Holiday Writing!

Today was all about writing (with a little reading and math thrown in of course)!  My students are becoming great writers!  They work extra hard when they are making something for someone else, like their parents, or SANTA!!!  We made something for all of those special people today!

First off, I had the kids make holiday cards for their parents.  I know when it comes to drawing, kindergartners often have a hard time making things look right.  In hopes of building their confidence, I drew some different holiday themed pictures on the board (ex: snowman, Christmas tree, Santa, reindeer, stockings, candy canes, etc.).  I think this really helped make their pictures better, because they had an example to copy from.  Take a look at some of these beauties!

  

They wrote nice messages inside as well.  I thought this one was particularly amusing.

"Dear Mom and Dad, I hope the Christmas tree doesn't fall down again.  I wish you a Merry Christmas."

Kids are so funny.  Her letter to Santa was entertaining.

"Dear Santa, I have been naughty a little bit, but I do not want to be on the naughty list."  She goes on to ask for various items, including a camping chair and a curling iron!  She is five!!

All of the other kids said they had been good this year, even though several of them are much naughtier than this little girl!!  At least she is honest!  I encouraged them to make a pattern around the outside of their paper to make it look extra festive for Santa.

Gifts for the parents are complete and the letters have been sent to Santa!  One more day to go!  Hopefully the Holiday Program and Secret Santa exchange go smoothly tomorrow!

Here come the Holidays!

Sorry that I have not written in a while.  I took a bit of a break over Thanksgiving to relax with my hubby and get some Christmas shopping done.  Now it is back to business for a week!

My school is only in session for the first week of December, so we have to go full swing into the holidays.  Only a week to make presents for parents and write letters to Santa!  I have my kiddos make gifts for their parents each year.  This year the kids were turned into snowmen!  I ordered these snowmen from Oriental Trading and had the kids put them together.

I snapped a photo of each of them to add as the face.  They made the cutest little snowmen :)

Teacher tip:  If you decide to get these snowmen or a magnet craft from Oriental Trading, you may want to glue the magnets to the back.  They come with adhesive already on them, but mine never seem to stick for long.  I had gingerbread men last year and I had to glue the magnets on as well.  I used Tacky Glue.

My boss also picked up some wooden ornaments from the store for them to paint.  Sorry, I forgot to take a picture of those.  Let's just say we are still working on our fine motor skills, so some of them turned out a little on the messy side.  I helped the kids wrap both items up and put a gift tag on them.  Tomorrow we are also going to make holiday cards to go with the gifts.

We did some reindeer writing this week as well.  After reading a holiday book involving reindeer, I gave the kids pieces to cut out to make a reindeer head.

After they glued them together, they opened up their little book and wrote all about reindeer.  They know quite a bit, so they were able to fill up the whole page!

That is it for tonight!  Come back tomorrow for Christmas cards and letters to Santa!!