Christmas Break…..WOW, already?

I can hardly believe we are already off for Christmas break. If you are not out yet, when do you get out? I love my little sweeties, but my goodness, a break is glorious!! My first year of teaching has taught me so much. I feel like I have grown so much as a person. It is truly amazing what little hearts can do to you! I just love these little darlings!

We enjoyed Polar Express Day by dressing in our comfy jammies, drinking hot chocolate, and watching the Polar Express. It was so fun! I love this time of year because I get to relive Christmas through the perspective of a 5 year old. J  We also had our Christmas party this day. So fun and such sweet memories.

Here is a little recap of our week:

The children played a word-building game. They drew a Christmas tree card and identified the picture on the card, then found the letters they needed to spell it. (From Deanna Jump and Julie Lee's Winter Math and Literacy Pack)

I printed off various sight words and put them into a cube. The children rolled the cube, identified the sight word and wrote it on the dry erase board. We always introduce a new set of sight words each week.

After reading Jesus, Me, and My Christmas tree, we made “Triangle Trees.” I have several star sticky note pads and so as you can see, that was our tree topper. I loved this art activity because it was incorporating math as well. The children had to figure out how to make the shape of a Christmas tree while using triangles of various sizes. These turned out adorable. (I have no idea why Blogger turns these sideways....drives me crazy!)

Rhyming Reindeer (Also from Mrs. Jump and Mrs. Lee) was a great activity to reinforce rhyming. The children placed the cards face down, then turned them over in search of pictures that rhymed. My kiddos are great at rhyming and so this was so fun for them. Some of the children then wrote their matches on a recording sheet. I am so proud of them!!

In the sensory tub we wrapped gifts. OHMYWORD…huge hit. I had no idea how much kids loved to wrap gifts! I had to pry little hands away when it was time to clean up. J

Snowman counting- We are really working on one to one correspondence and counting. Using snowman erasers and a snowman template, the children matched the hats and bodies with corresponding numbers. They then counted out the corresponding number of erasers. Let me tell you, erasers are a must have! They make excellent math manipulatives. Again, sorry they are sideways!

One more thing, do y’all use any of the Have Fun Teaching CD’s or DVD’s? Gosh....these are amazing. A while back, they had a HUGE sale going on that offered you 50% off of your entire order. So, of course I took advantage of that! HA! Y’all, there are fitness songs, science songs, counting songs, alphabet songs, character songs, etc. HUGE hit with my 5 year olds!! Every morning we listen/do  “Stretch it out Simon”, “Walk it Out Willie” and “Jumping Jack Flash.” It gets them completely engaged and moving in the classroom. What a perfect way to start the day! The kids LOVE it and request this every day. I highly recommend trying it out!  

I hope you all have a very blessed Christmas!! Thanks for reading this little ol’ blog! I hope it encourages you!