Santa Claus

I recently visited Santa and his reindeer.  He is busy getting ready for Christmas.  Thought I would share some pictures of my visit. 

December Crafts and Holiday Ornaments

We have been busy getting ready for the holidays, by making ornaments and decorations that the students can give to their parents as gifts.

The first ornament we made was the beaded candy cane.  Here students used two different three-cornered beads to make an AB pattern and put them on a pipe-cleaner.  This was a great way to see how students were progressing with understanding patterning.  The students were able to choose their own colors, I had red, green and clear for them to choose from.  I added ribbon to help make them festive.

Another Ornament we made was a Handprint Snowman Ornament. For this ornament, I painted the students hand white and had them hold the glass/plastic ornament in there hand, with their fingers wrapped around the ornament.  After it dried, I gave the students permanent markers and had them decorate each finger to become a snowman.  These turned out really CUTE!! The students artistic side was able to come out on these.

We also made a wreath for our families.  I had students bring in stripes of fabric prior to starting this project.  Many brought in Christmas or Holiday fabric, others brought in a variety of colors of fabric.  One year, I had a student that loved the cars movie, so his fabric was Cars.  It does not matter the color or if the fabric is printed or not.  They look great when they are finished.  This project takes awhile to finish.  I usually have my students work on them everyday.

To make these, I have a wire coat hanger bent into a circle.  The students then tie a piece of fabric onto the coat hanger.  They continue to do this until it is filled up all the way.  It takes awhile for students to figure out how to tie a knot with the fabric around the coat hanger.  I spend a lot of time teaching them how to do this and working with them individually.  You have to to make sure they are not just wrapping it around it so it stays.  If you shake it and all the fabric falls off, you know this is what they have done.  Periodically, I scrunch the tied fabric up to make it fuller.  The students usually think they are done and then I scrunch it up and they have more to do, they don't like it when I do that.  After they are finished, I tie a bow that I make for each of them.  

This year, I made these really cute tea light snowman. We made our own hats for these.  To make the hat, I had took a foam marshmellow and cut it in half and then had the students paint it.  They got to choose either red or black.

 

                                                                                                                                                     To make the rim of the hat, I took some sparkly foam and drew a circle for the students to cut out and them glued the rim and the top of the hat together, tacky glue works well.

 

To finish the hat, we add ribbon around the hat and a sticker to decorate it up.  

The students use permanent markers to decorate the snowman's face.  Once they have decorated his face, I then hot glue the hat on top, I add a piece of ribbon so it can hang on the tree.  Prior to this, I already tied the scarf around the tea light. 

How to make the Grinch smile.

December was here before we knew it.  It was time to make Christmas chains to help us countdown to the big day.  We wanted to try something new this year, we found this cute Grinch art project and

decided to try it it with our students.  The discussion we had with our students about why the Grinch was so sad and didn't like Christmas, to what we could do to make him smile was so precious.  It was funny that many of them could tell you about the Grinch and the whole story.  I had one student that told about how his heart was so small and then at the end it was three times bigger.  The things the students came up with to help make him smile were very cute, many said that they would just tickle him or give him a hug.  How can you not smile at comments like that.  I know the Grinch is smiling now after these sweet comments from our students.

The Grinch is happy.

I would give him a bike.

Let him have the presents.

Let him come to school and share my toys.

November and Turkey's

November has been a busy month, we have been learning about our senses, Veteran's day and turkeys.  Here are a few pictures showing how busy we have been.

Our hand and foot turkey's.

A turkey centerpiece.

Our turkey's sitting on a fence, that goes along with a poem we have been learning.

November snow

We are finally back in school after having 3 days off for freezing rain and power outages.  The students had a lot of fun stories to tell after being away for such a long time.  They enjoyed having all of this new snow on our playground to play with.  We recently purchased some kid shovels for them to use during recess, they had a lot of fun and put them to good use. 

Students enjoying the new snow with the new shovels!!!

Today was one of our colder days it was -12, but the kids still had to bundle up and go outside for recess.  Here is one of my students all ready for recess. 

Since we had 3 days off, I worked on a sight word caterpillar that I put up around the door, so my students could read it as they waited in line. 

Snow (Rain) Day in Fairbanks!!

Here in Fairbanks school gets cancelled because of rain!  School was closed today because we woke up to freezing rain which makes the roads very dangerous to drive on.  The continued forecast is for 5-10 inches of snow with more freezing rain.  The big question is:  Will we have school tomorrow!

Our kindergarden children go out in this weather every day!  We have outside recess down to
-20 F (minus 20 degrees Fahrenheit) 

The falling snow is so peaceful and quiet.  

Our 2nd snowfall. 

Aurora Borealis - a frequent sight in our part of Alaska in the winter time

Another Aurora image.  

First Snow

October's weather has been very unusual. We normally have lots of snow on the ground and cooler temperatures. Kids are usually trick or treating in snow pants and the cold. Some years it has been -20. This year it has been warmer temperatures and a lack of snow. A few days almost set temperature highs.

To answer the question from our previous post. It made a light dusting of snow on Halloween.  Nothing to get excited about. But later that night it snowed more. So November 1st brought snow. Here is a picture looking out on the playground from my room.

Will there be snow for Halloween?

It's almost Halloween and there is no snow on the ground. This is odd for us. We usually have snow by now and it's cold. Usually we are reminding parents that costumes need to fit over snow gear or can be tucked in it.

This summer I saw this number sense game called "mingle". The idea is for the students to mingle around (walk around) and then get into groups depending on the number called. We have gone over the rules of Mingle and how we act with each other. The students love playing this and have asked for it many times. This week I changed it up and used letters in their name. Students would mingle and then got to be in the group if the had the letter in their name I called. If they did not have the letter they were in the other group.

It is fun to see how they interact with each other and are problem solving. For example, you see some step up and take charge.  They go invite their peers if the need more students in their group. I watched one group where everyone tried to be in charge and ended up talking over each other.