Holidays Around the World

Years ago, I posted about my Winter Celebrations Scrapbook.  You can check out the post here.  Last year, I felt like we needed to condense our activities.  We were shorter on time and had a full packed curriculum that needed to be incorporated as well.  I decided to alter the booklet just a bit, but the original is still included in the resource.

I created one page passages and a place for students to draw a single snapshot of something they learned about the country or celebration.  The following countries/celebrations are included:

 

U.S.A.

Kwanzaa

Mexico

Germany

France

Sweden

Hanukkah

Check out my little guy's snapshot for Sweden.  That Tomten is too cute!!!  

Each of the pages is formatted like the page below. 

There is also a separate smaller booklet with multiple questions for each of the passages and a map is also included.

I LOVE to incorporate read alouds as I introduce each country/celebration.  

Here are just a few of my favorites.

You can check out this resource on TPT by simply clicking here.

Patchwork Christmas

Today it is in the 40's in Texas.  It is finally beginning to feel like Christmas!  We've had a very mild winter here in Texas, so we reallly welcomed this cooler weather with open arms!   Christmas is a week away and it is our little family tradition to make homemade Christmas ornaments.  We make a different one each year.  This year, the plan was to make a patchwork ball that I spotted on Pinterest.  Well, we ended up with a complete Pinterest fail.  After several attempts, we realized that the fabric was simply not going to stick to our Styrofoam balls.  What does a teacher mommy do when at first we don't succeed?  Well, we simply move on to Plan B.  Actually, we make up plan B on the spot!  So here goes plan B....

 Instead of using Styrofoam balls, we used cds, and it worked perfectly.  My little guy was able to create it all by himself .  He chose his fabric and just kept adding new layers of Mod Podge.

We let the pieces hang off the edge, and once it had dried, I trimmed around the cd with fabric scissors.  Them, we simply added ribbon and a few beads to the top to hang it.  I just used a glue gun to attach the ribbon.  I am glad that we ended up using the cd instead of the Styrofoam balls.  It made it super easy for him to sign his name on the back and date it.

My little elf had fun making a patchwork ornament for his grandma.  He made one for Santa too using Christmas wrapping paper instead of fabric.  I will be back with a picture of it once it dries.   If you are looking for a simple homemade ornament, this night be a perfect little craft for your own little elves.

You can make these adorable little elves by clicking here.

Christmas Monsters

It is the last day of December, so I figured I better post my Christmas Monsters before ringing in the new year.  We made these monster ornaments as parents gifts before the break.  I have a monster themed classroom, so I really wanted to stay with the monster theme.  I also wanted it to be something that they could completely make on their own.  Here is a look at one of our little monsters:

They were really simple and required minimal materials.  We used burlap for the face as well as an assortment of googly eyes.  The horns, mouth, and heart were all made using different sized ribbon.  I just used cardstock for the teeth.  Here is some of the burlap I used.  I actually just purchased the polka dot one on clearance, so I think it'll be a cute monster for next year.  I love the glittery gold polka dots!

I used a popsicle stick to reinforce the top.  They glued the horns on the popsicle stick first and then we attached the burlap on top.  The popsicle stick made it easy to attach the ribbon to hang it.  I also had them sign the back of the popsicle stick.

My students were so creative with their little monsters.  I love the diversity!

Here are a few of their monsters up close:

I attached the cute little monster poem below to the ornament and sent them to their new homes. 

 

Christmas Fun...

Yikes...it's been so long since my last post!  I wanted to share just a few things we did over the last week.  It seems like every year I am stumped over which craft I should do for our holiday parent ornament.  Last year, my teacher besties did these super cute ornaments where their students looked like they were stuck in the ornament.  I fell in love with them, but was super nervous about trying them myself.  I'm a major perfectionist, I thought it would make me totally crazy trying to get those pictures just right in the ornament.  To my pleasant surprise, they were SO easy!

I really love how they turned out! I will definitely be doing these every year. 

I also wanted them to have something made entirely by them.  Kid-made ornaments are always the best.  So, we made one of my past faves, the popsicle stick X-mas tree.  They turned out super cute!

I had also purchased photo booth Christmas props on Etsy several years ago, and finally got around to using them.  So glad I did!  They looked really adorable inside their Christmas cards.  I wish I could remember the Etsy shop, but there are so many adorable ones to choose from if you do a search for Christmas Photo Booth Props.

You can get the card printable for free for clicking below.

Christmas Fun

We made it...and now some time for rest and relaxation.  Just kidding, no time to rest here! I still have sooo much Christmas shopping to do.
I thought I'd share just a few activities from our last week.

We did these little reindeer activities.  They are a part of my Writing Piece of the Month Unit.  I save each of the pieces thy complete, and bind them at the end of the year to create their Writing Portfolios.

We also did this sweet little gift activity.  It's a bit like secret Santa.  They each drew a random number.  The numbers corresponded to their class numbers.  They wrote a sweet little note to the person they secretly got.  On the last day, I passed them out and they got to read the nice messages they received from a classmate.  They really enjoyed getting a special message hand written and illustrated just for them by a friend.  You can get this in my Dear Santa...Santa Craftivity set.  If you already purchased this set, please re-download it for this Friendship Gift Printable.

Here are a few:

We made these snowman ornaments this year as parent gifts. They came out really cute!  I had a whole stack of old CD's, what a great way to recycle.

I got the original idea from Jackie at Happy Hooligans and fell in love with her little snowmen right away.  I just changed the nose a bit and went a little overboard with glitter.  But, I really love how they all turned out.  I wish I had taken a picture of all of them!!!