End of the Year Scrapbooks!~

It is Christmas Break and yes I am working on school stuff!  Each year I make a scrapbook for my kiddos that has pictures from through-out the year in it.  Usually I'm way behind by the end of the year, so I'm trying to stay ahead.  I get bare books from www.barebooks.com at the beginning of the year.  They are about $1.75 each.  Each student gets to color the outside of their book whatever color they want it to be (as you can see we haven't done this yet).  Then I add pictures, captions, and fun stickers!  I love making these and they are a great end of the year parent gift!

Buzz Words~

I've created a new teacherspayteachers item.  These "buzz" words are used on a word wall for students to recognize and practice.  This year I currently am using popcorn words so I might use these as a game during our center time.  

These are the sight words from McGraw-Hill Wonders reading series.  

 http://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Kindergarten-Buzz-Words-McGraw-Hill-Wonders-Reading-Series

Christmas Hand Prints~

For our parent gift for Christmas we made hand prints   I have only ever made them using Plaster of Paris, but decided to try to make them using salt dough.

Salt Dough:

4 cups flour

1 cup salt

1 tablespoon vegetable oil

Water

*I mixed up the ingredients and used plastic plates to flatten the dough.  Then each student made their hand print.  I used a straw to make the hole.  I let them dry for 24 hours and they still weren't dry so I took them home and baked them at 125 degrees for an hour.  This seemed to help, but I would recommend letting them sit out for a week before painting them.  We used Tempra paint and I added glitter to the paint.  We let them dry, then I sprayed them with clear spray paint.  The students picked out what ribbon they wanted and we tied it in a bow.  Last I wrote their names and the year on them.  

*Each student made their own wrapping paper using butcher paper.  Then I helped them wrap their gifts.  Hopefully they all made it home safely.  :)

Pajamas, Pizza, and Popcorn~

Today was our last day before Christmas Break!  We had a very exciting and fun day.  We had a pajama day, ordered pizza for lunch, watched "Happy Feet" and then had popcorn to celebrate getting a bingo on our class behavior chart!  

Popcorn Party! The kids said it was pretty much like being at a movie theater!

Letter N~

 

This week we learned about the letter N!  We made "Nelly" the newt!  Some of the students hid Nelly under the leaves...others just kept Nelly on the log.

 

New Classroom Management~

I decided it was time for a change!  It was time to get rid of our green, yellow, and red hives and also our bees!  Instead we will be using owls!  We want our owls to stay in the tree with all of our friends.  Otherwise they get sent to the yellow nest or red nest!  We DON'T want to go there!  We will see if this will spark a little more excitement and motivation to stay in the tree!  :)

Letter M~

Last week we worked on the letter M!  Our letter of the week art was a moose!  

I'm NOT a Gingerbread Man!

This homework assignment was so fun!  Last week was all about Gingerbread Men so I sent home a family activity.  Each student had to decorate a Gingerbread Man so that it didn't look like a Gingerbread Man!  The goal was to decorate the gingerbread man so that the fox wouldn't recognize and eat him!  I was so excited to see how they turned out when I got to school today!  I shared them with the whole class and we decided if the fox would recognize them or not!  :) 

Run, Run as fast as you can, you can't catch me I'm the Gingerbread Man!

 I'm NOT a Gingerbread Man I'm a....Ninja Turtle, Cowboy, and a Doll. 

I'm NOT a Gingerbread Man I'm a....Christmas Tree, Cutey Pie, and a Cowboy!

I'm NOT a Gingerbread Man I'm a....Pirate, Zebra, and Batman!

I got this idea from Mrs. Miners Monkey Business teacherpayteacher store! http://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Save-the-Gingerbread-Man-Project-and-Creative-Writing-Project

Journal Writing~

I love Journal Writing! :) Happy Friday!

 

Gingerbread Ornaments~

One of my favorite things we do this time of year is make Christmas tree ornaments for our class tree!  We make an ornament that I actually made when I was in 1st grade!  

Recipe

1 Cup Cinnamon

3/4 Cup Applesauce

2 Tbsp White Elmers Glue

Mix all together and roll out.  Then we use cookie cutter to make the gingerbread man design.  It takes a few days for the ornaments to completely dry.  Then we decorate them with hot candies, puffy paint, and googly eyes. 

Letter L~

This week our letter of the week is "L".  We made lion faces using construction paper and Rotini noodles!  This was a great art project for using fine motor skills!

The Gingerbread Man

We started our Gingerbread Unit by Reading "The Gingerbread Man" on the smartboard.  This was an interactive read aloud story that I purchased from Really Good Stuff.  Then we made our very own gingerbread men and women!

 

They turned out fantastic!

 

Gingerbread Play-Doh~

It's gingerbread week!  This week is all about the gingerbread man!  I made gingerbread play-doh for 1 of our centers!  It smells so good!

The Recipe:

1 cup flour

1/2 cup salt

2 tsp cream of tartar

About 1/2 cup spices

(cinnamon, nutmeg etc.)

1 cup water

1 tsp oil

Mix dry ingredients. Next, mix water and oil together then add to dry ingredients.  Put in sauce pan and cook on medium for 2-3 minutes.  Stir constantly until dough pulls away from sides.

Christmas Crayons~

Oh how I love Sundays and pinterest projects!  This is my 2nd year of making these fun crayons for my students for Christmas.  Not only am I recycling old broken crayons, but the students love these.  They are inexpensive and fun!  I used smaller silicon molds this year because last year it took me forever!  

I used a cutting board and a knife to chop up the crayons!  I put them in the oven at 350 degrees until they are melted.  I put the molds on a baking sheet so that they were easy to take out of the oven.  

Let them completely cool!

Finished Project!  :)  

Letter K~

This week we worked on the Letter "K", we made kites to hang on our alphabet wall in the hall.  We used oil pastels for the 1st time this year, the students did a great job! 

Sticker Book~ Freebie

I created an assessment tool that we use after each unit in our "Wonders" reading series.  If the student masters the popcorn word they get to pick out a sticker to put next to the word! They Love This!
Mcgraw Hill Wonders Sight Word Sticker Book

More Popcorn Words~

At the beginning of the year I make each student an envelope to hold their popcorn words.  I send it home every monday with the popcorn words we have learned and with our new word for the week.  The students practice their words at home and bring their envelopes back to school on Thursday so the envelope can be updated for the next week!

 

Go Away, Big Green Monster!~

Around Halloween I read "Go Away, Big Green Monster!"  This is one of my favorite books to read close to Halloween.  The students really like it too!  We then made our own Big Green Monsters!!  I did not give them a pattern, we used our "listening ears" to make our own variation of what we thought the monster looked like.  It's fun to see how different each monster was!

Door Decorations~

For the past 2 years our elementary school decided that all the teachers should decorate their doors for Christmas.  Last year I did a gingerbread house, but this year I decided on an Igloo.  I figured if it is winter related I could leave it up through January.  Plus we make an igloo out of milk jugs after Christmas, so I wanted this to be my theme.  I'm not completely finished yet, but these are some of the pictures so far.