I have missed you all very much the past few weeks!!! :) But I AM BACK and here to stay!!! :)
So much has been going on!!!!
I go to meet my new students and school in Bridgetown on Wednesday!!! IT was all very exiting for both the students AND ME!!!!!
Whilst in Bridgetown I stayed in a lovely cottage!!! :) My lovely aunt came down with me as I had been pulling a few late nights combined with very early mornings and my family were worried about the amount of driving. It was really good having some company!! :)
We did some Christmas shopping in the AMAZING Christmas shop, ate lunch at a local pub and I even managed to find an adorable owl scarf!!! My two loves in one - cartoon owls and scarves!!! I can tell I am going to love it here!!
The town is beautiful!!! As are the people I have met in it!!! :)
But alas I do love my current class VERY VERY much and am savouring EVERY last minute I have with them!!!
We are right in Christmas mode atm!!!
We are playing Christmas carols while we work, reading Christmas stories, learning about advent and yesterday we started some Christmas art!! :)
We used the directed drawing from Amy Lemons and Katie King's Rooted in Reading December Pack (if you have not checked these out yet - GET ON IT!!!) to create our own amazing polar bear art!!! I love how each background is different and they each added their own little flair!
Some drew caves, others the northern lights, some in class have icicles - the creativity of a child never ceases to AMAZE me!!!
After we read the non fiction reading passage from the unit about polar bears and decided if we would like a polar bear as a pet. They had to use evidence from the read allowed to justify their position!
Some of them are very funny!!! :)
This time of year is always fun but the behaviour can start to get a little crazy as they get tired and forget to think before acting.
To keep up the motivation I do a couple of things in my classroom!
1. A treat a day keeps the gremlins at bay ....
Over the years I began collecting Christmas books and this year I ordered a heap of them!!! What I like to do is read one each day to the class. This is in ADDITION to our big book for the week.To make it all that more special I wrap the books up so it is like a present!!! I am not the hugest fan of wrapping presents in wrapping paper just because I am unsure of how I feel about using the paper once (we have always used Christmas sacks at our house) so I compromised and reused old newspapers instead - still not the best but better than nothing I think! :)
The kids are LOVING it and they remind me very quickly if they have missed out on reading one for the day!!!
I pick one student to head over and select a book .... my kids are HILARIOUS because they have convinced themselves that red ribbon means bad and green ribbon means good! They cheer is someone picks a green and act scared when someone picks a red!!!
Kids ;)
2. Unlock a magic moment each day!!!
This is one of my core behaviour management techniques at the moment.I got 5 old photocopy boxes (you will only see 4 in the photo but there are 5) and covered them in wrapping paper to 'Christmas' them up (I intend to keep these boxes hence I was willing to use the wrapping paper).
In each box goes a different activity. The class need to reach a target each day. If they reach the target at the end of the day I choose two people to pick a box and we get to do that activity as a class. Once a box has been chosen it can not be picked again.
Some of the activities include and may I stress the SOME:
- Decorating a Christmas tree to have in the classroom
- Christmas photo booth
- Reindeer races (I found the reindeer at Big W)
- Snowball toss (I found these are Kmart!!)
- Designing a trap to catch a gingerbread man
- Making reindeer food
- Pin the nose on Rudolph
- Build a human snowman
- Build a human Christmas tree
- Waddle like a penguin races
- Candy cane hunt
- Puffy paint snowmen
- Snowman ten pin bowling
The idea is pretty versatile and you could use any activity you like :)
3. Jingle all the way!!!
Kids love Christmas carols and playing them while settled in our work is always a treat!! :)
I hope you got some ideas from those!! :) The main idea is JUST HAVE SOME FUN!!!!!!
Remember make the most of the time with your kids ..... not long left!!! :(
Have a lovely weekend everyone!!!! :)
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