Memories Made in First: Deck the Classroom

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.