So from the looks of it, almost EVERYONE is now out of school this for Christmas break! Not us! We have to go threeeeee stinking days next week! :( This is the longest we've EVER had to go before break! I am however happy that this will give me more time to fit in some fun Christmas activities! We have already done so many fun things, and this past Wednesday was our Christmas program so you know the kiddos were CUH-RAYYYY-ZEEEEE! Today I wanted to share a few things that we have been doing so far. Last week we started our Christmas Countdown Santas. These are a fun craft the kiddos love to do to keep track of how many days we have left of school before break!
I have no idea why my pictures always end up sideways, and of course have no idea how to flip them, so I apologize as you tilt your necks to make sense of this!
This is one of my favorite things to do with my kiddos because not only do they love it, but it also decreases the amount of times a day I have to hear "Miss Sims, is it our last day before break yet???" I actually free handed the template for the hat and the face and just cut them out a few at a time, so I don't have anything to upload. I used manilla drawing paper for the face and just drew a semi-circle. For the hat I used red construction paper and just made the best hat shape I can come up with, but I have to say it turned out looking a little more like an elf's hat than I had anticipated... :/
For the beard I actually used a snowman template that we did last year and cut off the bottom. The circles were already drawn on the snowman and I had the kids fill in the numbers, starting with number 13 and counting down. We added pillow fluff to the top of the hat and for the little puff ball on the tip. I hang them on the chalk ledge in the front of the room for them to look at each day. Every morning I give them a cotton ball and they cover up the next number. We do this every day until the last day and then I let them take them home.
Yesterday one of the 2nd grade teachers and I teamed up for a fun little Christmas stations party with our two classes. This was so much fun and gave the classes a chance to mingle and collaborate. It also allowed the second graders to feel like "big kids" and become role models for my little firsties!
We had three different stations. The first station just consisted of holiday books and cutting out their hands on brown paper for another station. This one they did independently at their seats. I ran the second station where the kiddos got to make a yummy snack! We used upside down ice cream cones and let the kids spread green frosting (white frosting with green food coloring) all around it. When they finished that they got to roll their iced cone in a sprinkle color of their choice. This made a very cute (and very delcious) Christmas tree! Of course, things got crazy/messy with this station so the kiddos had all eaten theirs before I got a chance to snap a photo!
The third station was my favorite. The second grade teacher had the kids use oats and glitter to make "reindeer food". The glitter is so that the reindeer will be able to see it from the sky on Christmas Eve. :) Then they decorated a brown paper bag to look like Rudolf and used their cut out hands as the antlers. They glued the cute little poem in the middle and stapled the bag of reindeer food to the back. I can remember doing this when I was little and absolutely LOVED it! The kiddos were so excited to take it home and sprinkle it on their lawns on Christmas Eve for Rudolf!! :)
I normally punch a hole where that little circle is and tie it from the antlers, but we ran out of time so we just glued it this year! I also normally use red pom poms for the nose, but ran out and didn't realize it until yesterday morning!
Ok so my second order of business is to express how EXCITED I am that I won day 11 of Farley's 12 Days of Christmas Giveaway! Thank you so much to Natale and Rachelle from What the Teacher Wants for giving away two things each from each of their TPT stores!! I am so excited, but of course haven't had a chance to sit down and look through and figure out what I want! Thanks once again to Natale and Rachelle and of course to Farley for hosting the Giveaway!! You guys are AWESOME!!
My final order of business involves thanking another blogger friend of mine! I want to say thanks so much to Lisa from Connecting the Dots for awarding me the Liebster award!
This award is for "new" bloggers, and its goal is to spotlight up-and-coming blogs with less than 200 followers. If awarded, you must:
Copy and paste the award on your blog
Thank the giver and link back to them
Reveal YOUR top five picks and leave a comment letting them know
So here are my five picks for the award!
Thanks again to Lisa for the award!
Ok so that about does it for today, but I do have ONE more order of business...
As if I am not behind enough on this blog, I have created a new one to post updates about the progress of my wedding! So head on over to Soon to be Mrs. C and check it out!!
I hope everyone is enjoying the start of their Christmas break, pray for me as I stick out these last three days!! AHHH!!! I have soooo many cute things coming up this week so stay tuned and I will {hopefully} post lots of pictures!! :)
Much Love!
hi Chelsea! capturing the image is for mac users...but im a PC gal, and u must be too, right?? ok...so after you have all your stuff typed out (your using word or publisher?? I use publisher for EVERYTHING), you are going to copy all and then paste into Paint (or an equivalent program). once you've got everything there (it should look like what you had in publisher), crop it and then save as a jpeg or png. then u import it into your post like a picture.
ReplyDeletelet me know if that helps!
I did this with my firsties (thanks to my awesome co-worker). They loved it. I'm anxious to hear their stories about it when they get back.
ReplyDeleteI'm your newest follower. :-)
First Grade Delight
imgoingfirst@gmail.com
Jen, thank you so much! It worked!
ReplyDeleteThank you for the award! Love your blog :)
ReplyDeleteHow sweet are you, thanks!
ReplyDelete☼Libby
Dual Kinder Teacher