A FREEBIE Christmas Gift

For many years we gave our students pencils and erasers for Christmas, just to find them lying on the floor after they left.  A few years ago we decided to make a new tradition that focused more on spending time with our students.  We came up with “A Day Off of School...At School!”  Students come in their jammies, we enjoy morning cartoons together, eat donuts, play games, and over all spend a memorable day together.  The day before we give our students the special postcards that tell them about our exciting day and send a quick email to the parents (in case the postcards don’t make it home). It is a simple, fun, free way to create some Christmas spirit in your classroom.  Enjoy! BUT the BEST part is....we get to wear our matching jammies too!!!!

If you would like to grab this freebie just click here.

Keep On Dancing In Your Teacher Shoes!

Deanna and Jenelle

It is Better to Give, but Fun to Recieve

It is the "gimme" time of the year.  The commercials are telling our kiddos that they need everything.  The stores are stocked and overflowing with stuff that we start to think that we may need someday...or now. First and second graders are busy writing novels to Santa reminding him of ALL of the things that they WANT...or in their words, need.

It is the perfect time to step back and help them realize the true meaning of Christmas.  Using our favorite buddy, the elf we send Santa Christmas letters for someone else.  We ask our students to think about someone in their lives who really deserves something special from Santa.  They then write a letter to Santa telling Santa why this person deserves extra special attention..

They usually write about their parents or their siblings (especially since we share ours about our parents).  It is so sweet to read what they think Santa should bring them and why.  The day after they write them we sneak their letters into a sealed envelope "from the principal to their parents" and put them in their mailbox.
If you would like to download the paper click here.

Merry Christmas!

Keep On Dancing In Your Teacher Shoes!
Deanna and Jenelle

The Elf is Missing....

So Elfie forgot to come back to first grade today....busy elf?  Maybe.  Busy morning is more like it.  The second grade elf must have forgotten to bring him back with him. ;-) 

The best part about all of this is my kiddos are convinced that he is here....somewhere....just in a REALLY good hiding spot.  They have been searching nonstop since they arrived.  Hmmmm....how long shall I let this go on?  They are happy, and working together, and QUIET - incase he makes a noise :-)  Maybe he should "hide" more often.  

I should turn this into a writing project.....Or should I just kick back and watch them carry on while I sip my coffee and enjoy their cooperative spirits!?!?!?

Isn't teaching fun.  I love my job!

Keep On Dancing In Your Teacher Shoes!

Deanna and Jenelle

Game Day Freebie!

Our kiddos are getting STIR CRAZY!  Bring on Christmas break!!!!  Wishful thinking I guess since it is only Tuesday and it feels like next Friday will never come.

Here is a little Freebie to lure them in and practice some much needed listening skills.

Enjoy!

Click here to grab it from our store!

 

Keep on dancing in your teacher shoes!

Deanna and Jenelle

A Techie Tree

We are beginning our "BIG" word processing unit in the computer lab.  Wahoo....watch out computers...here we come!  We are working on shift key capitalization, beginning keyboarding skills, and highlighting and changing text.  Needless to say...it takes all three of our computer lab visits to finish, but at the end they think that they are typing wizards!!!

The end result is a Christmas tree that they print and take home...in COLOR...I know, how exciting!  They love it though.  

The directions are simple.

1.  We brainstorm Christmas words and put them on chart paper.

2. We type using an * as a space instead of a space bar.

3. Everytime our line gets a little bigger than the one before we push RETURN and move on to the next line.

4. When it looks like a tree, we learn how to highlight and change the test to green and the * to any colors we like.

5. PRINT and send home an e-mail reminding our parents how much work this project is for a 6 year old.

And it looks like....

We do a tree, but you could get creative. A snowman....a mug...the possibilities are endless!

Keep on Dancing in your teacher shoes!

Deanna and Jenelle