun bath to warm up. The bathroom floor may have gotten flooded, but I cleaned my oven while they had fun. :)
2. Preschool and Kindergarten lessons. I taught my kindergartener about using a ruler and also fractions.
3. Indian reviewing shapes Craft from 2 Teaching Mommies. Thanksgiving packet

4. Pretend Thanksgiving dinner craft

 

5. Thankful Pumpkin Pie. Each year we write what we are thankful for on a hand turkey. This year I found this on Pinterest and I am going to use this pie instead of the turkey.

 

6. Coloring and painting turkey sheets from online.

#1-6 was all on done on Monday. Not to mention we cuddled and watched Polar Express. :)

Elf on the Shelf Calendar

Below is my December Calendar for my Elf on the Shelf ideas. To get yours click here to download it at "dropbox".
The previous years I left the word "elf" on a post it note by my bed so I wouldn't forget to move it each night. Now that I have one that can read that, I had to get wiser. I created a day by day calendar so I wouldn't forget and be stuck racking my brain each night. Or begging my husband for help. (But he does have some good ones).

All these ideas were a compilation of web searches and Pinterest. There is a 2nd page attached if you download of some of the ideas in pictures. Happy Elfing!!

Update: Here are a few of the pictures I took of our else this year. I did not follow my calendar completely. (We had a major ice storm and lost power for 4 days. Thankfully, when we left our house to stay with family, I remembered to snag our Elf.)

Toilet paper tube as a swing. This was a hard one to get him to balance.

Turkey Crafts

I wanted to show you a few crafts we have been doing. Between being sick and out of town I never made a turkey unit. So I pulled things from online and Pinterest. Here are 2 of the crafts we did.

A Letter T Turkey

Rectangle and Circle Turkeys

Peppermints and Christmas

I'm running out of time for Thanksgiving things, so I figured I'd just go ahead and get started on Christmas. 

Here is a cute idea I used as a writing project/craft. Students wrote a haiku poem about peppermints or a candy cane. Since now a days we can't really do anything Christmas (even secular) in public schools I've had to turn very basic. Peppermints, gingerbread men, etc. Below is my sample. 

I did have my 4 year old help make the sample. So in the classroom I will add the poem, but I will also use it as a craft at home with just their hand prints and their own coloring/decorations. It took 3 paper plates to make this.

If you want to see more, this writing craft is part of my Christmas/Winter Tic Tac Toe Board. That last week or few days of school before the "winter" break is normally pretty crazy. This board is a fun way to still learn and have fun. Students choose 3 activities to complete. Included in the packet are 9 activities and all the directions on how to use it and organize the set up. Kid lesson include: 3 centers, the above craft, a graphic organizer, and 4 other worksheets are included. You an either use the tic tac toe board, or if not, you have 9 activities for the classroom to use as you please. :)

*****Here is a another FREE sample for you from this Tic Tac Toe Menu. To download the graphic organizer for FREE from dropbox, click here.This is a quick preview of it. ENJOY!

Thanksgiving Classroom Items

I've been busy working on some Thanksgiving packets that can be used for teachers in the classroom. These are focused on 3rd grade.

Included in the Language Arts bundle are 6 different worksheets:

*Compound words - turkey shopping worksheet
*Context Clues worksheet with turkey vocabulary
*Problem Solving & Sequence worksheet –Making Thanksgiving Dinner (with answer key)
*Singular and Plural Nouns worksheet – Thanksgiving themed
*Thanksgiving Sudoku- for fun
*Nonsense Words (context clues) with Thanksgiving theme – to be copied front and back

For this Thanksgiving LA bundle you can find TPT here. Or click here for TN. Remember ALL my Thanksgiving products are on sale at Teachers Notebook from now until Thanksgiving. (TPT won't let me run a sale that long, FYI).

 

 Next up- MATH. Here is my Turkey themed math bundle. This is good for 3rd or 4th graders.

Included in this set are 4 worksheets and 1 math center:

•Greater than and Less than worksheet up to 999,999 (TEKS 3.1b and CCCS 3NBT.2)
•Place Value worksheet up to 999,999 (TEKS 3.1a and CCCS 3NBT.2)
•Fractions Center 1/3 and 1/4 fractions where students order the 6 cards from least to greatest then record their answers on a recording sheet. Direction Page included. (TEKS3.2a-d and CCCS 3.NF.A.1 and 3.NF.A.3a&d)
•2 Fraction Worksheets – fraction addition and patterns with fractions (TEKS3.2a-d and CCCS 3.NF.A.1 and 3.NF.A.3a&d)

For TPT click here or for TN click here. Once again this is definitely on sale at Teachers Notebook now until Thanksgiving.

 

Last activity is for Spelling and Writing.

 What is included:

*Thanksgiving Spelling – Directions Page (only) - Students will use notebook paper or journal.
*Turkey Spelling –Directions page, turkey without feathers page to color and feather patterns for students to write spelling words.
*Turkey Recipe-Directions Page Only - Students will use their own paper or writing journal.
*Leftovers Recipe – Directions Page, checklist, and themed writing page.

Each directions page is done with a frame and clipart which is appealing to the student eye. They can be laminated or put in a sheet protector for that center.

For Teachers Pay Teachers click here, or for Teachers Notebook click here. Once again this is on sale at Teachers Notebook.

Thanksgiving on Thursday - Magic Tree House

I made a unit to go along with Thanksgiving on Thursday from the Magic Tree House Series. My kindergartner LOVES these books. 

Included is a reader's journal and comprehension questions for each chapter of Mary Pope Osborne's book, Thanksgiving on Thursday, Magic Tree House book #27.
Included are 14 pages for the journal and 2 pages for the answer key.
Some questions are open ended, some multiple choice, true and false, or even a drawing answer. Uses context clues, inference, and general understanding and comprehension as they read.
 
This can be used in guided reading groups, literature circles, novel study, or to check comprehension after reading aloud. I just made this one and posted it. But I have used ones similar to it many different ways in my classroom.

 

If you are interested in this product look for it at Teachers Pay Teachers by clicking  here. Or at Teacher's Notebook by clicking here. Check them each out for sales. At TPT it will randomly be on sale. But at TN it will be on sale now through Thanksgiving. :)

Thankgiving is Almost Here

I just love Thanksgiving. Really, you can fast forward through the big meal and give me the leftover turkey to make turkey sandwiches on a roll. That is my favorite!!

To get ready, we have be learning about turkeys. I have not made anything...YET on turkeys or Pilgrims. I hope to, but time is running out quick. Plus, I can't find my turkey file. I will post as soon as I make something.

So instead of making things, I have spend tooo much time digging through things online to print out for my boys. (I should have made one, it would have been faster). Oh well.

Here are some of their favorites we have done with Turkeys:
*The typical tracing hand to make it look like a turkey. We identified parts of a turkey (tail, wing, feet, wattle, beak, etc.)
* Learn about the "wattle".
* Watch "Free Birds" at the movie theater.
* Many youtube videos of turkeys.
*I verbally played a game of "what does the turkey eat". I'd call out different things and they had to tell me if a turkey ate it. Example: acorns (yes), insects (yet), pizza (no), etc.