Since being blessed with Ellie Grace last year, I'm sure it's obvious that I don't blog nearly as much as I used to. I still love it and wish I could do it more often, but things get a little hectic and it often gets pushed to the back burner. That's why I LOVE Instagram!! It's a quick and easy way to connect with everyone out there! Sooooo, I'm linking up with Elizabeth to share 3 of my favorite pics from this past year.

Here goes...

 This was last year's class on the last day of school. I love how close they grew and this picture just summed it up...they were a super sweet bunch!

 This picture is from our last day before Christmas break. We made pretzel rods to deliver around campus to different staff members. I loved seeing my kids excited about doing something nice for others!

And, if you already follow me on IG, then you know I'm really bad about posting pics of this cutie. This is one of my faves because she's wearing her Auburn dress {that one of my sweet students gave her for her birthday}...and yes, we will be sporting it to church this Sunday before the big game happens Monday. War Eagle!!

If you aren't on Instagram, scoot over and join! And if you already are, let me know your user name so I can follow you!

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Vickie

Last week, we used The Polar Express as a starting point to most of our activities. We read the story Monday, then talked about what it meant to truly believe. Then, we talked about what we wanted Santa to bring us. We talked about how to write a letter and brainstormed some things we could ask for as a class in our model letter. Of course, the kids wanted an elf and new computers!! Since Santa is low in the tech budget, he sent us an elf! We named her Holly and the kids just love her!

After brainstorming and making a rough draft of our own letters, we put the finishing touches on our letters to Santa and attached them to this cute craft from Mrs. Cupcake {love her!}. I made sure to make a copy of our letters to mail to Santa!

{I want a jeep please. Can I have a truck too? I want a blow horn please. Merry Christmas.

I would like please a skylander and a book. Mom a necklace. Dad a 4wheeler. Merry Christmas.

In keeping with characters from The Polar Express, we talked about elves also. We discussed what we would do if we were elves and also read the story, The Littlest Elf to work on character traits. We made a cute little elf to hold our writing, inspired by Cara's elf from this post.

In Social Studies, we learned all about holiday traditions around the world. I adapted Caitlin's unit to fit with our Polar Express theme and we had a blast. In her pack, she includes a suitcase to hold information from each country, but we used train cars since we were traveling the polar express. I made a little cover for our book and they turned out great. Caitlin's unit is perfect if you don't have books for this theme because it includes a ton of informational pages you can use with the kids!

On Friday, we celebrated our week with a Polar Express day. The kids came in their pajamas, and we watched the movie while drinking hot chocolate and eating cookies. After the movie, I walked in our closet to find a special delivery from Holly...ice cold bells and ribbonsfrom the North Pole to make necklaces! I attached them to the tickets I made the kids {each family sent a word that described their child and I used it on their ticket - loved them!!} and the kids were so excited to take them home! We also got in a little math by graphing which marshmallow we liked best.

 You can get the graph here on google docs.
This week we're on to squeezing in lots of our favorite Christmas stories, getting t-shirts made, and making parent gifts. 4 more days!!

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Vickie

Is there really only 1 more week until Christmas break?? I am soooo ready to be home for a couple of weeks, but I have so much to do at home and school before Christmas and I am trying to get it all planned out so I won't be too stressed to enjoy the season with my sweet kids at school or my sweet girl at home.

{Sorry for those of you that follow me on Instagram...you get enough of these pictures!}
At school, we've been super busy trying to keep it academic while still celebrating the season. At the end of the day during the past 2 weeks, we've been working on some ornaments to decorate our class tree and they've turned out so cute! I've been making these same ornaments for 10 years now and most of them I got from a kindergarten teacher that I mentored under throughout high school and college {Mrs. Shelley literally made me the kindergarten teacher I am!}. Here's a little peek at what we made:
Snowflake...paint 4 notched craft sticks white and while they're wet, sprinkle with clear glitter and fake snow. Glue together to make a snowflake shape

 Candy Cane...cut a red or white pipe cleaner in half, let the kids string red and white beads on, then bend into a candy cane shape

 Mouse...Cut the body out of grey felt and the ears out of pink felt, cut two small slits in the body to hold the candy cane tail, glue ears, eyes and nose {this might be my favorite!}

 Christmas Tree...I used a die cut at school to cut the trees out of foam, then let the kids glue their picture and sequins on it

 Wreath...String green and red beads on a green pipe cleaner, twist into a circle, and add a bow

 Rudolph...Paint three craft sticks brown, glue together, add eyes and a nose

We still have one more thing to add to our tree this week, but I'm loving the way it helps get our classroom in the Christmas mood! What are your favorite ornaments to make at school?

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Vickie

Last week, we were wrapped up in all things gingerbread and we had a blast! We did lots of ELA, Math, and Science activities that really helped keep my kiddos engaged in what sometimes is a crazy time of year!!
Each day, we read a different version of The Gingerbread Man. {I actually have more, but we only charted 5 - can you say obsessed??}

We also tasted gingerbread and graphed which part we ate first. Then, we used our 5 senses and charted adjectives {our ELA skills for the week} that described how it tasted, looked, felt, and smelled.

{This is an idea from Deanna Jump's Gingerbread Unit}

{You can get this here on google docs}

We also did some science with the gingerbread man to see why he couldn't swim across the river. We charted our hypotheses, then put a gingerbread man in water to see what happened. The kids loved doing this and were so into it!

{You can also get this sheet on google docs}

In math, we introduced measurement with the gingerbread man. We compared ourselves to a large gingerbread man to see if we were taller, shorter, or the same height. This was another activity the kids loved! You can get it here on google docs. :)

We also used my friend Deeanna's gingerbread pack to practice some more skills. We worked on numbers 11-20 {decomposing into a group of ten and a number more}, ordering numbers, and equal groups.

And, just for fun, we made these cute gingerbread babies after reading the story The Gingerbread Baby. We wrote sentences describing our gingerbread baby to reinforce those adjectives!

This week we're learning all about Holidays Around the World with this pack from Caitlin and with the help of the Polar Express...I can't wait to share with you! I'd love to hear if you're able to use the freebies!

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Vickie