Five for Friday (on Saturday)

My first Five for Friday! I managed to take pictures even during this hectic week. I volunteered to be in charge of Student Council this year. It's been fun to work with 4th, 5th, and 6th graders for a change. They are fantastic kids! This week we are selling candy cane grams so we met Monday to put some together (a candy cane and Christmas pencil tied together with a tag) then the kids sold them after school Wednesday and Thursday. So far it's raised a good amount of money. Between that and my classroom it's been a very busy week! Here is some of what we did:

My students paint trees every year. We start with a green triangle which I have the whole class paint at the same time. The next day I call students over in small group to add the details. They're so much fun!

These plaster ornaments from Michael's are my students' Christmas gifts for their parents. My mom generously comes down for a day and paints them with my students. She gets almost all of them done and then my instructional aide, who is an artist, finishes the rest with the kids. Do you have instructional aides at your school? Carol and I have worked together almost every year that I've been at my school (about 13 now) and she's just such a wonderful person. That reminds me, I've got to do some Christmas shopping for her too!

The Holiday Card Exchange organized by Jen over at Projects by Jen. She's amazing! It's so much fun to participate in this and learn about other schools. As you can see we're displaying them to show where they came from. My students have a map in their desk with the US on one side and the world on the other. As we open cards, I help them color the state/country the card came from. We got one from Miami where the average temp is 70 and Manitoba, Canada where the average temp is -20. Yikes! That's way too cold for this California girl. But I'm sure it's beautiful up there!

We're doing Christmas Around the World. I use Christina Bainbridge's unit for this. I love that she has a powerpoint for each country to teach the kids about it. She has a different poinsettia craft to use, but I've done this one for a while so I used my own. So far we have only been to Mexico, but that's really the most special for my class since about half of them have family there. Next week it's off to Brazil, Japan, and Germany!

Our classroom Christmas tree. During Work on Writing my students can make Christmas cards for their parents and place them on the tree. It's fun to go back and read their messages at the end of the day. One little boy wrote,

"Dear Mom,

I was a good boy at school today.

From,

J_____"

How sweet is that? This is a little boy who could never be anything but good and sweet. I may photocopy that one and keep it with my Christmas things.

I made a few quick Gingerbread Man cards you can grab if you want them. Just click on the picture.

I hope you have a nice weekend! My husband and I are going to lunch and to the movies today. I've been looking forward to it all week. We're off to see Nebraska, the new Alexander Payne movie. My husband had some involvement with his movie Sideways and has been wondering about Nebraska off and on ever since. We just heard this week that it had come out. My brother says the preview look good. We've liked his other movies so hopefully this is good too. Happy Saturday to you!

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Gingerbread Men, Christmas trees, and a Liebster Award!

Isn't Christmas a fun time in the classroom? There are so many great projects and not enough time. Yet I'll be happy next Thursday when the children go home and I have 2 weeks off. I'll miss them, but enjoy my break at the same time... you know what I mean.
Sorry I haven't blogged in a little while. I've been wanting to but that's how it goes sometimes. I checked my email today and was so thrilled that Kimberely Moran at
First in Maine passed the Liebster Award on to me!

Thanks, Kimberely. This award brings to light blogs with 200 or fewer followers. I'm excited to pass this on to 5 other deserving up-and-coming bloggers. Here are my picks:

Notes in First Grade

Miss W. Teaches



Flying Into 1st Grade

Loving Life and Teaching

I wanted to add some of my Christmas projects to share with all of you. Every year my kiddos paint Christmas trees. First they paint a green triangle which I let dry for a day. We do that whole class. The next day I bring students to my horseshoe table in small groups to add the trunk, garland, star on top if they want, and ornaments. I took these pics before I cut them out. I love how the kids all paint the same thing but they turn out so different.

Another classroom tradition is to have my students write their own endings to The Gingerbread Man. I read this version

I stop just before the Gingerbread Man gets eaten and challenge my kiddos to write their own ending. The rules: the gingerbread cannot get eaten. He can go on adventures, travel, anything else as long as they're creative. I found this gingerbread man shaped paper and enlarged it. Some students need multiple sheets. I will cut the brown construction paper leaving a small border and put them up on a bulletin board in my room.

"The Gingerbread Man ran away from the fox. After that he went to Disneyland. He thought he was far enough but he wasn't. Then he went on the highest ride because he thought he was high enough and he was. He was safe from the fox."

"The Gingerbread Man ran away from the fox. The gingerbread man had a lot of fun because he went to another place. He went to the store and hid in the refrigerator because for the fox couldn't find him. He like it." (This student is a native Spanish speaker.)

"The Gingerbread Man ran away from the fox. He ran home and locked the door. He was safe and happy." (This student is also a Spanish speaker.)

A couple of students wrote about the Gingerbread Man going into space. One went to the moon and brought back a piece of the moon. My students got very creative and I was so proud of their stories when they finished.

I hope all of you are enjoying these last few days. Smiles and hugs to everyone who is on break at the end of the week. I have 6 days to go! Merry Christmas!




 Chrissy

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