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A Teaching Blog by Jodi Southard

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Christmas

Christmas Reading on the Move

November 30, 2019 by Jodi Leave a Comment

We all know that it is nearly impossible for 6 and 7 year olds to sit still for too long, but especially during the holiday season.  We can have all the procedures and expectations in place, and then…December hits.  We have to be able to find ways to keep our students engaged, but still learning.  These Reading on the Move passages are a great way to get students up and moving, all while practicing their reading fluency skills.

Christmas Reading on the Move is the perfect way to combine fluency with physical exercise. Children love and need to get up and move. In this Reading on the Move series of products, students will be moving as they read. It is the perfect way to add fun to fluency practice.

This Reading on the Move packet includes 3 differentiated levels of passages.  This makes it work so easily for the different levels of readers in your classroom.

How does this work?

Students read the passage.  Then, they roll the dice and perform the corresponding “Christmas themed” movement.  After completing the movement, they color in a Christmas light.  Then, they reread the passage, roll, and color for a total of 5 readings.  This helps to take away the dread of rereading.  (If you need a Winter Theme instead, check out my Winter Reading on the Move packet.)

What are teachers saying about Reading on the Move?

“Oh my! The kids were so excited about reading. It really added to the fun on those days before break. Thanks so much.”

“These are awesome!! The kids practice fluency but they’re having so much fun they don’t even know it!”

“My kids loved these…perfect for all those wiggly little bodies!”

Check these out by clicking on the picture below.

Christmas Reading on the Move is the perfect way to combine fluency with physical exercise. Children love and need to get up and move. In this Reading on the Move series of products, students will be moving as they read. It is the perfect way to add fun to fluency practice.

 

Filed Under: Fluency, Seasonal, Winter Tagged With: Christmas

The Christmas Challenge

December 10, 2017 by Jodi 3 Comments

The Christmas Challenge is the perfect way to keep your students engaged before the holidays. Students will compete in teams to solve 10 academic challenges. After they solve a challenge, the team will earn a Challenge Ticket to solve a mystery word. The first team to solve all 10 mystery words, is the winning team.

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.

The Christmas Challenge is the perfect way to keep your students engaged before the holidays.  Students will compete in teams to solve 10 academic challenges.  After they solve a challenge, the team will earn a Challenge Ticket to solve a mystery word.  The first team to solve all 10 mystery 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.

The Christmas Challenge is the perfect way to keep your students engaged before the holidays.  Students will compete in teams to solve 10 academic challenges.  After they solve a challenge, the team will earn a Challenge Ticket to solve a mystery word.  The first team to solve all 10 mystery words, is the winning team.

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.

The Christmas Challenge is the perfect way to keep your students engaged before the holidays.  Students will compete in teams to solve 10 academic challenges.  After they solve a challenge, the team will earn a Challenge Ticket to solve a mystery word.  The first team to solve all 10 mystery words, is the winning team.

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.

The Christmas Challenge is the perfect way to keep your students engaged before the holidays.  Students will compete in teams to solve 10 academic challenges.  After they solve a challenge, the team will earn a Challenge Ticket to solve a mystery word.  The first team to solve all 10 mystery words, is the winning team.

Look for more Challenges coming soon!

Filed Under: Seasonal, Winter Tagged With: Christmas

5 Ways to Keep Your Students Engaged During the Holiday Season

November 25, 2017 by Jodi Leave a Comment

5 Ways to Keep Your Students Engaged During the Holiday Season

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

5 Ways to Keep Your Students Engaged During the Holiday Season

  1. 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
  2. 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.
  3. 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.
  4. 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.
  5. 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.

This FREE Santa Spin and Color is perfect for reviewing phonics skills in December.

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

Filed Under: Classroom Management, Winter Tagged With: Christmas

Christmas Chaos or Fun – You Decide

December 8, 2016 by Jodi Leave a Comment

Measurement Trees

‘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.

'Twas the Night Before Christmas Readers TheaterWe 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.

Measurement TreesTo 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.

This Christmas Edition of Reading on the Move is a great way to get students up and moving around while reading.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.

This is such a simple way to spread kindness throughout your school.  (FREE download.)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.

Christmas Comprehension is a great way to add a Christmas twist to your reading lessons.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?

This 'Twas the Day Before Christmas Break Reader's Theater is a great way to allow your students to perform for others the week before Winter Break.

Filed Under: Fluency, Reading, Seasonal, Winter Tagged With: Christmas

Teaching Kindness at Christmas

November 26, 2016 by Jodi 27 Comments

Wonderful ways to spread kindness during the Christmas season.

I absolutely love Christmas.  Even though it can be a stressful time, I think it is a holiday that has the potential to bring out the best in people.  I really wanted to focus on spreading kindness during the Christmas season with my students.

Wonderful ways to spread kindness during the Christmas season.This past week, we discussed ways that we could spread kindness to others.

We Can Light Up the World With Kindness

After creating a list on the board, I passed out a lightbulb to each of my students that I printed on colorful Astrobrights paper.

Love this idea for teaching students about spreading kindness during the Christmas season.The students were so sincere.  Many of them wanted to donate food or toys.  Some of the students said that they would stand up for others if they were being bullied.

"We can light up the world" bulletin board for Christmas. (Free download.)These lightbulbs make a great bulletin board display.  I decided to hang mine across my ceiling with clothespins.  By using a variety of Astrobrights colors, it really brightened up my room.  I especially love Celestial Blue™, Solar Yellow™, Terrestrial Teal™, and Gamma Green™.

Love this idea for teaching students how to spread kindness during the Christmas season. I am really excited about this next activity.  I have it all set up and ready to go for when we return to school after Thanksgiving Break.

The Gift of Kindness

I printed and displayed 15 presents on my dry erase board. (One for each day from Thanksgiving Break to Christmas Break.)

"The Gift of Kindness" is the perfect way to teach students how to spread kindness during Christmas.I used five different colors of Astrobrights paper for the presents. (Lunar Blue™, Orbit Orange™, Pulsar Pink™, Gravity Grape™, and Martian Green™)

Each day, I will remove one present, and we will complete the “kindness activity” on the back.

"The Gift of Kindness" is a wonderful way to show how to spread kindness during the holiday season."The Gift of Kindness" is a wonderful way to teach kindness during the holiday season.We will be making cards for soldiers, sending cards to a nursing home, making and giving treats to the staff at school, and much more.  I know the students will love completing the activities, and we can discuss the gift of giving.

"The Gift of Kindness" is a wonderful way to teach kindness during the holiday season.You can download these FREE activities HERE.

I would love to hear how you will be spreading the gift of kindness this holiday season.

These ideas for spreading kindness during the holiday season are perfect for any classroom.Thank you to Astrobrights for sponsoring this post.

Filed Under: Winter Tagged With: Christmas

Gifts, Gifts, & Gifts

December 17, 2015 by Jodi 8 Comments

I tried something new for my parent gifts this year.  I have been doing the handprint snowman ornaments for the past couple of years, but was ready to change it up a bit.  I found some clear plastic ornaments from Walmart for $1.00 a piece. 
I took a picture of each of my students with their arms up like they were playing in the snow.
Then, I printed them out and cut around their bodies.  I used a glue stick on the back, and then inserted these into the plastic ornaments.
The picture above does not do them justice.  My camera just could not decide how to focus when taking the pictures of the ornaments. 
We put a couple of scoops of the plastic snow into the ornaments and wrote the year. 
I found this adorable poem from Early Learning Ideas and knew I wanted to add it to my ornament. 
I measured each of my students with silver curling ribbon.  Then, I attached the laminated poem with the ribbon to the ornament. 
I tied the ribbon into a bow, curled it, and we were good to go.  I really loved how they turned out.  The students were really excited when I told them that when they untied the ribbon next Christmas, they would be amazed at how much taller they would be in a year.
Another quick gift idea I wanted to share was inspired by Teachery Tidbits.  My daughters gave these blankets to their P.E., Art, Music, and Media Specialist teachers today.  I gave one to each of the other 1st grade teachers.
If you want the tag, you can download it HERE.
Hope you are enjoying your last couple of days until break!


Filed Under: Winter Tagged With: Christmas, gifts

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