steppin' up to first grade: Christmas

It's the most wonderful time of the year! I am so excited to be joining up with Doodle Bugs Teaching and posting my Five for Friday :)

Elf on the Shelf

We've been enjoying some elf on the shelf shenanegans!

We needed some new supplies.

The kids got a kick out of this one!

Elfies

We updated our instagram board and gave it a Christmas twist!

How adorable are these? Am I right?

Elf Craftivity

I picked up the freebie on TPT. It was a wonderful writing activity that my students thoroughly enjoyed. It didn't include a face or arms, and my students were eager to add more expression to their projects, so I allowed them to cut their heads out of colored construction paper and add them to it. I think they turned out pretty cute. This little guy is my favorite- Look a those eyes and the front teeth! Seriously adorable!

Christmas Advent Devotional

This book is so beautifully written. We have been reading it each day during Bible and coloring an ornament to glue on our trees.

The words and story are incredibly moving.

I love how it allows us to take a quiet pause and reflect on the joy and reverence of the season.

Door Decorating Extravaganza

My class and the 4th/5th grade class decided to get into the holiday spirit and make our hall extra festive. I absolutely love how our doors turned out.

Well that's all for now folks. Stay tuned next week, I'll be sharing all about our Christmas heritage projects and reports.

It's time again for FIVE FOR FRIDAY!!

More Adventures with Elf on the Shelf

A few weeks ago I went to my cousin's wedding and her favors were lego candy! How cute is that! I was enthralled :)

My family members were happy to give me their favors so I happened to have just enough to give to my students. Of course they think Buddy our elf brought them gifts from the North Pole. This was a fun surprise!

We also found him lifting marshmallow weights and building a fort.

And lastly, this week we had our gingerbread hunt.

The elf brought us a gingerbread friend to decorate.

Gingerbread Hunt!

Every year I decorate a gingerbread man with my class, then we put him in our play oven and go out to recess. When the students come back in, they discover that he is missing and in his place he's left gingerbread friends for us to eat instead.
We then hunt for him all over the school.

My favorite part of the hunt is when we visit the principal. She is so funny and convincing, almost all my students believe that the gingerbread man tied her up.

If you're interested in incorporating the gingerbread theme into your classroom this year, feel free to check out my

gingerbread unit on TPT.

It includes a gingerbread hunt, glyph, graphic organizer to help writers create and organize their characters and a story template to help them create their own gingerbread story.

Christmas Inspiration

This was such an incredible find! My mom actually gave me this book the first day of December and encouraged me to read it every day in preparation for advent.

I decided to incorporate it into my classroom and I'm so happy I made that decision.

Each day it retells a different story from the Bible and weaves it into a message about Christmas. It has such beautiful writing and amazing artwork.

As I read from this book each day, I have my students cut out and color an ornament that they can glue on a their tree. This gives us something to look forward to everyday and we've fallen into a nice routine of listening, coloring, gluing and pondering.
It has been a very sweet time.

More on Dressember

So I already shared about Dressember on my Currently post, but I wanted post this weeks pictures to prove that I've been participating every day.

Day 6

Day 7

Day 8

Day 9

Day 10

Day 11- School CANCELED due to inclement weather (I cheated just a bit) I wore my pajamas all day (let's pretend I was wearing a nightgown- I actually don't own one!)

Day 12

If you want to learn more about Dressember feel free to read on HERE or if you're interested in doing something incredible this December, consider donating HERE