Happy Holidays

The holidays are a special time for many reasons.  I work in a school system where many holidays are celebrated this time of year which really leads to some interesting and precious discussion between five year olds :)  We have tried not to be too holiday specific in here and have had the opportunity to learn about and appreciate our differences.  Below, you will see some of the fun things we have been doing in preparation for the holidays.

Gingerbread Day

This is quite possibly may favorite day in Kindergarten!! We had a totally gingerbread themed day and we had a blast.  I cannot claim that all of these are my original creations thanks to my recent Pinterest addiction :)  They are all cute and purposeful regardless of which ones are my creations or adapted from the creative minds of others!

We started the day by reading two gingerbread books and listing similarities and differences.  My students did a really good job and were able to come up with way more than I expected.  They even called them text-to-text connections- so proud! 

       

We also made a gingerbread glyph (I think I have one of these for each theme in my classroom- I just LOVE them).  As usual, I found the idea on Shari Sloane's website.  There is not a glyph key linked to her page for this one, so you will have to create your own.

Next, we ate our delicious gingerbread snack to come up with adjectives to describe gingerbread.

We graphed our gingerbread glyphs to show how we ate our gingerbread men- arms first, legs first or heads first.  (Most people in our class ate the head first.)  We also made a book showing how to eat a gingerbread man showing him getting a little smaller on each page.

Last, we sang 5 Little Gingerbread (found here) and acted it out with our cute little gingerbread marshmallows.  They are really hard to find- but definitely worth the search :)

Reindeer Day

We discussed the differences between real reindeer and the special reindeer that are found only in the North Pole.  We made a venn diagram to compare and contrast the two.  We also made a really cute craft with our favorite fact that we learned about reindeer in their tummies.

We also enjoyed a special reindeer snack (thank you Pinterest) out of doughnuts, pretzels, icing and m&m's.

Last, we sang, danced (and mostly laughed) the Reindeer Pokey.

The Reindeer Pokey

(to the tune of The Hokey Pokey)

You put your antlers in.
You put your antlers out.
You put you antlers in,
And you shake them all about.
You do the Reindeer Pokey,
And you turn yourself around.
That's what it's all about!

You put your hooves in....
You put your red nose in....
You put your fluffy tail in...
You put your reindeer body in…

Hot Chocolate

We discussed how we like our hot chocolate and graped it on a mug of hot chocolate.  We also made our own hot chocolate mugs with pockets for  a package of hot chocolate to take home and enjoy :)

Snow Globes

We made these out of small paper plates- they are cute and easy.  Perfect for a rainy afternoon.

Peppermints

These are also made from small paper plates and fit right into our patterning unit with an AB pattern :)

Lights

These also fit into our patterning unit and were just cute.  Once again, thank you Pinterest- you have changed my Kindergarten life !

Snowman Ornament

I make these every year as a gift to the Kindergarten parents.  I buy plain blue ornaments and put the students' hand prints on them.  Then, they decorate their snowmen.  They are just cute- I am a sucker for hand print crafts.  I always attach this cute poem to the ornament.