14 December 2011

Reindeer Games

For those of y’all that have 2 days left until Winter Break, can I get at “Woot! Woot!”?!?!?  As my dear friend, Abby, would say, “PTL!!!!!!!”  This week has been crazy insane…and the scary thing is that I know I’m not alone!!!  Between gift making, gift wrapping, station work, and catching up, my classroom looks like a scene straight out of The Wizard of Oz :) 

Reindeer are one of my favorite things to learn about, so this week has been all about reindeer fun & games!!

We’ve started each morning with the AMAZING Word of the Day sheets from Made for 1st Grade.

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source: Made For 1st Grade

I LOVE these!!  And it’s SO fun to see my kids use these words…spelled CORRECTLY {halleluia!!!} in their writing!!!!

We’re also finishing up the last few activities from my Christmas units {Merry & Bright Math Tubs & Rockin’ Around the Christmas Tree Literacy Centers}  This season, my kids’ FAVORITE game has been the “Punctuation Present”!! I’m definitely NOT complaining because they’re *finally* starting to understand the difference among these types of sentences!  Woo hoo!!  Because they’ve played it so much, I’ve had to come up with a few extension activities for it.  We made little “punctuation presents” today {I forgot my camera!!!} and the kids loved it!  Basically, I cut out a gift template for each of the kids and that was the cover of their book.  When you open up the book, there’s a ‘telling’ page, a ‘question’ page, and an ‘excited’ page.  The kids had to write & illustrated holiday sentences for each type of sentence.  They LOVED it!  ANDDDDDDD…they’ve requested another round tomorrow :)  You can download a copy for your classroom, too!  Just click on the pic below….

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I’ve been using Sarah Cooley’s Reindeer Games unit and I’M.IN.LOVE.  Her illustrations are DARLING and they straight up make me smile.  The kids have loved them, too!!!  She always has such original ideas and the kids love her activities!  If you’ve still got time left and need more ideas, you need to check it out!! 

cover page reindeer

 

We made these cute little reindeer to practice reindeer name ABC order.  I haven’t scanned the tracers because I’ve been all kinds of busy, so I’m sorry I don’t have that to share!!!  I accidentally missed a reindeer, but my kids were quick to solve the problem and make their own corrections. 

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We read a few fiction stories about reindeer and then the kids wrote letters to Santa telling him why they’d make good reindeer.  Their writing has improved SO much this year…especially their handwriting!!!  We’ve still got lots to work on, but I’m SO proud of how far they’ve come!

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Speaking of reindeer, I made these little “Reindeer Noses” packets for the boys in my oldest son’s playgroup.  Of course, I found this idea on Pinterest.  Love.  I also found the cute little label online.  The little brown bags are from the craft section at Hobby Lobby {12 for $1.99} and the bag is filled with little red & green M&M’s.  If you’re still looking for a little class gift….and don’t have any allergies in your class…this is the perfect little something to give!  Inexpensive and absolutely PRECIOUS!!!  They’d also be perfect to give after learning about reindeer, too!!

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Now it’s time to get back to baking!!!  I’ll be up to my ears in sugar & flour for the next few days!!  LOVE IT!!!!! 

And everything in my little TpT shop is 20% off through Friday!

HAPPY WEDNESDAY, PEOPLE!!!!!

13 comments:

  1. LOVE those cute reindeer! Thanks for all your ideas...they'll come in handy since I still have a week to go...booo!

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  2. So, so, so stinkin' cute! Hop on over to my blog to grab my Christmas Riddles game...it is a fun *freebie* that will keep my kiddos busy the next 2 days as we finish projects.

    Read some of my inspirational poems too! They are a good reminder why God put each one of our kiddos in our rooms for a reason! =)

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  3. I love, love, love your blog! Thank you for all of your creative projects and downloads. I have gotten a lot of your tpt units and love them! I teach Kinder so I have to adjust, but I just love them! Hope you have a great winter break. We still have 6 school days left (yuck, yuck, triple yuck!) I am new to the world of blogging but if you ever have the time, come check me out!

    http://somelittlelearners.blogspot.com/

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  4. Hello!

    The punctuation present game looks great, but my google docs is saying it is too big to download. Is anyone else having this problem?

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  5. What font is the punctuation present game in? I am unable to download.

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  6. @Susie & Cody...not having that problem here, but it might be that the file is too big to download a preview. You can still download the document.

    @kathie...the fonts are "Wish you Were Here" and "Smiley Monster". They were saved as a PDF, so even if you don't have the fonts, you should still be able to retrieve the document :)

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  7. Such cute ideas! Next week is my Holiday Celebration week and I will definetly use some of them!

    Thank you for sharing with us your creativity! Enjoy your break and holiday!

    Maria
    The Jersey Teacher
    http://thejerseyteacher.blogspot.com/

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  8. Hey there! This is a random question, but I am trying to look back at your posts from January last year and when I go to the archive, it brings up the first few posts from January, but I don't see a place to get to the ones older than the first ones pulled up. Does that even make sense? :) Thanks for the help...my team loves your ideas!

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  9. I wanted to thank you for sharing your ideas. Your RACK post thoroughly blessed me and my class too. We spent 12 days RACKing, and the best part is what kids were doing on their own. If you have time, I'd love for you to read about it. Again, thank you so much.

    My first RACK post is at the bottom. The most recent is at the top. http://foreverin1st.blogspot.com/search/label/RACK

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  10. Sooooo cute I can't even stand it!

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