Christmas Time is Here

It's been a busy weekend, so I thought I'd make the blog post short and sweet.  Here were the "big ideas" this week which fueled our instruction and activities: THE ELF ON THE SHELF! using the right preposition words to describe where something is, measuring and comparing measurements, and needs and  wants.  Now, for all the pics and a few captions to explain. I'll go more in depth with the next blog post. 

This was actually day 4

The students decorated the tree instead of going to the marker board center this week.

comparing and ordering by length to make Christmas trees

Some of the new pages in our December Calendar

Subitizing Math workshop

Bingo game to practice decomposing teen numbers

Filling up Santa's bag with 2D and 3D shapes

Opening the presents and making the "want" words in the magnet center

Writing a list of what we want for Christmas

Decoding words then sorting into wants and needs. 

 PS, "want" was one of our sight words this week.

 

 

 We learned many new songs and poems this week.

 

We change the subtrahend daily (the number we take away - no, I have not taught the kids that word :)

For one of our Fun Friday activities, we put our focus on others. Rather than thinking about what we want for Christmas, we thought about what our family and friends would enjoy.  First we read "Arthur's Christmas" in which Arthur struggles to find the perfect gift for Santa. We talked about how each person likes different things and how we must put special thought when considering what to get others. The students took turns sharing who they'd like to get a present for and what present they would get them.  

 Then they each pulled a stick with a student's name on it girls picked girls, boys picked boys)

 Then they drew the perfect present for that classmate

 Then we "exchanged gifts" back at the carpet each student telling another what they "got" them, and each recipient told them "Thank you." Then we did a quick review of needs and wants - how many students received a need, how many received a want. This was a lot of fun and the students really enjoyed coming up with the most thoughtful gifts.

 Our other Fun Friday project- a "craftivity" to demonstrate addition.