Winter

100th Day Challenge

February 5, 2018 by Jodi 3 Comments

A couple of weeks ago, we had our 100th Day of School. It is always such a fun day, and one that the students look forward to. Along with the traditional things that I have done for the past couple of years for the 100th Day of School, I added in the 100th Day of School Challenge. This was set up just like the Christmas Challenge.

I love these challenges because my students have to work cooperatively together to solve 10 academic challenges. After they solve a challenge, they earn a challenge ticket envelope. Inside of the envelope is a mystery word that they have to solve using the code. It is amazing how excited they get when they earn each of their tickets.

It’s an easy to prep activity that the students love, and they don’t even realize they are learning.

“My students loved the challenges. They even begged to skip indoor recess to keep working on them! So engaging!” -Alyssa

“AHHHH!!! My students are going to LOVE this! They love teamwork & challenges! I can’t wait to use this on our 100th Day! -Jennifer

What is included in the challenge?

★Directions for the Challenge
★10 academic challenges (math and language arts based)
★10 Challenge Tickets
★10 Corresponding Envelope Labels
★100th Day Challenge Code
★Answer Key

Check out the 100th Day Challenge by clicking the picture below.

Need more 100th Day of School ideas? Check out this 100th Day of School blog post from last year.

The Christmas Challenge

December 10, 2017 by Jodi 3 Comments

Do you need a fun activity for your class during the hectic weeks before Winter Break? The Christmas Challenge is perfect. Your class will compete in small groups to complete 10 academic challenges. After each challenge, the class will open a Challenge Ticket envelope and solve the code word. The first team to solve all 10 code words is the winning team.

What is the Christmas Challenge?

The Christmas Challenge is a fun, cooperative learning activity where students work together to complete 10 academic based challenges. Once a team completes the challenge, they open the corresponding Challenge Ticket envelope and solve the mystery word. You can decide if you would like for your class to complete all 10 challenges or only pick and choose some of the challenges.

Each Challenge activity, Challenge Ticket, and Code Word has coordinating pictures, so the project is easy to organize. After a group completes the challenge, they will receive the Challenge Ticket with the same picture. Inside the envelope, they will solve the mystery word with that same picture again.

I know that the weeks leading up to Winter Break are hectic, and activities that take a ton of time to prep are almost always impossible to squeeze into your plans. I love this challenge because the students can work together, it’s academic based, and easy to prepare. This low prep activity only involves printing and getting the envelopes ready for each team.

What is included in the challenge?

★Directions for the Challenge
★10 academic challenges (math and language arts based)
★10 Challenge Tickets
★10 Corresponding Envelope Labels
★Christmas Challenge Code
★Answer Key

Check out The Christmas Challenge by clicking on the picture below.

Look for more Challenges coming soon!

5 Ways to Keep Your Students Engaged During the Holiday Season

November 25, 2017 by Jodi Leave a Comment

Keeping your students engaged in your classroom during the busy holiday season can be tough. I put together a list of 5 Ways to Keep Your Students Engaged During the Holiday Season that I hope will help relieve some of the “craziness” that can occur in even the best students during the month of December.

5 Ways to Keep Your Students Engaged During the Holiday Season

Stick to your normal schedule as much as possible. I know, I know…December is CRAZY! Parties, programs, presents, etc. However, when you can, follow the same format that you would during a normal week of school. Children like routine. They know what to expect, and what is expected of them when they are following your normal schedule. However, you can definitely change it up a little to include some holiday themed activities. Throw in some holiday reading passages during reading time, holiday fact practice during math, and holiday themed science and social studies activities. Check out some of my favorite educational holiday themed activities for each subject area here:
- Reading
  - Christmas Comprehension and December Guided Reading
- Math
  - Christmas Color by Code
- Science/Social Studies
  - Interactive Fact Folders, December Nonfiction, and Print & Teach Winter Holidays
Pick a few things to try, but DO NOT try to do it all. It is not humanly possible to do every single holiday themed activity that you find on Pinterest. I pin WAY TOO MANY ideas, get overwhelmed, and don’t do ANY of them. It’s a vicious cycle 😉 Pick out 2-3 new things that you want to incorporate into your classroom this holiday season, and then stop looking. If you get overwhelmed, your students will get overwhelmed.
Reward Positive Behavior. This is important anytime of the year, but especially when you know that students will have an even more challenging time staying focused. Here are some ideas for rewarding positive behavior:
- Earning Snowballs – Students can earn a snowball (cotton ball) for positive behavior. I like to use this as a “whole class” reward system. When the students are doing what they should be doing, they earn a snowball into a jar. Once the jar is full, they earn some type of reward. (A hot chocolate party would be perfect!)
- Christmas Book Raffle – Order some extra Christmas books from your Scholastic Book Order. Place the books out with a bucket in front of each one. Students earn tickets for positive behavior. Once they earn a ticket, they write their name on the back and place it in the bucket in front of the book that they would like a chance to win. You can draw a name at the end of the week or right before Winter Break.
- Positive Notes and Phone Calls -Positive notes and phone calls are great anytime of the year, but during the busy holiday season, they become even more beneficial.
- Classroom Management Christmas Ornaments – I love this idea from Maria at Kindercraze. Her kindergarteners earned jewels to decorate their ornaments for good behavior.
Get Your Students Moving. We know that students need to get up move. We really cannot expect primary students to sit still all day. I love using GoNoodle for brain breaks. I also like to incorporate movement into our learning. My students like using these Christmas Reading on the Move Passages. I also make sure to get them moving around the classroom more often. We do more partner work, small group work, and flexible seating if my students can handle it. A good game of Santa Says (Simon Says) is always a great brain break as well.
Play Games. Who doesn’t love a good game? My students are obsessed with games. If I can teach or review a skill with a game, I’ll do it. Some of my favorites include:
- Pick a Spot – I do this throughout the year with a variety of skills. One that we have been doing a lot lately is short vowel sounds. I write each vowel on a Post-It note and hang them in different places around my classroom. Every student picks a vowel to stand next to. Then, I pull a short vowel word out of a cup. Anyone standing by the vowel that is in that word has to go and sit down. The students left get to choose a new vowel or stay where they are. This continues until only one student is left standing.
- Holiday Word Scramble – Write letters to spell out holiday words on index cards. Put each scrambled word in a bag. Pass out the bags to groups of students and have them race to unscramble their words. You could even give groups a couple of words. Ideas for words include: Christmas, Hanukkah, candy cane, snowman, ornament, stocking, gingerbread, etc.
- No Prep Printable Games – My Games Galore packs are a monthly must have in my classroom. I like to print these games to have on hand when we need to review a skill or we just need a change of pace.
- Spin and Color – This simple no prep game is perfect for students to do individually or with a partner.

What are some of your favorite ways to keep students engaged during the holiday season?

December Interactive Fact Folders

November 20, 2017 by Jodi 1 Comment

Interactive Fact Folders have been a game changer in my classroom during social studies and science time. I am always looking for good ways to integrate these areas with reading and writing, and these Fact Folders have done just that.

These Interactive Fact Folder can be made on file folders or a 12×18 piece of folded construction paper. To save money, I always use construction paper with my students. 24 pieces of construction paper is more cost-effective than 24 file folders. Each folder comes with a cover page, graphic organizers, 4 fact sheets, a color section, vocabulary words, and writing pages.

Step-by-Step Guide to Using Interactive Fact Folders

Many people want to know exactly how I use these in my classroom. There is no right or wrong way, but this is what has worked best for me. I spread these out and complete a little portion each day of the week. Here is an example week:

Day 1: Pass out the cover page and 12×18 folded piece of construction paper. Students color the front page, cut out along the black line and glue to the front of their folders.

Day 2: Pass out the Fact Sheet Pocket and their folders. Students cut and glue their pocket together. Then, they glue it into the inside of their Fact Folder. Pass out the Fact Sheet Graphic Organizer. Students cut it out, fold it in half, and glue it under their Fact Sheet Pocket. Then, they take their scissors and cut up along the dotted lines. Pass out the first fact sheet to read. I read this to the class first. Then, I have them highlight any vocabulary words or important facts that I would like for them to remember. Next, the students flip up the first portion of the graphic organizer and write something they learned from the Fact Sheet.

Day 3: Pass out the folders and another Fact Sheet. Follow the same procedure as yesterday. Pass out the Color Page and Words to Know pocket. Have the students cut out the items and add them to their fact folders.

Day 4: Pass out the folders and the last two Fact Sheets. Follow the same procedure as the days before. Pass out the final graphic organizer for the top of the inside. Have students complete the graphic organizer and glue it into their Fact Folders. Pass out the vocabulary words. Go over these together. Have students cut them out and place them in their Words to Know Pocket.

Day 5: Review all of the information they learned throughout the week about the topic. Pass out the Writing Page. Students use their resources from the Fact Folder to write about the topic. Then, they cut it out and glue it onto the back of the folder.

When I created these, I knew that they would be a great resource for my students. However, I’m always pleasantly surprised in how much ownership they take in these and how excited they are each time to take them home and share with their families.

December Interactive Fact Folder Topics

I have created a Winter Holidays, Christmas Around the World, and Reindeer Interactive Fact Folder. They are all included in the December Bundle. Each of these can be purchased separately, or you can save money by purchasing the bundle of all three topics.

Which is your favorite December theme to teach?

Arctic Adventure – Classroom Transformation

January 12, 2017 by Jodi 2 Comments

Since we have been learning about the Arctic, I decided to transform our classroom into an Arctic Adventure today.

I decorated my classroom the night before with some items that I picked up at Dollar Tree and Deans Party Mania, which is basically our version of Party City.

I covered each of the desks and tables with white tablecloths and then spread plastic, from the paint section, on the floor to represent ice floes. I also picked up some snowflake confetti and sparkly plastic confetti to sprinkle on the tables.

I attached snowflake décor to my lanterns that I have hanging from my ceiling.

For my door, I taped on a light blue table cloth and decorated it with snowflakes from the party store. I also found this sparkly door decoration at Dollar Tree.

I hung up a light blue table cloth on our dry erase board and attached this felt icicle decoration along the top.

I gave each student a bottle of “melted snow” to have for the day. You can download the water bottle cover HERE.

Prior to the students coming in, I turned on this Arctic sounds video and projected the picture on my screen.

What did we do during our Arctic Day?

We have been using my Print & Teach Arctic Animals packet all week to learn about animals in the Arctic. For our morning work, we completed the Arctic Animal Word Search from this packet.

Then, we rotated through four Arctic stations.

1. Constructing Marshmallow Igloos

I purchased the larger marshmallows for this activity. The students could work together or on their own to create igloos with the marshmallows.

2. Snowball Structures

I purchased bags of small marshmallows and toothpicks for students to create snowball structures.

3. Q-tip Snowflakes

The students created snowflakes using Q-tips at the third station.

4. Snowball Coding

The students completed this Snowball Coding Activity from Teach Outside the Box.

While the students were working at their stations, I had one student at a time come to me to complete the Blubber Experiment. I placed vegetable shortening in a large bag. The student put on a latex glove and placed their hand in the shortening. Then, they placed their hand in ice water to demonstrate how blubber keeps arctic animals warm.

Later on in the day, we had a snowball throwing contest. I gave each students a cotton ball. They each took turns throwing the ball and then measuring how far they threw it.

Since we have been learning about place value and how to use Base-10 blocks, I incorporated that into our day. I gave students straws and marshmallows. These became icicles and snowballs. The students had to make numbers with their icicles and snowballs just like they would with Base-10 blocks.

We practiced spelling words and math facts with shaving cream (snow) on our desks.

We also used passages from my new Winter Edition of Reading on the Move. The students read the passage, roll the dice, and then complete the “winter themed” movement before reading again.

These are always a great way to incorporate reading fluency and exercise. You can check out this packet HERE.

This snow banner freebie from Erica Bohrer was a great activity for the day as well.

I remembered at the last minute that I had this Polar Bear Flip Book from my Flip & Read packets.

We had such a fun day. I am already planning ahead to our next classroom transformation.

Need links to items that we use to learn about the Arctic?

Print and Teach Arctic Animals

Reading on the Move (Winter Edition)

January Nonfiction

Flip & Reads

Christmas Chaos or Fun – You Decide

December 8, 2016 by Jodi Leave a Comment

‘Twas two weeks before break and all through the school,

All the children were crazy and not following the rules.

How about you? Are you ready for Christmas Break, yet? I love almost everything about the weeks before Christmas. (Christmas crafts, Christmas decorations, Christmas programs and plays, Christmas music, …) However, wouldn’t it be perfect if we could slow it down and not try to squeeze everything into a short time frame? Then, the icing on the Christmas cookie would be to have perfectly behaved students. I know…I want to still believe in Christmas miracles. Anyways, I wanted to show you a couple of things that we are doing in the classroom in preparation for Christmas.

We will be performing our ‘Twas the Night Before Christmas Reader’s Theater next week. I wrote this last year for my students, but then made it editable before putting it in my Teachers Pay Teachers Store. I’m so glad I did that because it was so easy to switch out my students names for this year.

You can grab the reader’s theater HERE if you are interested.

We also made these measurement trees from Mrs. Lee’s Kindergarten.

To gear the lesson towards 1st graders, I have them actually measure their strips and cut them appropriately. I cut out 8×1 inch strips from a packet of scrapbook paper. Then, the students each picked 5 strips. They glued the first 8 inch strip on the bottom, cut the second strip into a 7 inch and a 1 inch piece, the third strip into a 6 inch and a 2 inch piece, and so on until they created their tree. Then, we used white paint and Q-tips to make snow. They make a really easy bulletin board display.

Another great way that we have been helping to control the Christmas chaos is by using my Reading on the Move Christmas Edition.

The students have so much fun moving around while they practice their reading. It’s a nice way to mix things up a bit during the holiday season. You can check it out in my store HERE.

We have also been busy with our Gift of Kindness. You can read more about it HERE. Today, we gave out candy canes to every adult in our building.

The students absolutely LOVED this activity. The first set of students delivered the candy canes to the office staff. When they came back, two of the boys immediately told me how good it made them feel to give something to someone else. Too cute! You can download this editable note HERE.

We have also been completing activities from my Christmas Comprehension packet.

We are having fun reading Christmas stories while practicing our comprehension skills. You can check it out HERE.

Even though I cannot wait until Christmas, I still cannot believe that we are in the middle of December already! How are you surviving the last week before break?

Winter

100th Day Challenge

The Christmas Challenge

5 Ways to Keep Your Students Engaged During the Holiday Season

5 Ways to Keep Your Students Engaged During the Holiday Season

December Interactive Fact Folders

Step-by-Step Guide to Using Interactive Fact Folders

December Interactive Fact Folder Topics

Arctic Adventure – Classroom Transformation

What did we do during our Arctic Day?

Christmas Chaos or Fun – You Decide

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Winter

5 Ways to Keep Your Students Engaged During the Holiday Season

Step-by-Step Guide to Using Interactive Fact Folders

December Interactive Fact Folder Topics

What did we do during our Arctic Day?

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