1-2-3 Come Do Some Creative Christmas Writing With Me

No matter what your age, pretending is so much fun, particularly with children.  It's easy for them to become princesses and pirates. 

With that in mind, I designed 7, creative, Christmas-themed, writing prompts. 

They are easy-peasy "print & go" worksheets, that I'm sure your students will enjoy.

The more creative aspect, has students "think outside the box" and really try and become an elf, reindeer, snowman or gingerbread cookie.

What would these "characters" say, or what might they overhear in a conversation that Santa is having? 

You can simply give students a choice, and only do one, or add the cute journal cover, and have students write a new one each day.

Another option, is to have students do a non-fiction prompt, using factual information that they've learned about penguins and snowflakes.

What would they say, that would tell us factual information?

When everyone is done, go around the room, and have each student share one thing.

No time to complete them all in class? They make fun "homework" that your students will enjoy doing.

To add a bit of technology to the lesson, give them the sites you want them to visit to get some facts about penguins, reindeer, or snow, that they can then include when writing their sentences.

My full-color, completed samples, will give you an example that you can share with your students, to help explain what you want them to do. They match the black & white templates for students.

Click on the link to pop on over to my TpT shop to have a look at the Now You're Talkin' Christmas Writing Prompts/Journal.

Here's hoping your kiddos enjoy "pretend writing" as much as I did creating the samples.

The featured FREEBIE today, is another form of writing.  Using a Venn diagram helps your students learn to compare and contrast in a fun way. 

There are 7 Venn diagrams in this packet, all featuring an elf. I've included color as well as black and white templates. 

Use the black and white copy for students to write their own, then call them up for a whole-group discussion and add everyone's ideas onto the colored Venn diagram. 

Well that's it for today.  Thanks for stopping by. 

It's a chilly, but sunny morning, and I'm in the mood and energized to start decorating for Christmas!  Wishing you a festive day.

"The best of all gifts around any Christmas tree: the presence of a happy family, all wrapped up in each other." -Burton Hillis

1-2-3 Come Do Some Reindeer-Themed "Craftivities" With Me

 "Do you have any easy reindeer activities for younger students?" asked Emily from Colorado. I was happy to e-mail her back with a big "Yes!"  While I was linking her up to a few of my favorites, I thought I'd feature some in today's blog article. 

Reindeer are the perfect animals for making hand and foot print "craftivities."  I've designed several keepsake cuties for you to choose from. 

The Lunch Bag Reindeer is A wonderful keepsake art project that makes a great manipulative to whole group assess spatial directions, and body part identification.

This paper bag puppet is terrific for interactive play during a reading of many December stories featuring reindeer characters! Click on the link to view/download the Lunch Bag Reindeer.

My personal favorite reindeer "craftivity" is Rudy.  His head is made by tracing a child's foot with their shoe on.  The antlers of course are hand prints cut from a darker shade of brown construction paper. 

Add a neck and wreath collar and you have an adorable keepsake. The poem I wrote on the collar reads: "These are my finger prints oh so small, that I left on your heart and every wall.  This is my hand you used to hold, when I was only ____ years old."

Ribbon, wiggle eyes, a red pom pom nose and a photo of the child, add those finishing touches. Click on the link to view/download the Reindeer Hand and Foot Print Crafts. 

Also in this packet is Reindeer Noses.  These "Sliders" are a quick, easy and fun way to whole group assess 2D shapes.

To review an ABAB pattern as well, have students alternate coloring the shapes red and black.  Call out a shape; students slide to it and then hold their reindeer in the air. 

Call on quiet students to continue to choose shapes 'til all have been reinforced. You can see at a glance who is is having difficulty.  I'm designing

The last craftivity in the reindeer keepsake packet features a reindeer that students color. You can add wiggle eyes and a pom pom nose as well.  Call students up to the painting center and paint their hand a dark shade of brown.  Press to make antlers. On Dasher, Dancer, Prancer, Vixen, Comet, Cupid, Donner and Blitzen; you too Rudolph. 

If you're looking for an inexpensive, quick and easy treat to give your kiddo's, I think you'll enjoy making a Snack Baggie filled with 8 chocolate reindeer noses + a red gum ball (Rudolph's nose.) 

This is my version from several other Pinterest pins that I've seen.  My poem reads: "Nine delicious reindeer noses from me.  Packaged with lots of love and TLC.  They come with happy smiles of joy to say--I hope you have a Merry Christmas Day!"

Students could also make this as a gift for their family. To make it extra special, have them make a reindeer with their thumb print and sign it from their little "dear." Click on the link to view/print Chocolate Reindeer Noses. 

Keeping the nose thing going, I also designed The Shape Of My Reindeer's Nose booklet, which is perfect to do with the reindeer nose shape slider mentioned above.

You can cover a lot of Common Core State Standards, as students read, add end punctuation, underline capital letters; trace and write the shape word; trace and write the color word; trace the shape and then draw and color that shaped nose on the reindeer. 

A graphing extension is also included, where students tell which shaped nose they liked the best.   Click on the link to view/download The Shape Of My Reindeer's Nose.

Finally, I revamped "You Can Count On Rudolph" and included trace & write pages. 

Students can count  to 20, count backwards from 10 to 0 or 20 to 0, or skip count by 2's, 3's, 5's. and 10's.

I've also included a red-hot cinnamon "reindeer noses" counting activity in this packet as well.

My Y5's LOVED filling their own mini baggies. Click on the link to view/download the Counting On Rudolph packet.

Thanks for visiting. I have a mountain of cleaning to do today, as I put away Thanksgiving and fall decorations. 

I'm excited to haul out the Christmas stuff.  Wishing you an energy-filled day.

"Reindeer are not only for children; they are for grandmothers fond of watching the moon." -Unknown

1-2-3 Come Do Some Reindeer "Craftivities" With Me

On Dasher, Dancer, Prancer, Vixen, Comet, Cupid, Donner and Blitzen; you too Rudolph. I wanted to finish up with reindeer-themed activities, by sharing 2 revamped favorites, + 2 new FREEBIES.

If you're looking for an inexpensive and easy treat to give your kiddo's, I think you'll enjoy making a Snack Baggie filled with 8 chocolate reindeer noses + a red gum ball (Rudolph's nose.) 

This is my version from several other Pinterest pins that I've seen.  My poem reads: "9 delicious reindeer noses from me.  Packaged with lots of love and TLC.  They come with happy smiles of joy to say--I hope you have a Merry Christmas Day!"

If you'd like to have your students make this as a gift for their family, have them make a thumb print reindeer and sign it from their little "dear." Click on the link to view/print Chocolate Reindeer Noses. 

Keeping the nose thing going, I also designed The Shape Of My Reindeer's Nose booklet. This is the perfect language arts extension for the reindeer shape sliders from yesterday's post.

Cover a lot of Common Core State Standards as students read, add end punctuation, underline capital letters; trace and write the shape word; trace and write the color word; trace the shape and then draw and color that shaped nose on the reindeer. 

A graphing extension is also included, where students tell which shaped nose they liked the best.   Click on the link to view/download The Shape Of My Reindeer's Nose.

Finally, I revamped "You Can Count On Rudolph" and included trace & write pages.  Students can count  to 20, count backwards from 10 to 0 or 20 to 0, or skip count by 2's, 3's, 5's. and 10's.

I've also included a red-hot cinnamon "reindeer noses" counting activity in this packet as well. Click on the link to view/download the Counting On Rudolph packet.

Thanks for visiting today.  Feel free to PIN away.  I design and blog daily, so I hope you can stop by again tomorrow for even more FREEBIES.

"Christmas is like the morning; every year we experience it as new, partly because of the magic of snow and sleighs; night silver light and the silhouette of Dancer against the moon." -Unknown

1-2-3 Come Do Some Christmas Craftivities With Me

If you'd like to put a lid on the question: How many more days 'til Christmas vacation? make a countdown craftivity.  Last week, I designed one with a gingerbread using a paper chain, so you could work on patterning, but if you'd like your kiddo's to see and practice real numbers, then you might want to make either Santa's Countdown Beard or the Finger Print Wreath.

Counting down the days to Christmas, by gluing a cotton ball on a numbered circle, is not my original idea. 

I've seen it many times, in a variety of ways, all over the Internet, so  I thought I'd draw a Santa and give this idea a whirl too.  Click on the link to view/download the Santa's Countdown.

Make one for your class and take turns having students glue a cotton ball on each day, or run off a copy for each child and set this up as a daily center. 

An easy way to set up independent centers, without taking up a lot of room, is to use TV trays.  Simply keep all of your students' Santa's in a basket on one of the trays and a bottle of glue and a container of cotton balls on another.

If you'd like an alternative to Santa, I also designed a Countdown to Christmas Wreath. 

So that you can reinforce the fact that December has 31 days, both the Santa and wreath have numbers to 31. 

Have students circle the 25th with a red or green crayon so they can readily see that special day. 

Students can opt for a paper-heart "bow" or a real ribbon one.  For the added "awww-dorable" factor, have children glue a photo in the center. 

To countdown days, students press their thumb onto a red stamp pad and place it on the appropriate day.  Click on the link to view/download the Countdown Wreath.

If you're looking for some other keepsake wreath activities, finger painting one was a Y5's favorite. 

Because learning colors was one of our standards, I'd often have students mix 2 primary ones to make a secondary color. 

This also was a teachable moment for reviewing equations: Yellow + Blue = Green.  A "magical" way to do this, is by fingerpainting.

Put a dollop of yellow and a much smaller dot of blue on their tag board wreath cut out.  Children swirl and mix 'til they have a pretty shade of green. 

My kiddo's often squealed in delight:  "Mrs. H. come quick!  Come see!  My paint is green!"  Their joy was worth the bit of mess.

Set aside to dry.  Later, students add finger print holly berries and glue the poem in the middle: "I made this pretty wreath for you.  I made it mixing yellow and blue.  Yellow + blue as you have seen, makes a lovely Christmas green.  The red berries--I'll give you a hint, are made from someone's finger print.  This wreath is a circle it has no end.  It's like my love, that I now send." Click on the link to view/download the Fingerpainted Wreath Craftivity.

Another idea is to draw a circle in the center of a large square of tag board.  Paint child's hand with green paint and have them press it around the circle to make a wreath.  (To keep things bright, paint-press; paint-press etc.)

My son, Jason, did this activity in Y5's 29 years ago and I still have it somewhere in the basement! Click on the link to see a tutorial of another mom doing this with her daughter Elsie. 

Instead of paper, she used fabric.  To make a fabric project do-able for a class, simply have students bring in a plain white pillowcase.

Reindeer are the perfect animals for making hand and foot print "craftivities."  I've designed several for you to choose from. 

The Lunch Bag Reindeer is A wonderful keepsake art project that makes a great manipulative to whole group assess spatial directions, and body part identification.

This paper bag puppet is terrific for interactive play during a reading of many December stories featuring reindeer characters! Click on the link to view/download the Lunch Bag Reindeer.

My personal favorite reindeer "craftivity" is Rudy.  His head is made by tracing a child's foot with their shoe on.  The antlers of course are hand prints cut from a darker shade of brown construction paper. 

Add a neck and wreath collar and you have an adorable keepsake. The poem on the collar: "These are my finger prints oh so small, that I left on your heart and every wall.  This is my hand you used to hold, when I was only ____ years old."

Ribbon, wiggle eyes, a red pom pom nose and a photo of the child, add those finishing touches. Click on the link to view/download the Reindeer Hand and Foot Print Crafts. 

Also in this packet is Reindeer Noses.  "Sliders" are a quick, easy and fun way to whole group assess, in this case, 2D shapes.

To review an ABAB pattern as well, have students alternate coloring the shapes red and black.  Call out a shape; students slide to it and hold it in the air. 

Call on quiet students to continue to choose shapes 'til all have been reinforced. You can see at a glance who is is having difficulty.  I'm designing The Reindeer's Nose easy reader today; so I hope you can stop by tomorrow to grab that freebie as a nice language arts follow up.

The last craftivity in the reindeer keepsake packet features a reindeer that students color. You can add wiggle eyes and a pom pom nose as well.  Call students up to the painting center and paint their hand a dark shade of brown.  Press to make antlers.

Thanks for visiting today.  Feel free to PIN anything from my site. 

"To dance with the moon, you need only become friendly with the dreams of a reindeer." -Unknown