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!
Preparation and execution…some years are better than others. I use Mailbox books and patterns as a resource and a few other sites to pull the season together.
I make it the students responsibility, they need to work extra hard to earn the rewards.
Cut out the non-essentials to make room for the extra Christmas program practices, the class party and present-making. I make sure we do Math and Reading everyday. It’s great when you find a lesson that will do double-duty, like language and social studies, or science and writing.
Lots of extra prep on my part, but sooo worth it! The students and parents love all Christmas goodies they get! I cut out the non-essential and put the Christmas theme in those areas. I love this time of year! 🙂
I buy pre-ready crafts from Oriental Trading and WalMart and do some easy homemade ones. This year I ordered Christmas stockings that the kids get to color. Then I’m going to use them as gift bags for their Christmas gifts. At Christmas I buy the kids all the same gifts.
I agree alot of extra prep – but I have to take the class for that year in consideration as well – are these capable and can they handle this that or the other — I plan alot and then I can pick and choose depending on how they are that day – they are 4 – never know which kids will show up – and they are trying so hard to be good that they are well – not!
Oh I love this time of the year , but it always seems this is the shortest time and always running around trying to finish all our projects. we have been doing a tradition for the past few years of having the kids make a cookie mix jar as their parent gift so the parents will have something to do for them over their christmas break. we also do alot small little holiday keepsakes like, wreaths, an ornament, a santa and we always do a table decoration that we fill with candy for our xmas party.
I try to stay ahead of the game by buying the craft supplies after Christmas for the following year. That way I’m not pressured at the last minute and I’ve managed to save a lot of money… I then pack them away to open them each year as a wonderful present to myself. I’ve always forgotten what I’ve prepared from the previous year so it’s the gift that keeps on giving!
I absolutely love this time of year, not only are the students getting in the excitement of making homemade gifts for their parents (either premade gifts form Oriental Trader or craft ideas I find in books )but we also collect items to give to the Veterans Hospital or the Homelss Shelter (from socks to blankets and shampoo to lotion). It is a time of giving so I teach the children that it is better to give than to receive. It makes the children full of joy to see how manyu items we collect to give away.
My kiddos love this time of year. I teach at a Christian school, so our focus is on the birth of Jesus. My bulletin board is an advent calendar where we open an ornament every day to put on our tree. We also do art projects that are Christmas related and try to fit in other things as time allows. My curriculum includes some Christmas themed things as well, which helps with the time management aspect of it all! 🙂
I love this time of year with my classes. With my kids grown it helps me to be reminded of the magic this time of year. I use the season to create themes that involve Christmas in order to get the work done.I start my Parent gifts early in the year so that I do not have so much hassle. We are learning a new song to present to the Parents at our party.I use Mailbox for lots of things as well as other websites.
Most of all as I tell the Parents it comes once a year and soon Christmas will be over.
We live in florida and teaching Winter is a bit difficult. We are all still hot and sweaty fro. The beautiful sunshine. I purchase styrofoam ball and we throw them at each other for a ” snowball” fight
It is amazing how fast time flies. I always want & plan to do so many things. I always fall back on my Mailbox activities/projects to keep the kids excited about school during this, “I can’t wait to get out of here!” time at school! On the agenda is text features, poetry, and Polar Express! I am praying we can at least do the “Thumb print” art activities I have planned for the kids! I came across an old Mailbox from 2006, the kids are going to make “ornaments” for our Readings Greetings Tree on the door! Yeah! I love this time of year! Thank you Mailbox for all of your great ideas!
I forget about teaching straight from the manual. Instead, I take the theme and design lessons that integrate the holiday theme. For instance, I have kids write sight words on over-sized paper ornaments, trace them in glue and sprinkle with glitter. I incorporate holiday festivities from around the world to learn about other cultures for social studies. I love December for the ability to incorporate different mediums for all the different learning modalities!
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.
We do centers everyday so during this time of year we always do a xmas activity during one of the centers.
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
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. 🙂
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 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!
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.
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.
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.
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! 🙂
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 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!