Happy Holidays Kinderfriends Blog Hop

Welcome to the #Kinderfriends holiday blog hop!  We know there are many celebrations going on at this time of the year, and thought we'd share some fun ideas about ways to celebrate - and we're throwing in some freebies and a gift for one of you, because who doesn't like holiday gifts?!

Last week I saw a lovely idea for making a hand print menorah, but couldn't find the print out to use for it.  Not to worry, I put one together, and the children made their hand prints, drew on flames, and added a die cut shamash (the helper candle).  My sample isn't nearly as cute as children's hands are, but it will at least give you the idea.  :-)  Want a copy?  Here you go!

Would you like to play the dreidel game while you're talking about Hanukkah, but don't know how?  Today a friend pointed me to this awesome video tutorial - it's not for the little kids, but once you know how it works, you can teach them!  Over the years I've taught this game to many, many preschoolers.  They learn both math and social skills as they play: turn taking, putting one in the "pot", and how to take half: I teach the kiddos to do "one for me, one for you" to do this.  Did I mention the fine motor workout of moving small objects and spinning the dreidel?

I also love to read/sing the children's book version of Feliz Navidad each December.  The catchy tune and repetition helps the children learn at least the refrain in Spanish and English, and it makes great background music as we put together our pinatas.  (Paper sacks with colorful tissue paper fringe.)

I've made a lot of fun resources for Christmas, and some for Hanukkah; you may not have seen these new ones yet. If you're looking for some ready to go learning fun, please check them out! (They're 20% off for the next 3 days, and for more great resources, search #KinderFriends on TeachersPayTeachers!)

There's even a FREE video of Nine Little Reindeer - check it out!

Now, as promised, there's a gift!  We're giving away a $25 gift card to TeachersPayTeachers!  On the off chance you aren't a teacher yourself, enter anyway - you know a teacher who would LOVE this as a present!  (No, don't know any?  I'll take it! Pick me, pick me!) 

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Thank you for visiting my blog, I hope you'll hop on over and check out the next stop on our blog hop:

Wishing you the happiest of holidays, and a joyous and prosperous new year!
Paula

FREE Christmas Sentence Picture Match

If you've visited my blog recently, then you probably already know that I am making a transition from preschool teacher to full time curriculum development.  It's a huge change, in so many ways!  I have so enjoyed working with children for the last 21 years, but I'm also enjoying working at my own pace without kiddos right now.  

This is one of my latest creations, and I'm making it a freebie, to say thank you to all the teachers out there.

You'll need to go to my Teachers Pay Teachers store to download it, and of course directions are included.  There are 12 Christmas themed sentences and pictures for you to laminate and cut apart, directions, a poster of Christmas vocabulary, and a cut and paste page for students to do as a follow up.  The sentences are heavy on Dolch nouns, preprimer and primer words, so this is perfect for emergent readers.

 

 If you enjoy this, would you please leave feedback on Teachers Pay Teachers?  After you download the file, scroll down to the rating scale and let me know what you think.  I hope you and your students enjoy!

May whatever holidays you celebrate be filled with love, light and family!
Paula

S is for Santa, of course!

It is December, and the kiddos are ever so ready for Christmas!  We focused on the letter S this week, so of course, Santa had to come into the picture, regularly!  Our upper case S craft had a Santa hand print on it, but the very most fun "Santa" activity was dressing up!

Several years ago I bought a large kid sized red fleece top, and red pants.  I added white fleece around the cuffs and hems, added an old black belt, a fun fur beard, Santa hat, and my own black snow boots, and voila!  We have a Santa costume.

 Not everything was about Santa, of course.  We still did a lot of regular activities, like practicing writing our names on the ipad.  The kiddos are using Writing Wizard, which allowed me to enter their names and other words to practice. 

 We also worked hard on more ornaments for our parents this week, in preparation for our class Christmas party.  I love the snowmen CDs, which I found on happyhooligans.ca from November 29, 2013.  I painted old CDs with white acrylic paint ahead of time, and the children added button eyes, black bean mouths, and a twisted square of orange tissue paper for the noses.  Super cute!  The only difficulty was that when I stacked the CDs, some of them stuck together.  Next time I'll put a piece of wax paper between them.

  Here are our hand print choices for this week: Santa, swans, and snails.  You can see all our hand and foot print art ideas on my handprint alphabet pinterest board.

We had some beautiful days this week, and took advantage of it to get lots of outside time.  The kiddos were so adorable, here are some of their favorite outside play choices:

Drawing, coloring and writing at our outside table...

Playing on the swings.  Swinging on their tummies is ever popular, and since every child I've met wants to do it, it must feed some kind of a need.  These two were super cute holding hands and swinging side to side together!

Running, chasing, playing...

 The kiddos were fascinated by the jack-o-lantern pumpkins rotting in the dormant veggie garden.  I watched them run up and poke at them, to see how soft they had become, and realized this one was ready to split open. I didn't want it to eventually mush under anyone's prodding, so I poked a hole in it, and opened it up for the kids to see.  Everyone wanted to look, and I had to ask them to not pick out the seeds from the rotting pumpkin!

Do you wonder what secrets these two are sharing? So sweet!

Then came the biggest event for the week, our Christmas party, complete with a visit from a certain jolly old guy!

 Several times a day for the last two weeks, I've read the children one of my books of The Night Before Christmas.  Every time, I make the same hand motions for the kiddos, and they have all memorized most or all of the poem!  We start our Christmas party each year by reciting it to our parents.  Needless to say, the children who have been with me for several holiday seasons know it really well!  Our moms and dads were very impressed!

Before our party, we talked about gift etiquette; looking at the giver, saying thank you, and making a positive comment about the gift - even if it is just to notice the color or to acknowledge the thought behind the gift.  So often our kiddos are overwhelmed with gifts, and tear through them.  Taking the time to be appreciative is important!

Julie and I give each child a small gift to keep. This year the kiddos got a small stuffed animal.

The second gift the children open is something to stay at school for us all to enjoy.  We got new books, some puzzles, and stuffed animals!

Do you remember being a child?  One thing I remember is my love of paper, any kind of paper!  After we had opened our gifts, we gathered up the paper to save for crafts the next day.  Used fancy wrapping paper with snowmen and shiny sparkles is "trash" to most adults, but to the children, it is treasure!  They cut it, pasted on it, and decorated it like crazy the day after our party!

 Our gifts to our parents is all the ornaments we've made.  I treasure the Rudolph ornaments my boys made with their hand and foot prints when they were small, the popsicle stick snowmen, and paper gingerbread men... I hope our parents all find these as precious as I do! 

Then Santa came to see us!  A few of the children weren't too sure about him, but most were thrilled to have him visit. 

 Before the party, I prepped plates with candy, green frosting, a plastic knife (to spread the frosting), and an ice cream cone.  Turning these ingredients into Christmas trees was our culminating activity, and it was wonderful!  I found the idea here, and all over pinterest.com!

As you can see, the children were very engaged with this project!  (Gee, candy, sugar cones, and a craft project all in one, wonder what attracted them?)

Happy Holidays!  I hope your Christmas, or whatever holiday you celebrate, is as sweet as can be!

A Tree Full of Love

I have a friend whose Christmas tree is worthy of Rockefeller Center or Better Homes and Gardens.  All her ornaments are color coordinated, her tree a perfect theme of gold and white, glowing with lights.  It is a beautiful tree.  

My Christmas tree looks like the fallout from an explosion at a craft store.  There are salt dough ornaments, adorned pine cones, fading construction paper, and snowmen made from plastic spoons.  I have felt, buttons, beads and decorated clay pots, and a good supply of glitter.  I may have the only cardboard and felt hamster in existence, and it is patiently waiting for Santa in my Christmas tree.

 What I have is a tree filled almost to the brim with love.  There are ornaments commemorating a lot of special occasions, things my children created, and gifts from family and friends.  As I put each ornament out, I remember the people who gave them to me, or the reason I bought them.  I think of the stories behind the ornaments, and I have to admit, sometimes I tear up.  I count these ornaments amongst my most precious possessions, each one a vessel for memories.  Today I want to share the stories of some of the ornaments my students have given me over the last 20 Christmases.

Seventeen years ago, I read Alan Say's touching story, Tree of Cranes, to my first grade class, and then taught them how to fold a simple origami bird with a small square of Christmas wrap.  Later that day, Natalie, Michelle and Rachael each made me an origami bird from manilla paper.  These birds remind me of both the sweet girls who made them, and Say's book, and it is fitting that they spend each December perched together, deep within my Christmas tree.

Another year, Bree made me the clay pot ornament you see above.  In my thank you note, I wrote that I would put it on my tree every year, and think of her when I did.  How incredibly true that is, for that night she made me 6 paper angels too.  Such a sweet gesture, and I relive it each December.

Some of these gifts of love came from a store, presented in a fancy cardboard box with a photo of the ornament on the outside.  On most, I wrote the name of the child who gave it to me, and each year, those ornaments go back into their boxes, and I remember the kiddos as they were, so long ago.

 Love doesn't always come in fancy packaging.  The next ornament came from Keith, who was in my very first first-grade class.  He brought it to me the year he was in third grade.  He remembered me!  He still wanted me to know he was thinking of me.  Is there any gift more precious?

 Another year, Osuvaldo gave me a potted Christmas tree with a snowman and some pine cones decorating it.  I didn't manage to keep the tree alive, but the memory of the child and the gift lives on in the pine cone that still has a place on my tree.

 There are ornaments from Brian, and Avery, Alex and Aaron, Hadley and Tina, Ella and Hailey.  Many more, from Colin, Paige, Travis, Will, Lauren, Noah, Tiernan, Danny, Grant, Ana, Ella, T.J., James and some whose names I can no longer recall.

My tree may not look perfect, but it is filled almost to the brim with love.  As you enjoy this holiday season, which ever holiday you celebrate, I hope you both give and receive gifts of kindness, thoughtfulness and love, whatever form they may take.

Happy Holidays!