Skyping Down Under

Every year at Christmas, I teach my firsties about Christmas in Australia!! I love Australia!! I want to go there sooooo bad!!!! I fell in love with Australia when Steve Irwin was alive and I would watch him all the time! Yes I was obsessed with the Crocodile Hunter!!! 

Anyways I digress!! So I teach my firsties all about Christmas in Australia! We learn Australian Christmas carols and we read Australian Christmas stories!

We read The Christmas Wonbat and The Golden Kangaroo!

But the absolute highlight of our day was Skyping with Rocking Dan down under! My kids loved it! We sang The Gingerbread Man Description song, The Friends of Ten, What Makes A Good Friend and they got to ask him questions! He also read The Christmas Wonbat to us!! 

Check out our pics!

We love Rocking Dan and can’t wait to Skype with him again!

My T-shirt from Lipstick and Little’s says it all!!

Have yourself a Charlie Brown Christmas!

To end the last week before the Christmas holiday, we celebrated a Charlie Brown Christmas!

I love Charlie Brown! He is my absolute favorite and oriental Trading has the most amazing selection of Charlie Brown holiday items and activities!!!!

First, I decorated the classroom!! The kids loved it!

The balls hanging from the ceiling and the cut outs are from oriental Trading! They are very cute and sturdy! 

I also put up a Charlie Brown back drop and giant snow globe! This just added to the ambiance of the room! These are also from Oriental Trading!

The tables were decorated with green vinyl tablecloths. I got these from oriental Trading and they come on a roll that you cut to fit your table or area you would like to cover! The trees I got from michaels as well as the garland and ornaments. The Charlie Brown cutouts in the tree are actually Charlie Brown photo booth props from oriental Trading! 

Of course, the kiddos need to have Charlie Brown pencils, erasers and crayons to use for this amazing day! And don’t forget a stocking for them to store them in. These stockings are so cute and the kids can decorate them! We used permanent sharpies and scentos markets!!

I got the pencils, erasers, crayons and stockings from oriental Trading!

For our day, we made reindeer food!

Candy cane reindeer!

Reindeer cookies using sugar cookies, frosting and edible reindeer parts made by Wilton!

Of course we made Merry Reindeer Munch From the Kindergals!!

For our ornament of the day, we made snowmen from oriental Trading!

For some games, we played Charlie Brown plinko, bean bag toss and bingo! These are all from Oriental Trading!

So there you have it! Our Charlie Brown Christmas!

Merry Christmas from our peanuts gang to yours!!

I am a teacher blogger and these are my own opinions! I received the materials from Oriental Trading in exchange for my product reviews! I was not compensated for my opinions and these are my own opinions! #ad

Oriental Trading!

Winter Stem

Science in first grade is snow much fun!! We did winter stem activities and the kids had a blast!

We read the books, Pete the Cat Saves Christmas and the Grinch! 

After we read these and talked about them, the activities began!

First stem center, we reviewed force and how it affects the notion of objects. Then they got their marshmallow blasters! The focus was to use just the right amount of force to hit Pete the cat and the grinch with a marshmallow from their blaster! I found these awesome blasters at Oriental Trading!! 

The next center was to build the tallest chimney for Pete the Cat and/or the Grinch to go down. They used toothpicks and mini marshmallows! 

The next center was marshmallow poppers! They had to figure out how to make their marshmallow pop higher then their neighbors! The marshmallow poppers were a hit and they are from Oriental Trading! 

At another station, we made snow! The kids loved watching the chemical reaction when we added water to their snow pail! I got these from Oriental Trading!!!

These winter stem activities were a hit! Thanks to Oriental Trading for having these amazing products!!

To end our day, smore ornament making!! 

I am a teacher blogger and these are my own opinions! Orientall Trading sent me the products to use and to give my honest feedback! #ad

Polar Express

All aboard!!! Two of my favorite words I love hearing as my kiddos enter the multipurpose room to board the Polar Express! 

They have their tickets ready to go and they hand them to the conductor!

We, as teachers, have our favorite time of year or activities that we experience with our kiddos. I absolutely love the week before we go on Christmas break! I know the kids are a little bit hyper and not themselves but I love the magic of the season!

Polar Express is the second day of this amazing week and thanks to Oriental Trading and Learn365  I was able to add some details that made this day even better!

Isn’t the background and the train an amazing addition to any Polar Express day! I took their picture in front of this for their parent gift! And they turned out so stinking cute!!!

We wore our pajamas and had hot chocolate and candy canes! They loved the candy canes and they also came from Orinetal Trading!!!

Of course they got bells! These were taped under each seat so the kiddos could get them when the little boy got his in the movie!!

It was a great day for all! 

I am a teacher blogger and was provided these materials from Orinetal Trading in exchange for my opinions. These are my own opinions and they are not influenced by Orinetal Trading or learn 365. #ad

Grinch Day!

The week before Christmas break has always been my absolute favorite week ever since I started teaching over 20 years ago!

I love the innocence of my students and how this is such a magical time of year for them! 

To start the week, the first day is always Grinch Day! I absolutely love this book written by Dr. Seuss! 

So this amazing character comes to our room every year and just plays tricks on my kids and leaves them treats for being the best grinches they can be!

Here he took all of our pencils and left us nothing but green colored pencils to write with all day!

Here he left us Grinch Dust to spread on our yard to make sure Christmas comes, Grinch pills to take when we feel grinchy and green candy canes!

We focused on the central message! 

We did our grinchy adjectives! 

We made our Grinch and wrote about what we would do to make him grin!

Of course we made a special ornament! I love this ornament and it was easy and inexpensive to make!

I am ent to Michaels and they had a container of 35 clear plastic ornaments on sale for 7.99. I also bought bright green acrylic paint for 9.99. I also bought a red glitter sticker sheet for only 1.69.

Each child got an ornament. I poured some paint in it and they tapped it until the entire inside was covered in paint. They put the top back on it and cut out a heart out if the glitter paper and put it in the ornament!

Then they wrote Merry Grinchmas 2017 on the back with a permanent marker and they were done!

We dressed in either green or grinch wear! I love my hat, shirt and Grinch gloves I got from @universalstudios.

They made grinch bags to carry home all of their grinch goodies!!

They ended their day with grinch juice!!

Happy grinch day everyone!!!