This Week OFF From School

It's been a busy couple of weeks off from school but I had a very Merry Christmas and a happy New Year (and we also celebrated my husbands birthday in there as well).

We had a total of 5 family Christmas' (both with immediate and close family members).  A LOT of food was consumed within that 2 week period of time!

I went skating (twice) at a local duck pond.

I got together with friends for lunch.

I spent some Christmas money at Ikea

I put together Christmas presents

I baked my husband a birthday cake (and I didn't think to take a picture of it!)

I started my annual Christmas puzzle (which this year just so happens to be Christmas-y!)

this was it after the first 2 days

I opened a lot of gifts!

Gifts in this picture:

- some new coffee syrups

-  the sideboard from Ikea (which I bought with giftcards I had been saving)

-  2 white shelves from JYSK

-  a power bar that is nearly impossible to see hiding behind the coffee maker

a basket for our livingroom to put all our blankets and extra pillows in (can you believe that this Christmas I acquired 4 new throw blankets?!?!  I'd say I'm set for life now!

What I didn't get to on this break...

Taking down the Christmas decorations and tree (but something tells me I might still have time to do this next week before things get too busy with work).

This Week At School

This week at school I was at 3 different schools.

I wore this lovely shirt to each and every one of those 3 schools 

Ugly Christmas Sweater for Teachers

and not a single person (adult or child) commented on it!

Anyways, this week at school I attended a Christmas concert!  The funny thing about this is that on my way to work this morning while listening to the radio they were doing an "unpopular Christmas opinion" segment and one lady called in saying she hated going to her kids Christmas concerts (sounded like she had kids from elementary age to high school age).  Her reasons, you have to sit there and watch as no one actually sings the song and your kid slowly pulls his shirt over his head.  Then when you get to high school you have to sit there and listen to what sounds like a mouse dying for a band performance.  I mean, what she is saying isn't untrue... but aren't all those things just the icing on the cake of what is a school Christmas concert?

For anyone wondering, I love them!

Do you like attending your kids Christmas concerts?

I was at another school where the younger grades were having their afternoon performance while I was there (my class didn't go and watch).  It was also formal day for spirit week (my guess is so that the younger kids would dress up for their concert).  Anyways, one of the teachers was new to the grade 2 scene and one of his students may have played with chalk and gotten it all over her fancy sweater.  This teacher said "oh don't worry, it will be fine just rub it out"... then she went to visit another teacher and she said "oh no, your lovely sweater has chalk all over it!?!" and the child broke down crying.  Luckily, they have a washer and dryer at the school so they threw the sweater in there and it came out good as new!

Otherwise, it was a lot of keeping kids busy with things to do before they all go completely crazy on Friday afternoon (which is when I won't be there... so good luck to that teacher!)

We are officially on a 2 week break from school, huzzah!  Which means I'll also take this opportunity to go on a 2 week break from the blog (although I MAY post on Saturday's still... we'll see what my week fills up with first before I make any promises though).  So to all teachers and students:  Enjoy your time off!  You earned it!

Christmas Bulletin Board Ideas

Now that you have some Christmas art done (or you are starting to think about getting some Christmas art done) you'll need to put it up!  Whether you decide to display it on a Christmas themed bulletin board or somewhere else here are some ideas for bulletin boards for the season!

Christmas Wish Tree

This one is pretty easy.  All you need is for students to make some white snowflakes and write a Christmas (or holiday) wish on it.  This one may not fit on a bulletin board but it's beautiful and I thought it was worth mentioning.

Origami Christmas Tree

This one I couldn't find a source to but I think it looks beautiful.  You'll need a bunch of wrapping paper though!

Gingerbread House

This one I thought was pretty cute (I can only imagine how long it took the person who set this up to do though!)

How the Grinch Stole Christmas

This one as well probably took FOREVER... look at all those letters this teacher had to cut out!

Ornaments

I like this one because it is simpler than some of the other examples I've listed AND you could get each of your students to make their own ornament (or 2) out of paper to put on your bulletin board.

PS. I love the reindeer ornament in the middle!

Fireplace

This teacher had her students not only design their own stockings for her bulletin board but also some mugs of hot chocolate!

If I were doing this one I would be sure to include some of my hot chocolate activities I came up with while subbing a couple of years ago!

So, do you make a Christmas theme bulletin board for your classroom?

What does it look like?

This Week At School

This week at school was another slower week at school.

I did however give it another go at a school I was not too keen on from past experiences there... mostly because it was only a half day and it was super close to where I live.  In the end I can recall why I wasn't super keen on it (although the half day there wasn't too terrible... I've definitely had worse!)

I go to one classroom quite frequently and this time when I was there it was nice to see that they are FINALLY wrapping up a project they had going on since close to the beginning of the school year (which where I live started at the beginning of September).  Looking forward to doing something new in that class in the near future!

I observed and graded some rock cycle presentations.  To be honest, I don't LOVE marking something like this as a substitute.  In the end I gave them all full marks because from what I could tell they all understood the rock cycle and were able to present on it BUT if I'm being honest some of their presentations were not as well thought out and put together as others.

Our CFL team made it to the Grey Cup (it's Canada's Super Bowl) so this city is all a buzz.  At one of the schools one of the teams mascots paid a visit and took pictures with all the classes.. I assumed it was someone who actually plays the mascot regularly in the costume (although I'm really not sure how that works) but the kids were pretty sure it was actually the teacher that I was in for that was inside the costume... hmmm....

In other news we set up our Christmas tree!  Canada's Thanksgiving is nothing but a distant memory by now (it was on October 14) so fall is officially over and Christmas is slowly getting set up!

Christmas Tree

We got a bigger one this year that better fills out bay window!

Next year I'm thinking of doing gold, white, silver, and black as the tree is prelit with colourful lights as well that I think would go well with those colours.

Here is our tree from last year

Is your tree up yet?

Do you have a colour theme for it?

Christmas Art

Just like I did for Halloween/Fall here are some Christmas Art projects that I've saved on my "art for the year" file on a USB to pull out with lots of ideas at any point in the year.

One of my all time favourite blogs to visit when looking for art activities to do with students is A Faithful Attempt (seriously check it out, it's so well organized and often has detailed instructions... she makes me want to be an art teacher even more than I already do!)

Anyways, if you search through her Christmas tag you'll find all of these

Oil Pastel Candy Canes

Symmetrical Nutcrackers

For this one I might even bring in some inspiration for their nutcrackers by bringing in these from The Dollar Tree (the link likely won't work out of season or next year but it's a link to $1.25 nutcracker figures - 6 different kids!)

Wycinanki Evergreen Tree

All you need is paper, hole punch, scissors, and glue!

This reindeer is from Artventurous

Finally, I was surprised at how little Christmas themed art projects I actually did and they all seem to be a little more winter themed.  Here is one super easy project that I did with an elementary school class (all you need is construction paper).

If you are looking for an art project to do that is a little less Christmasy and more Winter based stay tuned... I'll be coming out with some ideas next month!

What art projects do you do with your students for Christmas?

Presents from Santa

I overheard 2 boys talking about Santa in the grade 2 classroom I was in:

"Once my brother asked Santa for something and he brought him the wrong thing"

They were leaving the classroom as they were talking about it so I didn't get to hear the rest of what they were saying but I'm left with just one question...

What did he ask for?

This Week At School

Well this is it folks, yesterday marked the last day of school before Christmas break and I had the day off (which I expected).  I'm back at it in exactly 2 weeks though... I managed to get a subbing job on the very first day back to school!... not only that but I'm at a school I haven't been at in a couple of years.. so it should be interesting.

Anyways, this week at school was actually a bit busier than I had originally anticipated.

I was a surprise gym teacher early in the week (I say surprise because I was actually supposed to be doing other things but the day got all switched around which meant I stayed in the gym apparently).

I did a bunch of Christmas math activities with some grade 7's.

I was back at the school with just 9 kids and this time 2 of them were away so I had only 7 (and only that many in the afternoon because they are split up for the morning)!  We cleaned in the morning and watched movies in the afternoon which was perfect for me because I was not feeling the greatest.

I hope you all have a very merry Christmas (and a happy New Year)

Here's a picture of our Christmas tree this year

Since it's Christmas break I find it only fitting that I also get a break for 2 weeks and so I won't be posting (at least I don't plan on it) until January 7th. 

Enjoy your break!

Christmas in the Classroom

Last year I wrote a similar post to this one with all the Christmas-y things I found in classrooms... and to be honest I didn't find a lot. 

This year was a little bit different..

Psst... to check out my post from last year click here

This Week At School

This week at school was more of the same as the previous week...

LOTS of play/Christmas concert practices!

In one of the classrooms we also made some of these 3D paper origami snowflakes

Otherwise not much has been happening

BUT... just 2 more weeks (that's just 10 days!) until Christmas break up here!

Christmas Elf Writing Activity

This is for those classrooms that have an elf on the shelf.  It's a cute (and free) writing activity from Mel D-Seusstastic for you to download and use close to Christmas break (so students can write about one of their favourite hiding spots and what he/she did.

If you use the Elf on the Shelf in your classroom I would love to know more about it.  Leave a comment below telling me how you use it in your classroom!

This Week At School

This week at school I...

Helped students practice for 2 different Christmas plays/concerts (it's that time of year again)!

I worked with a 5th year (which over here that is your final year) student teacher for a couple of days which meant I had a couple pretty easy days.

Because of those pretty easy days I managed to finish reading the book Refugee by Alan Gratz.

At one of the schools I was at this week their secretary was leaving to go on maternity leave so the teacher left me baby advice sheets for the students to fill out (and then to give to the secretary)

Baby advice sheet

Finally, happy December 1st!

I've talked before about advent calendars you can use in your classroom but every year I make one for my husband here is what I did for him last year (filled with Lindtt chocolates) and here is his advent calendar this year!

Christmas advent calendar

Looks like he's been good this year!

Christmas-y Classrooms!

So I've decided to take the liberty of giving myself some time off from the blog for a little bit (if the kids get a 2 week vacation then shouldn't I as well?).  You can expect me to be back on January 8th though (along with the school buses and extra cars on the road because schools back in session - at least here it is).

In the meantime enjoy some pictures of what some of the classrooms I sub in were looking like during this festive season (is it odd that I have so few pictures... I really tried to snap a picture whenever I saw something Christmas-y... it just didn't happen very often folks!)

Hope we're all happily recovering from our Christmas Concerts (I even attended one as a substitute this year!) and enjoying our break!

My Former Grade 1 Teacher

The other week I ran into my former grade 1 teacher while substitute teaching. She mentioned to me that she still had a number of the ornaments that myself and my sisters would have given to her as gifts at Christmas time. She specifically mentioned an angel ornament made out of pasta of some kind to which I responded "that sounds like something my mom would have made". This all got me thinking though... what are some gifts from my students that I've kept over the years...

Fake Flowers

I just really liked the look of these. I even kept the tag on this gift so I'll know who it was from and that she thought I was a great teacher.

Fidgeter?

             

I'm not at all sure of what this actually is but I've kept it. You can manipulate it to look different ways. I still remember who I got this from, the store she got it from, and the grade this student was in when she gave it to me.

Red Star

This is the first gift that I don't recall who I got it from... I do recall I got it from a student the year I taught grade 4 half time though. It comes out every Christmas.

I've also gotten and still have some candles that I've gotten from students, stuffies, soaps, nail polish, tea, and other odds and ends... some of them end up in a giveaway bag and some of them I put out for guests to enjoy (like tea... because I haven't come around to being able to enjoy it myself yet).

Tomorrow is the last day of classes before the 2 week break!

Enjoy your time off (teachers AND students)!

Five For Friday: Christmas is Here!

Today I'm linking up with Doodlebugs Teaching to bring you another Five for Friday post.  This week I'm not talking about the classroom (because I'm on break!) so I thought it would be 5 pictures from this Christmas.  I spent this Christmas away from home (by about 30 minutes) at my boyfriends parents place... then in true Christine fashion I promptly got sick just in time to not be able to fully enjoy the holidays!

Enjoy!

1.

I got together with this lovely lady and ate a waffle burger and let me tell you it was delicious.  We all need a little more waffle burgers in our lives!

2.

I made these delightful Hot Cocoa Cookies and they accompanied me to my family's Christmas.

3.

A few weeks ago John bought me flowers for no reason... I picked these ones out and I clearly did a great job at picking them because they are still just as good as when we got them!  Seeing them on my table every day makes me smile

4.

I flipped over the last day on my advent calendar 

5.

Santa brought John's sisters, mom, myself, and him animal socks for Christmas!

MERRY CHRISTMAS!

This Week At School

I go into sub for one teacher regularly and he had me help set up their classroom Christmas tree!  Well, the tree was already set up the kids just put on ornaments.

And boy do they have a talented teacher in their classroom!

I was told the teacher coloured this (it was on chart paper)

He had me do some Christmas art... this was my example

A picture one of the students drew for me.  At first I thought it was of me (because in the morning she was having difficulty thinking up something to draw for the word "pretty" so I had her list some things that she thought were pretty.  She said myself, her and the Christmas tree... so I suggested she draw us standing beside the tree... I never saw that final product).

Then I spent not 1, not 2, but 3 days in nursery/kindergarten.

Still not loving those younger grades!

But I walked out with 2 paper bracelets and a ring... so one can't really complain can they?

And tomorrow there is no school!

Hope we all enjoy our Christmas break!

Classroom Christmas Party

Welcome here!  Today I'm linking up with my other blog:  Confessions of a Modern Day Mennonite to talk about Classroom Christmas Parties for Blogmas.

It's the most wonderful time of the year!

Because.. tomorrow is the last day of school before Christmas break (oh how it's flown by... or not)

For those of us that are throwing together a Christmas Party for our students last minute have no fear!... I'm here to help!

Kids are easy to please... all they want is to eat and to hang out (most of the time)

So...

Make a sign up sheet for what kids can bring to the party (baking, drinks, veggies, fruit, chips, and whatever else you want to show up at the party!)  I've never had problems with kids not being willing to sign up... in fact last year I made them sign up for one party each (Christmas, Valentine's Day, Spring Break, and end of the year) so that we wouldn't have an abundance of food and all go home feeling sick.

One year I looked up a bunch of Minute to Win it games on Teachers Pay Teachers.  There are tons that are free and the supplies are super easy to get your hands on.  We formed teams and battled each other in them.

One year I made my students sugar cookies in the shape of gingerbread men and we decorated them (this likely wouldn't take very long... but it could take up part of the time AND you could even get students to practice measurement by getting them to make the cookies (and icing).

Movies.  All mine ever wanted to do was to watch a movie.  And so, we often did that.

One year I had a karaoke machine show up to a classroom party (you can find a number of karaoke songs on Youtube)

A little while ago I posted about Just Dance.  I think students could still be into Just Dance even without the actual game... you can find it on Youtube too.

Get students to bring in any games they want to play.

When I was teaching grade 8 one year I wrapped a pencil up again and again so that it was in a box that a bunch of plates came in eventually.  I had students sit in a circle on the floor and roll a dice.  Anytime a certain number was called (like 1 for example) they had to put on a pair of oven mitts and try to unwrap the present... only using their hands.  They really liked it.  The pencil ended up breaking at some point in the madness though.

Print off some Christmas colouring pages and there you have it... you sir (or ma'am) have yourself a great party that took you no time at all to plan.

Are you having a Christmas Party in your classroom?
What are you doing for your Party?

Let me know in the comments!

Classroom Christmas Decor

Once again I'm linking up with my other blog:  Confessions of a Modern Day Mennonite for Blogmas!  If you've found your way here from there... welcome!

I'm also linking up with Doodlebugs Teaching for another Five for Friday post (only I'm posting mine early - because it is currently Monday)

No matter what grade level you teach (I would like to think) your students are going to get excited come Christmas time.  It may be because they get a break from school (where I live we get 2 weeks) or because they know Santa is coming, or perhaps they are excited about presents.... Whatever it is, one thing is for sure, they are going to get excited.  Just imagine how happy you'll make them when one day you come in announce that you need help setting up a Christmas tree in the corner or decorating the classroom door?  I think they'll be pretty excited.

So here are five ideas for ways that you can decorate your classroom for Christmas

1.  

Get a Christmas tree

Here is a tree that was in one of the classrooms I subbed in this past week.  The kids made some ornaments to put on it and the teacher left some that he bought at the dollar store to add on as well.  Unfortunately, the lights weren't all working... but no one was complaining about that!

If I was doing this (and I had a newer fake Christmas tree at home) I would just bring in my current tree.  I'm thinking of getting new lights at the end of this Christmas season so the ones that are currently on there could be used for my Classroom tree AND I have a bunch of extra ornaments from when I made an Ornament Wreath. 

2.  

Do some Christmas art...

to put up on the walls.  

This art project was super easy and the teacher loved the variety of things the students did for theirs!

3.  

3D snowflakes  

If I had table groups in my room that were numbered I think I would hang a snowflake above each table grouping.  

Find the instructions for how to make these here

I also found these stars (that light up!) at Ikea that I think are great.  But paper is much, MUCH cheaper (and likely free from the school) so I would likely go with that option.

4.  

Decorate the classroom door.

5.  

Christmas handprint tree.  

When I was teaching kindergarten I traced all my students hands (and then cut them all out) and made a bulletin board of a Christmas Tree using them.  In one of the craft centers that I would have up in my classroom we used as a Christmas ornament making center and anything they made there we stuck on the tree.  It all happened a number of years ago so I don't have a picture... but this is the same idea of the tree that I made.

Did you decorate your classroom for Christmas this year? 

Use the comment section below and leave a link back to any photos you have.  I would love to see them!