10 pages.

Review the 2D shapes with this sweet "craftivity."  You can make a set and use as flashcards, an independent center game, an interesting assessment, or have students choose one and make a bulletin board.  Caption: "______________'s Kinders Are Really Shaping Up!"

10 pages.

Review shapes with this fun "craftivity."  Use as a bulletin board, center activity or have students make one of their own. Take a closer look and you'll see that the snowman's facial features also match the 2D shape of his head.

1-2-3 Come Do Some Winter Craftivities And Games With Me!

Did you ever have one of those days where you might as well have stayed in bed?  Well that was yesterday! The reason there was no blog article was that our main server (in Texas) crashed. It seemed everything techno in my world went on the fritz, from my e-mail, to the printer and even my favorite design software was having glitchy hiccups. 

I apologize if you tried to visit us and got an error-connection message.  I'm back to being a happy camper with lots of FREEBIES to share.

Keep review of upper and lowercase letters, numbers and skip counting fresh and interesting, by making these puzzles.  Laminate for an independent center (I've included a blank grid for kiddo's to place the pieces on), or have your students pick one, run them off and then they cut and glue them to a blue or black sheet of construction paper. 

If you're doing the alphabet, have students think of a word that starts with that letter on the puzzle piece, and then write it on the appropriate tree-strip.

Remind students to leave a little gap inbetween the pieces.  You can add a bit of pizzazz by dipping a Q-tip in glue and then dotting on "snowflakes."  For an awesome effect, sprinkle with white or silver glitter.

These make a lovely bulletin board too. Caption: Learning About Letters and Numbers Is "Snow" Much Fun! or "Look At All Of The TREE-mendous Work From Mrs. Henderson's Kinders!"  Click on the link for the Snowman Tummy Puzzles or The 13 Merry-Making Tree Puzzles.

Since the Silly Shaped penguins and Owls Shape Up "craftivities" continue to be in the top 10 downloaded items from my site, I decided to design a Shapely Snowman, as well as a Gingerbread set, with plans to make special shape pals for all of the months. (i.e. pumpkins for October and butterflies for April!) 

You can make the gingerbread heads a game, by running the bow pieces off on red construction paper.
Instead of gluing the shape words inside the bows and then gluing them to the gingerbread head, glue only the bows.  Keep the shape-word circles separate.

Students place the shape word on to the matching shapely gingerbread's bow.  To make a girl gingerbread, glue the bows to the top of the head. Glue it as a bow tie under the chin to make a gingerbread boy. To add a bit of pizzazz, I used white puffy paint for "frosting."  Click on the link for the Shapely Gingerbread packet. 

There are also several things you can do with the Shapely Snowman templates.  Make a laminated set for a bulletin board, or use as puzzles for an independent center activity. 

For a center matching game, do not glue the hats on the snowmen.  Instead make only one hat with interchangeable hat bands.  Students pick a shape word-hat band and place it on the hat, then they look for the matching snowman and place the hat on his head.  Play continues 'til the child has used all of the hat bands and snowmen.  Click on the link to view/download the Shapely Snowman Packet. 

Another popular winter activity is the Snowman Glyph.  Each one turns out a bit different so this too makes an adorable bulletin board.  Click on the link to view/download the Snowman Glyph.

Practice addition and subtraction with Dominic the Snowman Domino-Dice game.  Click on the link to grab it.

That's it for today.  Thanks for visiting.  I hope you can stop by tomorrow for even more FREEBIES.  My brain is on over-drive again, and since the weather outside is "frightful" I might as well have a "delightful" time inside designing away.  Feel free to PIN away!

"Snowmen fall from Heaven unassembled." -Unknown

7 pages.

Reinforce a variety of standards, with these snowman puzzles that cover upper and lowercase letters, counting forwards and backwards + skip counting by 2's, 3's, 5's, and 10's.  Make a set to use as puzzles for an independent center, by printing, laminating and trimming the pieces.  Also print and laminate the blank grid.  Students use it to place the puzzle pieces on top. 

14 pages.

You can make these into puzzles, laminate and use each year, or run off copies on green construction paper and have students cut up their own puzzle.  I've provided a blank grid for you to run off on white construction paper, so students can place the puzzle pieces on it, or have children cut and glue their pieces to a sheet of white or black construction paper, turning this "craftivity" into a lovely bulletin board.  Your caption can be: TREE-mendous Work By ___________________'s (teacher's name) kindergarteners (grade).

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

I decided to share some of my favorite December Easy Readers with you today.  These make nice whole-group reading activities or something simple and quick to plug into your Daily 5 writing block.

In My Winter Color Words booklet, students read, trace and write the color words and then color the pictures. The last page has students write about their favorite winter color and draw a picture of something that color.   Click on the link to view/download it.

This easy reader has been so popular, that I decided to make one featuring penguins; this too reinforces colors and color words. 

The last page has students write which penguin was their favorite, as well as draw a picture of something a blank penguin is holding and then color it.  

I did a huge penguin unit in January, but I know many teachers have penguins as a theme for December too, so I'm featuring some penguin activities this month.  I've also included a certificate of praise in this packet.  Click on the link to view/download the Penguin Colors booklet.

Hurry! Help Santa, is an older easy reader before I had all the software, graphics and fonts that I have available to me now, but it's still a favorite that I think your kiddo's might enjoy too.  In this easy reader students trace and write as well as cut and glue.  I've included traceable word cards and a graphing extension as well.  Click on the link to view/download the Hurry Help Santa Get Ready easy reader.

December is a Great Month includes many Dolch words. Children use picture clues to help them read the story as they cut and glue the matching pictures to help explain why December is such a great month.

Two graphing extensions, 33 traceable word cards + a certificate of praise are also included.  Click on the link to view/download the December is a Great Month easy reader.

Light Up The Tree reinforces numbers, number words (through 10) as well as colors.   Students trace and write the numbers and number words + draw that many light bulbs.

On the last page children guess-timate how many lights are on the tree.  A graphing extension is included. Click on the link to view/download he Light Up The Tree Easy Reader.

In I See Circles At Christmas, students also trace and write.  A graphing extension + traceable word cards are also included. 

As another writing extension you could have students choose a square or rectangle and challenge them to write their own I See booklet.  Click on the link to view/download the I See Circles At Christmas easy reader. 

If you like the idea of students creating their own booklets, be sure and check out the Christmas Class Books, where students write a page to go with 3 different booklets.   Includes 5 graphing extensions, so you can incorporate math skills. The class-made books are:

• In December: (Students choose one of their favorite activities that they do during the month),
• Hooray! It's A Snow Day:  (Children write about all of the things they did when school was cancelled) and
• Christmas Tree: (Students share how they will decorate their dream tree and what they will put on the top).

After students share their work, collect and collate the pages into a class book.  Click on the link to view/download the Christmas Class Books packet.

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

"I will honor Christmas in my heart, and try and keep it all the year." -Charles Dickens, A Christmas Carol

14 pages.

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.

15 pages.

If your students enjoy The Diary of a Wimpy Kid, they're sure to get excited about this very creative writing prompt.  Includes templates to make a file-folder diary, diary pages, clip art to decorate their diary cover with, or use these as incentives and give them to students for good writing, effort, improvement etc. I've also included 30 writing prompt ideas to jump start your students' creative minds.

1-2-3 Come Go On An Elf Ed-venture With Me!

Woo hoo!  It seems that The Elf On A "Classroom" Shelf activities, have been the kinds of things visitors have been looking for.   (Scroll down to the last two blog articles to check things out.)   I hope you enjoy these latest FREEBIES just as much.

Since teachers have commented on how the "sliders" are a nice way to "sneak" in a little art, with all of those standards, I decided to design "Jingle" the elf slider. 

There are sliders (strips of paper that students slide up and down) for upper and lowercase letters, numbers to 30, counting backwards from 10 to 0 as well as 20 to 0 + skip counting by 2's, 3's, 5's, and 10's. They are a quick, easy and fun way to whole group assess.

If you don't want to make a slider, have students make a "Belly Booklet."  They can practice writing letters, numbers, words, their name, or whatever else you're working on, and record things on just-the-right-size pages.  Click on the link to view/download Jingle, the Elf Slider Packet.

Venn diagrams are a wonderful way to help your little elves compare and contrast.  Click on the link to view/download the 13 Venn diagrams with an interesting elf theme.  Pick one for your kiddos, or give them a choice.

Since Diary of a Wimpy Kid is really popular with children, I decided to make a Diary of a Wimpy Elf. I had a fun time designing this packet, and think your students will enjoy decorating their "top secret" file-folder diary and making entries as an elf, who is recording his/her activities and adventures. 

I've included "spy stickers" to decorate their diaries with, or use them as incentives for great writing, excellent effort, wonderful improvement etc.  There are also 2 diary-page templates that you can also use.  Click on the link to view/download Diary of a Wimpy Elf.

Here's the scenario to help jumpstart your students' writing: Imagine being the smallest and weakest elf at the North Pole.  You so want to help Santa, but everyone thinks you are too little, too dumb and too weak to do anything but be a candy cane tester, licking a sample from each batch to make sure they taste just right. 

To make matters worse, the only thing "big" about you are your feet and ears.  They are ginormous!  This little elf constantly daydreams about all of the adventures he’d go on as a super-spy for Santa. 

After all, being little has its advantages.  He could hide almost anywhere; and his huge ears help him hear just about anything. His humongous feet allow him to ski down slippery slopes, without having to put real skis on! 

Give your students this background information (included in the packet) and have them become that tiny elf, with the giant feet, huge ears and big heart.  Have them write about what they do and how they feel. I've also included 30 crazy writing prompts to jump-start their creative minds, hopefully causing a few giggles.

Encourage them to name their elf and draw cartoon-like pictures in their diary, like Jeff Kinney does in his book.  When your elf activities are winding down, have students write a few pages where they "save the day" and become a highly respected, and depended-upon elf,  who is a very special spy for Santa.  Click on the link to view/download The Diary of a Wimpy Elf.

That's it for today.  Thanks for visiting.  I hope your kiddos get excited about doing a bit of creative writing.  I still remember Mr. Voseteig reading a Harriet the Spy book to us in 5th grade. 

We all got to have our special "spy notebook" to write in.  My creative writing juices went wild, and it was my first A+ ... I was hooked.  The excitement of that spy book, gave way to Nancy Drew books, which became my favorite. I've been a life-long lover of reading and writing ever since.

“I'll be famous one day, but for now I'm stuck in middle school with a bunch of morons." - Greg Heffley,”  (-Jeff Kinney, Diary of a Wimpy Kid.)

10 pages.

Cover a variety of standards with this cute elf slider.  Slider strips for shapes, upper and lowercase letters; numbers to 30, skip counting by 2's, 3's, 5's and 10's + counting backwards from 10 to 0 and 20 to 0.  If you don't want to make a slider, create a "belly booklet." Have students write letters, numbers, words, their name or whatever else you are working on inside this mini-booklet that's glued to the elf's tummy.