Five for Friday December 9

Five for Friday is taking a break this week, but I wrote my five anyway!

       

We had a Teddy Bear Tt Party Day this week.  We're almost done with our letters.  I work on all the letters all the time (like we all do) but then focus on two a week to reinforce letter ID, sound, and correct formation.  So- we were on letter Tt and we needed a Tt Party!

The children had so much fun.  I never want to get so busy with curriculums and programs that I can't have these fun days.  These are the days the kids will remember. 

We did lots of math with our bears! The children sorted them by color and size. They also came up with other ways to sort-  some with clothes on, some holding something, black noses and brown noses...  We had fun.

Then, they had to line up their bears from biggest to smallest- without making a sound!  OOOH that was hard!  

During math centers, we added and subtracted with teddy grahams.  



We used paper bowls for bear caves for our subtraction. (I just cut out an "entrance to the cave."  The children had 5 teddy grahams.  I would put all five in the cave.  Then, I would take some out and they had to tell me how many more were in the cave.  They  thought they were magic.  I told them math is even BETTER than magic!

Here's a picture with teddy bear counters.  I worked with a couple of my children during free choice time to review using counters.

Reading was oh-so-much better with bears!

The children wrote  about their bears.  They each wrote 3 details about their bear- usually his/her name, whether it was big or small,  and what they liked to do with their bear. Then they drew a picture of their bear.  I told them to pretend it was a photograph so it looked JUST like their real bear.  They had fun.

I had some bear paperdolls for the children to cut out and play with at free choice if they wanted. 

We had flavored iced tea to drink, Teddy Grahams, and fruit snacks for our party. So simple but special.  I used very special napkins because it was a "fancy party."  You could also serve Swedish fish, berries, and honey, because bears love that, too!

We fit in all three Bear Hunt songs by the end of the day.  

I hope they made some happy memories.

What do you do when you get a new pillow and it's got too much stuffing in it?  Take a bunch of it out, sew the pillow back up, and use the stuffing for Santa beards!  And snow for upcoming projects...  

I posted some of my favorite candy cane ideas at PreK and K Sharing this week!

And...

There is a link to a little recording sheet if you want your students to write the sight words, too. 

This time of year, there are some books that we all  probably use for some holiday character education lessons.

Rudolph, the Red Nosed Reindeer is a good lesson about being yourself and how your differences make you special. You are made exactly the way you are supposed to be to do wonderful things.

Last year, I posted LOTS and LOTS of reindeer freebies and fun if you want to check those out! I updated the links to be sure they still work and are free. 

The Grinch is all about learning to be kind, be kind, be kind.  It makes you feel better inside!

Mr. Willowby's Christmas Tree has always been one of my favorite stories to share with my class. 

It's great for so many things. The children love to retell it and remember each character who was able to have a new Christmas tree. It's also good for teaching that you don't have to be BIG to make a big difference in the world!  I LOVE this poster from Peppermint Plum.

Miss DeCarbo shared a sweet bulletin board idea and freebie at her TPT store to encourage Christmas Kindness that would go really well with Mr. Willowby's Christmas Tree.  I love activities that encourage children to see and appreciate the good in others.

We lost power last week in the middle of the night. It was supposed to come back on at 7:30 AM, but didn't get fixed until after 9AM.  Meanwhile, I got dressed and put on my make up with a flashlight.  So pretty... as you can imagine.  And I just quickly "fixed" my hair from the day before.  

The whole time I was struggling with everything in the dark, not used to it- trying the light switch, forgetting every time that it wouldn't work,  I kept thinking of verses about God being our Light and how we need to focus on Him.  I love analogies, and knew this was meant for me.  If I keep God as my focus and look to Him, my Light, every single thing I need to do during the day goes so much better and so much more smoothly.   When I try to make my way alone, I struggle in the dark with things that could be so much easier if the Light were turned on.  Oh how I appreciated that light after trying to do everything in the dark.  I also noticed how much I take the Light for granted and need to remember to be thankful for it all the time.

1 John 1:5

Have a wonderful weekend!  Thanks for stopping by!

Five for Friday! Lucky December 13th

I am linking up with Doodle Bugs Teaching for  Five for Friday! Thank you, Kacey, for hosting! 

I had fun posting this week, joining two linky parties.  The first was all about COOKIES at Time 4 Kindergarten's Virtual Cookie Exchange.

I shared some of my favorite Christmas recipes.  (These are some of my sister's family's gorgeous creations!) 

I also shared my new favorite Character Education book.  SO sweet. (I meant the book- but so are the cookies!)

The second linky was a Christmas Questionnaire with Michelle at Fabulous in First.

 I had fun thinking about my Christmas memories as I was answering the questions- and so much fun reading about other blogging friends' memories and traditions. 

 

We made our hands and foot reindeer this week.  This is always a favorite because it is such a great independent activity.  

You can check my Reindeer Post to find lots of other reindeer ideas and freebies!

We also made our hand wreaths for the children to take home to their parents this week.  They did a great job.  I help "steer" their hands to the right spot.

 

As I was finishing up the last couple wreaths and writing, and while some of the children were washing up before recess, I put on a Curious George winter story.  When I looked over on the rug, I realized that I had a line of beauticians in my class.  Too funny.

 

 

Here is my post with some Holiday Homework ideas. Just click on the picture below if you would like to a copy!

I have been sending home one or two a week this month, just for fun.  You could even make a packet to send home over break if you wanted.  I sent this one home last night and the kids loved it! I stapled the worksheet to the plate and napkin. 

 

We had our Teddybear "Tt" Party today! (Guess what letter we worked on?) Everyone brought in their favorite Teddybear.   (One little girl said her Teddybear was in the shape of a cat.)

 

 

We did lots of addition and subtraction problems, graphing, and patterning with Teddy Grahams. AND we had tea. It was peach iced tea- so how bad can that be? Ninety nine percent of the kids liked it.  One was adamant that he was probably NOT allowed to drink it.  Then he was allergic to it. Then he had to go to the bathroom.  Poor thing.  I had apple juice, too, so it was all good.

 

The bears "chit chatted" on the rug while we worked with our Teddy Grahams and drank our tea- so nobody's bear was spilled on, heaven forbid!

 



 We sorted our bears.  We played a game where one person had to describe a bear with lots of details, and someone else had to find the bear.

We lined up our bears biggest to smallest.  We used our bears to act out positional words like above our head, below our knees, beside us, and between us and our neighbor.  We drew pictures and wrote about our bears.

We went on both Bear Hunts (of course) on Youtube. 

Congratulations to Natasha and Breanne on winning the Holiday Specs!  I hope you have received them and have a ball looking at lights this weekend!
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Here is a little ornament I found that I thought would be so perfect for so many of us that I wanted to share.  Seems good to me!

Have a WONDERFUL weekend!