“How Do You Do It?” December Giveaway
Posted by Diane Badden on 02 Dec 2011 | Posted in: Drawings and Giveaways, Teachers and Teaching
I promised y’all a smokin’ giveaway, didn’t I? I’m not sure why I chose the word smokin’. Maybe subconsciously I was having visions of my Thanksgiving Day meal going up in smoke! Thankfully that didn’t happen. 
And luckily my vision of a smokin’ turkey has transformed into dancing sugar plums!
So what’s your plan for the month of December? Are you ready to tackle a gift-making project, a classroom celebration, and perhaps a holiday presentation for parents? How do you find time for December’s extra projects and events? How do you do it?
Share your best tip(s) for keeping December merry before December 7, and we’ll place your name in a drawing for a special gift from The Mailbox Santa.
Ho, ho, ho!
Diane
Congratulations to Melissa Lee! She’s the winner of our giveaway!
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26 Responses to ““How Do You Do It?” December Giveaway”
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More Comments Pages: [1] 2 3 » Show All Comments
I love incorporating holiday crafts into all subject areas. It is a fun learning expericence.
I think one of my favorite things I do is making my holiday gifts for my students. I do a goodie bag that usually has a variety of things that I purchase after Christmas and save for the next year such as pencils, stickers, etc.. My handmade gift that I make is a fleece scarf. It is super easy to cut fleece with a rotary cutter and then to fringe it. It is an easy, no-sew project that always makes an impact on my kids. I always find fun “boy” fleece and “girl” fleece. The kids love wearing their scarves in the cold weather when we come back from break. A friend of mine took this idea even farther and got the iron on letters from the craft stores and she personalizes the scarves with the students’ first initial so their is less confusion on which scarf belongs to which student. The scarves are fun, easy, and affordable gifts and I even sometimes see my students with their scarf the next year!
I try to plan out the lessons and themes right after Thanksgiving with my teaching team. I focus on staying flexible and mixing up our structured curriculum and the holiday themes–Gingerbread Man, Polar Express, and Peppermints. I discuss the daily schedule and any changes in the routine to my students in our morning meeting.
I pair writing with a holiday book, I have searched blogs and blogs and created my own holiday themed centers with the math skill we are using and the phonics skill as well.. its not easy but I am trying to fit lots in!
Love to use ideas from the Mailbox magazine. Parents always give us praise for our projects we do with the children. Of course I give the credit to my favorite resource book. Thanks for your wonderful magazine.
We are a Christian school…so we do a lot of Advent projects. We make Bible verse paper chains, angels
with hand-print wings. We do a service project every year too. This year we are making homemade Christmas card for a local nursing home.
I tend to make my lesson plans less busy during the month of December, so I can fit in extra art/crafts and Holiday projects.
I love the month of December’s excitement! Our themes for this year include gingerbread activities, making holiday ornaments as gifts for parents, and conclude with Polar Express activities. The true winter themes and activities will not be occurring until January. Our Georgia weather is relatively warm but the holiday festivities are evident in our classroom!
Like Karen, I live in the south (South Texas), and it’s difficult to get the “winter theme across.
We have 2 weeks of the winter theme before break. I fill the sand and water table with water as well as icebergs made out of craft foam. I add polar bears, walruses, and sea lions to the mix for a week. For the second week, I fill the table with fake snow. I add little snowmen, toy bulldozers, little sleds, etc.
I create a “Christmas party” in the pretend and learn center. I bring in a small piano and a music book with Christmas carols. I provide Santa hats, pretend Christmas cookies, pretend hot chocolate, etc.
All centers have learning activities with a Christmas/winter theme.
I am careful to leave my December plans a little bit less filled than the rest of the months! That way, as things come up, I’m not feeling quite so time crunched. I think the key is flexibility and sometimes just “going with it”. We have Christmas concerts, like everyone else, and crafts and excited kids! Not having as much planned leaves me a bit more free to enjoy the season.
I love all of these ideas! This time of year is so joyous for most. The kids just love all of the Christmas projects and activities. I like to integrate the season and holiday into our daily activities to make time for it all. For example, during a math lesson on estimation I brought in ornaments and put them in various groups so that the children could estimate about how many were in each group while still focusing on Christmas. (Of course I removed the sharp part.) It was a success! Also, before the break I go out and buy them each a little stocking. The dollar store is a great place to find these. We practice writing our names on a piece of paper first and then we write it on our stocking. This is great if the kids are just learning to write their names or it could be done in cursive if that is beneficial to your class. There is never enough time in one day to get everything done. If you plan and integrate the holiday projects into your daily lessons, it will help manage time.
Thank you,
Lacy
We do centers everyday so during this time of year we always do a xmas activity during one of the centers.
I don’t really try to get IT all done. Too much stress! But, I do many activities about the Holidays arounf=d the World. I introduce many artifacts from different cultures so that my students get exposure beyond their holiday traditions.