Friday, December 23, 2016

Theme Days

I don't know about you, but I just love a good theme! I don't always get a chance to do theme days due to a busyness of trying to fit everything in, but I do love to incorporate theme days right before a break to keep my kiddos engaged in learning! This year, I did a Grinch Day and a Gingerbread Day. Here's a little peek into some of the activities that we did...

For Grinch Day, I began the day with a morning meeting to discuss kindness and ways that we can show kindness to one another. I then told students that they would be working to earn hearts to make the Grinch's heart grow by showing acts of kindness to one another. We set a goal of how many hearts we would like to obtain by the end of the day. If we reached that goal, they got the Grinch surprise in this green bag. The surprise was "Grinch licked" or green candy canes. Boy were they excited when they reached their goal and got to see what was in the bag!


We also had our class party on Grinch Day. At my school, room moms are in charge of planning and setting up for our class parties. I asked my room mom to create activities that were Grinch themed. She did a fabulous job and the kiddos were so excited! Here is a look at some of the centers that she set up...


{Grinch ornaments filled with torn green tissue paper, a Grinch mask, and Grinch pops made out of rice crispy treats and marshmallows}

Gingerbread is probably one of my favorite themes for this time of year. In second grade, students are expected to compare different versions of the same fairy tale. What better way to hit that standard than to read Gingerbread stories. If you don't own Gingerbread books, no problem! You can find so many read aloud variations on You Tube! After we read some of my favorite books, we created a disguise of our own so that the Gingerbread Man/Girl wouldn't be eaten. Here are a few of my favorites...


Gingerbread flower girl


Gingerbread leaf

We also created paper bag Gingerbread Houses and they turned out so cute!


Not only did we do a little bit of writing to describe our Gingerbread Houses, but we also incorporated math by graphing the pieces of candy that we used to create our houses. 


You can find the Gingerbread Disguise activity here and the Design a Gingerbread House activity here.

Just for fun, here is a look at juice boxes I made for my little man's class party...


These were just too cute not to share!

How did you wrap up your final days before winter break? I'd love to know in the comments!







Monday, December 19, 2016

Quick Gift Ideas

Happy last Monday before Christmas friends! If you're already out for Winter Break... LUCKY YOU! If you're like me, you have a few more days left with the kiddos and might be scrambling to get all your last minute gifts taken care of! 

Here are a few easy, but cute, gift ideas to help check everyone off of your list.

For your students... Snowman Soup (hot chocolate, marshmallows, a spoon, and a cute straw)




For teachers or room moms... the gift of no dishes (plates, napkins, silverware, cups)



For your coworkers... wish them an extra special holiday with a pack of Extra gum!


You can grab these tags, plus a few more, in my December Gift Tags product over in my TPT shop!


Happy gifting!