Memories Made in First: Rudolph

Teachers, I know you will agree with me, to keep your sanity the week before Winter Break you will do whatever is necessary! I'm trying to keep engagement high and off-task behavior low by having a daily theme for the rest of the week. Today was Rudolph Day.

We are learning about adjectives and rhyme & rhythmn in our poetry unit. I made sure to fit our learning objectives in with my theme. I got in some nonfiction too, just because I thought first graders would love this book about Reindeer.

The original Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer is poem by Robert L. May. I was worried that this poem would be too long and I'd need to split the reading into two parts, but the kiddos were glued to it. We stopped twice, once after the first few pages, and once again at the end of the story, to discuss the words the author used to describe Rudolph and we added them to our anchor chart.

We used a short poem about Rudolph, printed poster size, during shared reading. We identified rhyming words and "found" the rythmn by clapping the beat. I forgot to snap a pic of the poem, so I'll insert it later.

We also learned about reindeer by reading A Day in the Life: Polar Animals - Reindeer. Then, we made a tree map to display our learning. We split into three teams - can, have, are. The can-team recalled things a reindeer can do. The have-team listed things a reindeer has. The are-team had the trickiest job, but they figured it out and did a great job! The are-team focused in on what reindeer ARE hunted by. Our goal was to stick with evidence from the text and NOT add our own opinions about reindeer.

CAN:

dig with theie hooves

swim in icy water

sleep standing up

warm air with their noses

travel with (other) reindeer

HAVE:

heater in the nose (the text said their special noses can heat up the cold air)

fur

antlers

hooves

ARE:

good swimmers

hunted by polar bears

hunted by people

mammals that have babies (we adapted this answer from what the student actually wrote)

The last hour of the day (after math & specials), we did a quick reindeer craft and watched the 1964 classic about Rudolph. I adapted this craft from I saw on Pinterest. The original can be found HERE. I changed the antlers, added hooves, and used a red pom pom for the nose.

Speaking of Rudolph, last week during Creative Cookies (an after-school club), we made Rudolph cookies.

Tomorrow is The Grinch Who Stole Christmas Day. Thursday is Polar Express Day. Friday is half day, but we are going to learn about snow and Frosty the Snowman.

I love the three weeks between Thanksgiving break and Winter break (errr...Christmas break)! The atmosphere at school is so festive and the hallways and classrooms are full of holiday writing and craftivities.

In my classroom we are getting most of the crafts done during Work on Writing. Students must complete a writing assignment before they make a craft. This keeps them motivated. It's easy to be off task this time of year seeing as a two week vacation is tempting us with thoughts of sleeping late, no homework, and gifts galore. Correction....tempting ME! He he. Normally we free write in our journals during Work on Writing but this time of year we free write after we've completed our writing prompt and craftivity.

I choose writing prompts and crafts based on Christmas literature for each week. Last week was Rudolph week.

Craft template from Nikki Sabiston.

Craft templete from First Grade Schoolhouse

I promise the kiddos wrote, but I only think to take out my phone and snap a pic when I see a cute craftivity! We wrote alternate versions of Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer, "My Pet Reindeer", and "If I Were a Reindeer". For the third craftivity the kiddos cut brown construction paper into strips, then snipped the strips into little peices. Easy peasy.

We also read Rudolph books during Interactive Read Aloud. We compared the original poem to a more contemporary version of the story. We read Olive, the other Reindeer too.

I found this nonfiction book about reindeer on Amazon. It did not arrive in time for Rudolph week, but I'm going to fit it in because 1) it's Christmas-y and 2) it's nonfiction and I like to couple fiction with related nonfiction as much as possible.

This week is Gingerbread week! We are reading, writing, and crafting gingerbread galore. Tomorrow we will sample some gingerbread cookies just for fun and to make connections to our reading. I picture-failed this week in my classroom. But I did snap pics of these cute gingerbread in other hallways at my school.

This week our big book is The Gingerbread Man and we read these ginger favorites too!

We are also working on hand print calendars for parent gifts. So much fun and so dang cute (but time intensive for sure)!

Next week is Polar Express and Twas the Night Before Christmas week. In the plans: a pajama fashion show (we wear pajamas to school for Polar Express Day), the book, the movie, hot chocolate, a package from the North Pole with silver bells for everyone, a nonfiction book about the North Pole, and LOTS of different versions of the 'Twas the Night Before Christmas.