6 pages.

"Stuff It!" is an interesting and fun way for students to practice writing.  I've included several options, with two different stocking patterns so you could actually do both of them, or give students a choice.

4 pages

A Sweet Tweet For Santa, is an interesting and fun way for students to practice writing.  Students color, cut and glue the bird to the top of their writing prompt paper, then each day (for 10 days) they jot down (tweet) something sweet that they've done, that Santa might be interested in knowing. 

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 "Build" A Snowman With Me

I was really on a creative roll the other day.  All one needs to do is spend a little time on Pinterest and if you're like me, the brain shoots into over drive!  So many ideas and not enough time in my life to do everything I'd like to.  Sound familiar?

While browsing, I found a wooden snowman used as a countdown to Christmas.  Versions of this idea were all over the Internet, from crafty moms to companies; I'm not sure who was the originator, so I can't link up or give appropriate credit.

All of them though, had just 25 numbers on them, because they were using the snowman as a countdown activity. 

I LOVE the idea of the moving carrot nose, so I thought I'd write "stuff" around the snowman's face that would make him perfect for the classroom, as an educational manipulative in December or January. Thus "Snowy" the ed-venturous educational snowman was born.

It was fun designing a paper snowman face that can review upper and lowercase letters and numbers to 31.  I've also included a face for skip counting by 2's, 3's, 5's or 10's.  Or... You can simply make one for your calendar center and countdown the days in January.  

These make a quick, easy and fun way to whole-group assess too. 

Call out a number/letter and have students move their snowman's nose to that position or... move your teacher sample to an uppercase letter, and have students find the matching lowercase letter on theirs. 

For added pizzazz, I ran the carrot noses through my crinkle machine.  My Y5's called this the "Cruncher Muncher." 

It provided great fine motor practice, as students turned the crank to get the paper through the rollers. 

Jam paper carries this awesome tool called a "corru-gator"  which easily crimps paper.  They have a "wave" pattern as well as a straight line one.  Once you roll your paper through, it comes out looking like corrugated cardboard, and really adds that finishing touch.

Poke a hole at the end of the carrot and use a brass brad to fasten the nose to the snowman.   Click on the link to view/download the Snowman's Nose packet.

An adorable book to read before or after this activity, is entitled: Where's Snowy's Nose? by Kelly Asbury. It was one of my Y5's favorites.

Thanks for visiting today.  I need to get going, as I have a few more things I need to run out and get for tomorrow's family gathering. 

Love having a full house, which means 14 adults, 5 grandchildren, 3 dogs and a partridge in a pear tree... Wishing you a glorious day filled with everything and everyone you enjoy the most.

 "Wisdom from a snowman: It's OK to be a little bottom heavy.  Don't get too much sun.  Everyone "nose" carrots are good for you.  Be a jolly happy soul.  It takes a few extra rolls to make a good midsection.  It's fun to hang out in your front yard.  Remember, we're all a bit flakey and that's what makes things interesting. Have a pure heart. White goes with everything.  We are all unique and special.  Accessorize, accessorize, accesorize." -Unknown

9 pages.

Choose one of these Christmas countdown activities, or give your students a choice.  These craftivities are wonderful fine motor practice. Scissor "snipping" helps strengthen children's finger muscles.  They'll enjoy counting down to Christmas day as they "trim" the tree or Santa's beard. 

19 pages.

This packet includes a variety of quick, easy and interesting ways for your kiddos to countdown to Christmas.  Counting down is a great way to help your students practice counting backwards, as well as visually be able to "see" the passage of time, which is a rather abstract concept for young children. 

1-2-3 Come Countdown To Christmas With Me

One of the things that I realized rather quickly, during the 10 years that I taught Y5's, was that younger children don't have a real good grasp of time.  To help my kiddos with this, I did all sorts of calendar activities, so that they could visulalize the passage of time.

Counting down the days of each month, was extremely helpful.  For holiday months, this was especially nice, because it dispensed with the "When is?" questions.  "When is vacation, the party, fieldtrip..." or other special activities that they were looking forward to.

With that in mind, I decided to design a bunch of countdown to Christmas activities. These are simple, quick and easy, so you can choose several.  They are fun independent activities that children can work on a few minutes each day, freeing you up to work one-on-one with students.  

Each month I displayed a different countdown paper chain from the ceiling.  I chose 2 to 3 different colors (appropriate for that month) to make the links out of, so we could review colors as well as patterning. 

You can make the countdown to Christmas gingerbread paper chain craftivity for your class, or have students each make their own, to take home for more practice.  I used white puffy paint (for frosting) and a plaid ribbon bow for extra pizzazz. 

"You Can Count On Santa" is another fun visual for your students. 

As with the gingerbread craft, you can simply make one for your classroom for calendar time, or run off copies for students to make one of their own. 

Using a glue dot, children add a cotton ball to fill in Santa's beard.  This is not my original idea, although I've been doing it long before the Internet.  I love drawing Santa, and hope you like my version. 

Since the Elf On A Shelf story has become a super-fun classroom management tool, I decided to make an elf-themed countdown craftivity as well. 

As students countdown to Christmas, they trace and write the numbers and then color each section of the elf's stockings in an ABAB pattern.  I added flat-backed jewels and mini pom poms for that finishing touch. 

Since jewels are an especially "big deal" to little ones, you can use them as an incentive:  Stay focused and complete your work and earn a bit of dazzle for your countdown elf. 

1-2-3 Countdown To Christmas Alphabetically,  is one of my favorites. 

It's an alphabet booklet.  Students trace and write the letters, as well as the Christmas-themed words. 

They color the letter and picture, then write another word that also begins with that letter.  There are so many options for Christmas-related words, you can easily request that the extra words also need to be about Christmas.

Starting December 1st, have students complete one letter.  Since there are only 25 days 'til Christmas, remind students to complete letters Y and Z on the last day.

For more alphabet reinforcement, the packet also includes 10 worksheets, to help practice writing upper and lowercase letters, putting words in alphabetical order, skip counting the 24 days 'til Christmas by 2's, as well as practicing writing numbers to 31 (The number of days in the month.)

The worksheet in the photo, asks students "What Lowercase Letter Is Missing?"  There are also two "I Spy" game worksheets. 

Click on the link to view/download the Countdown to Christmas Alphabet packet.

Since my Y5's needed lots of scissor practice, I designed two countdown activities, where students snip off the days 'til Christmas. 

The "Trim the Tree" scissor-snipping countdown craftivity, is my own idea, however, cutting off Santa's beard, was an idea I found dozens of versions of, on Pinterest. 

I felt that Santa still needed a beard for his Christmas Eve adventures, so I revamped the concept, and designed a "Snipit Santa."  

Both the Christmas tree and Santa, when completely trimmed, make cute paper ornaments or gift tags.

Click on the link to view/download the Let's Trim the Tree & Santa's Beard Christmas countdown - scissor practice craftivities.

Finally, if you're just looking for something super-simple for your little ones to do, as a countdown activity, click on the link for some Countdown To Christmas Coloring Pages.

I've included a cute gingerbread house cover, for a Christmas countdown file folder, so students can keep all of their countdown activities in one place.

I'd include one that they can color, one they use a bingo dauber on (dotting the days away), one they can earn stickers for, plus a scissor snipping option.  These worksheets only take a few minutes, and because kiddos can work independently, you are freed up to work one-on-one with students.

That's it for today.  I hope you found something here that you can use to help your students understand the concept of time passing.

My grama Lydia used to say that the older she got the more quickly time passed.  Now that I'm enjoying my "golden years" I find that to be truer than true.  Wishing you a peaceful, savor-each-moment kind of day.

"How did it get so late so soon? It's night before it's afternoon. December is here before it's June. My goodness how the time has flewn. How did it get so late so soon?" -Dr. Seuss

20 pages.

This Christmas alphabet booklet, is an interesting and fun way to have students countdown to Christmas.  Starting December 1st, have them complete one letter.  Since there are only 25 days 'til Christmas, remind students to complete letters Y and Z on the last day.

10 pages.

Doing countdown activities, help little ones wrap their heads around the concept of time.  They're also a quick, easy and fun way to practice numbers, as well as counting backwards.   The packet also includes a traceable calendar page for December, with a blank template if you want students to write in their own numbers.

15 pages.

Sliders are a quick, easy and fun way to whole group assess a variety of standards.  I've included 5 different Thanksgiving-themed slider patterns, with slider strips for: upper and lowercase letters, numbers to 30, skip counting by 2's, 3's, 5's, & 10's, as well as counting backwards from 10-0 and 20-0, along with a shape slider too.