Classroom Party: Rudolf the Red Nose Reindeer BINGO {Free Printable}

If you are still in search of an activity for your classroom's holiday party this Reindeer BINGO might be just the activity for you.  As linked below there are 4 different game boards shuffled and ready to print.  Remember to print one extra to cut apart so you can draw from a hat to call out boxes.  If you need more than 4 different game boards print a blank grid and a character sheet for each of your students.  Have them cut on the lines then arrange and glue the graphics into the grid however they choose. For a little extra fun students could try to put the pictures in order as they appear in the familiar Christmas song, Rudolf the Red Nose Reindeer!

FREE printable downloads:

Blank Grid

Board #1

Board #2

Board #3

Board #4

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Reindeer Tic Tac Toe: FREE Printables

In addition to a few Reindeer Riddles, this thematic tic-tac-toe will provide a fun addition to your classroom holiday celebration. Instead of Xs and Os  play with bucks and does!

Downloads for the board and reindeer playing pieces are FREE!

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Reindeer Jokes: A FREE Printable

Here is an early Christmas gift to you -  some silly reindeer jokes to enjoy with your students!

Download Here: Page 1 & Page 2

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Learning About Saint Nicholas Day

Today is December 6th and celebrated by many around the world as St. Nicholas Day.  In our house the tradition is to leave out our wooden shoes in hopes that Sinterklaas (the Dutch interpretation of St. Nicholas) will fill them with delicious goodies and small toys.  

 As the story goes on the night of December 6 needy children would find baskets of food and clothing on their doorsteps from a secret gift-giver.  Children began to leave their shoes by the doorstep in hopes of finding coins hidden inside.

Simple Gifts are the Lesson of St. Nicholas Day - This post from Newtown Bee includes historical notes and interactive activities. 

There are many children's books available for teaching your students about Saint Nicholas.  Here are a few titles from Amazon.com to get you started!

 

 There was a very interesting {religious} broadcast from Focus on the Family explaining the true meaning behind Christmas and how Saint Nicholas fits in with the holiday. You can listen to the archived conversation at the link above.

St. Nicholas Center has a page dedicated especially to teachers who would like to incorporate a lesson about St. Nicholas in their classroom. There list includes many books for classroom use as well as discussion guides and coloring pages.

As a simple way of participating in the spirit of St. Nicholas Day, consider planning a secret act of kindness to surprise a friend or family member, or do something kind for someone in need.

Disclosure: Amazon links are not affiliate links.

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Seasonal writing: Letters to Santa

I'm sure you haven't realized this yet with all of the holiday music blaring and the stores telling you every few days, but Christmas is coming.

"What?" you say it's every year.  I know, I know it is.

But in all seriousness, Christmas is coming, and it's a great time to work on letter writing skills.

Back when I was teaching my class always wrote a letter to Santa, and he always wrote back to them.  It was a magical moment.  But, I want to share another way kids can write to Santa other than just what they really want.

When Santa Lost His Ho! Ho! Ho! is a super cute book with lots of great reasons to write letters.  Santa loses his "Ho ho ho," and is depressed.  Children write him hundreds of letters to cheer him up, but nothing works, until finally he gets that ONE letter.

Last year I read this book to my kids and then they spent a lot of time thinking of ways they would make Santa laugh.  Teacher Files has some cute Santa lined papers that would be great with this book and activity.

For early or pre-writers have them draw a funny cartoon.

All 3 of my kids are still at the early writing stages, so we concentrate more on process and how to create ideas.

So we brain stormed together what makes things funny.  Is it what you write or what you draw?  Why is one joke funny and another isn't?  After everyone had an idea we talked through if the idea needs a picture.  The letter that made Santa laugh in the book had a funny picture to go with it.  Did their funny idea need a picture to help explain it?

When they started writing I emphasize a lot that I do not care about spelling right now.  I want them to write.  My kids are worried about it being perfect.  I want them to get words on the page and then we can edit it for spelling or grammar.  This can be a very hard thing for kids to understand and grasp at a young age, but if they can get past wanting it to be perfect it can really help them be more willing to write on their own.

I'm always on the look out for other good books to lead into writing prompts, do you have some Christmas favorites for my kids to write about this year?

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Merry Christmas

{from Katie at A List Maker's Life}

{from Katie at Katie's Nesting Spot}

{from Ticia at Adventures in Mommydom}

{from Ana at Ingles360}

Have a wonderful week of celebrating!  We will look forward to hearing all about your holiday activities when we return from our own winter break on Jaunary 3, 2012!

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Snacks That Look Like Santa

Strong Start made a simple Santa's Hat Snack out of strawberries.

The Weight is Over shares how to make a healthy Santa snack.

Cookies and Cups posted about the ingredients necessary for making a great Santa snack mix.

Dukes and Duchesses has the perfect milk to go with Santa's cookies.

Taste of Home put together cookies that look a bit like Santa.

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Christmas Graphing Activities

Use the Captain's Christmas Crunch to put together a graphing activity similar to First Grade Fanatic.

Preschool Lesson Plans used marshmallow for graphing.

Mrs. Morrow's Kindergarten has students graphing with M&Ms.

Homeschool Parent shared a coordinate points graphing activity for older children.

Busy Bees put together a colorful holiday themed graph activity and spinner.

Kinder Gals had fun with graphing Gingerbread cookies.

Cooperative Learning 365 offers a printable "Favorite Christmas Song" graphing activity.

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Gingerbread Lessons and Activities

Mrs. I's Class did a How To writing project on How To Eat a Gingerbread Man.

Mathwire offers some gingerbread themed math games. I especially like the Gingerbread Coordinate Graphing Game.

A Teacher's Touch has put together a great collection of gingerbread  freebies: songs, rhymes, measurement activity, math game, a sort, and more.

Mrs. Kilburn's Kiddos posted many links to help you plan an exciting gingerbread man unit.

Kindergarten Crayons is offering a collection of literacy activities centered around a gingerbread theme. The packet includes over 100 activities and is available for purchase.

The Preschool Toolbox used gingerbread men to practice number order.

Try Sweet Sugar Belle's recipe for gingerbread play dough.

School Marm Ohio suggests several cute ideas for Gingerbread Baby writing projects.

Kinder Gals put together a persuasive writing project using the familiar Gingerbread Man story. 

Mrs. Nelson's Class explains many pieces of their gingerbread themed preschool unit.

Kinder by Kim shared a gingerbread glyph idea that would be fun for kids of many ages.

K2Printables has a glyph kit ready for you to print and use.

Babbling Abby wrote about several pieces of her 1st grade gingerbread unit. 

Just for fun you, or your students, can create their own Gingerbread avatar online at Sprint.

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Thematic Learning: The Grinch

These first grade learning activities, from Babbling Abby, could be adapted to work for any early elementary classroom who wants to have a little fun with the Grinch!  She has provided downloads for several great center activities and I love the Grinch glue.

Plan your Grinch Day with help from The First Grade Parade.  The students studied adjectives while talking about the Grinch and his heart.  They all left school with "Grinch-licked" candy canes with an adorable tag put together by their teacher.

Put some empty toilet paper tube, or film canisters, to a silly use by creating these Grinch stuck in a chimney crafts.

Teaching in High Heels used the Grinch creatively for a writing prompt.

Here is a sweet printable inspired by the Grinch.

Sugar Swings adds the sweet to the Grinch with these cupcakes.

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Nativity Activities, Printables, & Sensory Bins

Welcome December!

I don't know about your classroom, but in mine December was always the time of year that lesson planning required an extra "oomph!" in order to keep the kids attention.  With all the excitement, the extra sugar, and the late night events that December brings it helps to have some out of the ordinary learning activities as well!  In the next 2 weeks we will do our best to round up some exciting activities that still sneak in some super skill building.

Today we will look at NATIVITY related printables and projects:

Spell Outloud put together a nativity themed sensory bin.

Happy Hooligans used colorful beans for their nativity sensory box.

Over the Big Moon linked up to last week's Show and Tell sharing their clever nativity themed packet.

Catholic Icing offers a free DIY toliet paper tube nativity set printable.  After putting together the figures they would be perfect for retelling.

My Computer is My Canvas made a simple key for sharing the M&M Nativity Legend.  With older children you could use this as a hook for writing their own legends or acrostic poetry.

Confessions of a Homeschooler is a fantastic resource for well thought out thematic activity packets.  Erica has a nativity preschool pack available on her site

1+1+1=1 has also created a free nativity download for preschoolers.

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