Christmas Chaos or Fun – You Decide

‘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?