Holiday Centers & Candy Cane Word Work!

There is definitely excitement in the air so my motto this time of year is 'if you can't beat them, join them!'

All of my centers for next week are holiday related...

Stamping Center:

The kids will stamp their sight words in the ornaments and then use Holiday Smencils to write the words!

Want to make for yourself?  It's super easy:

Simply insert a table into a PowerPoint document.  Type the words you want and then insert ornament clip art (you can find images for free) to match the number of letters.

The following week (yes...we go until 3:30pm on 12/23!) they will write the letters with white crayon in the lightbulbs and then use watercolor paint over them to 'reveal' the letters to make the lights 'twinkle':

(I copied this one on cardstock to make it sturdier!)

Sight Word Puzzles:

You can find 27 'Ready To Go' Puzzles, plus editable templates for 2-5 letter words here:

My kids LOVE doing these puzzles!  Some weeks they choose to do 2 puzzles instead of going to early finisher baskets!

Listening Center:

They love the Froggy stories!  They will write about/draw what Christmas looks like to them!

Phonics Center:

I am breaking out stockings for this one!

I have 'stuffed' each stocking with pictures and they will reach in and pull out a 'toy'- they will write what letter the picture (toy) starts with!

You can find this editable pack here:

Read It, Build It, Draw It:

The students read the sentence (our sight word this week is 'said') and then build the sentence.  Some students draw and others re-write the sentence.  They then circle 'said' in the sight word reader and practice reading it to a friend.

We do this center every week and it has really helped them with sight word development, concepts about print and given them confidence as readers!

If you are working on 'said' and would like this set, you can download it for free here!

And their new favorite center...

Read the Room:

This will be our second week doing 'read the room' this year.

They will be walking around to find the holiday images.  They will ID what letter the picture on that card starts with and write it on the recording sheet:

It is specific to the letters we are currently working on and my students are having trouble with, but if you can find it useful, as well, I have put it up for FREE in this Dropbox download!

As I mentioned earlier, we go until 12/23, so for the following week I have a candy cane word work activity all prepped and ready to go!

It came from an idea I saw on Pinterest:

  

shared by Carolyn Kisloski on her blog Kindergarten Holding Hands and Sticking Together.

I thought it was such a cute idea and I shared it on my Facebook page it and it got so many shares!

But I didn't want my students to just glue words without practicing them, so I came up with an idea!

I printed large 'J's' on red cardstock (because I couldn't find a candy cane image without stripes!) and then found a 15-spot spinner from Graphics From The Pond to put all the sight words we have covered onto it!

I then made text boxes for all the words with dotted lines so the kids could cut them out to glue to the candy cane.

I made an EDITABLE TEMPLATE for you for FREE to download too!

(The first set is the set of words you see here, the second set can be edited to fit any words you are working on!)

Each child (or you could have them work in pairs) gets a spinner, candy cane and set of words:

Using a paper clip/pencil, spin a word: 

Find the word that the paperclip landed on in the pile of words: 

and then glue it to the candy cane: 

Continue to spin, read word, find word and glue it to the candy cane until the candy cane is full and/or you have run out of words!

If a word is spun that was already landed on, spin again: 

Extra words can be glued to the back: 

To make the candy cane 'neater' you can trim off the excess white from the word strips: 

And here is your completed candy cane! 

BUT it doesn't have to stop there!

You can then use the candy cane and spinner for a word work game!

Put out some fun pom poms (or holiday erasers, candy, counters, etc!)

Students spin and then cover the word on their candy cane! 

Continue to spin/cover until all the words are covered!

The kids could even take the spinners home and continue to practice and play with their families over holiday break!

If you are still in need of some holiday resources, you can find my free and paid resources here:

and be sure to check out my New Year goodies too so that you are all prepped and ready to kick off 2016!

Wishing you and yours a happy and healthy holiday season!

Until next post.

Seuss-tastical Week!

Just like many classrooms across America this week, we had a 'Seuss'-tastical week of fun!

Despite a delayed opening and closing due to snow, we still managed to fit in all the fun I had planned!

We started the week reading Green Eggs and Ham and talked about rhyming words!

Instead of traditional 'green eggs' we had a tastier version...

A few years ago I had a child with a severe egg allergy.  I had to come up with an alternate way to make green EGGS and ham...and this idea was 'born!'  The kids loved them so much, and there were no 'eggs' in the garbage, that I decided to make this my yearly project!

Simply purchase white melting chocolate.  I used green powder food coloring to dye some green, but you can also purchase green melting chocolate and can use one of those 'discs' as the yolk instead of going through the dying/forming/drying process!

I melted white and mixed in the green powder until I got it to the exact shade I wanted.  I then put it into a ziploc bag, sealed the top and cut the tip off the bag.  I squeezed the 'yolk shape' chocolate onto wax paper and let it harden.

Once hardened, I removed (peeled) them from the wax paper and then melted white chocolate.  I put it in a ziploc too and squeezed out 'egg shapes' onto wax paper.  I placed a green 'yolk' onto each 'egg' and let them harden.

Once all hardened, I peeled the eggs from the wax paper and 'plated them up!'  I let the Cat in the Hat take the credit!

There were a hit!

Thanks to First Grade Blue Skies and her post about directed drawings, we were able to make these ADORABLE Cat in the Hat drawings!

I L-O-V-E how each one is so different and unique!!!

Our sight word last week was 'he' and this week 'has' so it made for a perfect opportunity to add some descriptive writing to our masterpieces!

Each child wrote about something the cat had!

In math & ELA we worked with SO many of Mrs. Payton's Silly Cat Centers 

BUT I didn't get any pictures! UGH!

Seriously these centers were adorable...and awesome!

Be sure to check them out!

PLUS she has a fish addition one for FREE!!!

We also used rainbow goldfish in math

It was similar to what the silly fish center wanted them to do, so this whole group hands-on practice helped them become more independent learners in centers!

Each kid had 10 fish in their bag- 5 of 2 different colors.  I said, or wrote, addition problems and they used the fish to figure out the answers.  

On the bottom they created their own problem- drawing the picture and filling in the joining and addition sentences.

And this leaves us to the 'finale' of the week...

OOBLECK!!

I have tried a few different versions but this one is seriously the best!  It bounces, stretches, makes imprints, changes temperatures and is a total 'WOW' as it transforms!

It doesn't make the mess that the cornstarch version does and its 'play time' is much longer!

So how do you make it?

EASY!

It only takes 4 ingredients!

I found and printed the recipe in 2003 (eeek!) and the site that hosted it doesn't exist anymore.  

It calls for:

1/4c white glue

1/4c water

few drops of green food coloring

2c warm water

2T. borax soap

You mix the water/glue/food coloring in one bowl.

In another bowl you dissolve the borax in the warm water.

You add 1/4c of the borax mix to the glue mix.

The oobleck will immediately form.  Pour off any excess water and begin to have fun!

Unfortunately this is not enough for a whole class, so this is my calculations for a class size bowl (for 20 kids):

2c glue

2c water

food coloring

16c. warm water

16T. borax

(Do the same as above BUT mix 2-3c of the borax mix into the glue mix to make it form- and then pour off the excess water).

This is right after it 'formed'!  You can just scoop it right out! 

This one got the most 'EEEEEWWWW's' and "COOOOOOL"'s!!!

(See that excess water- that is what we poured out and then I pulled pieces off the big 'blog' to give each kid his/her share.)

They loved watching it stretch down off the table! 

and it even made cool imprints of our crayon boxes!

We rolled the blobs into balls before we left to go to music and when we came back they were flat and cold!

They even managed to get it to stretch from above someone's head to the ground- and if our arms had been longer, I think it would've gone further!  No breaks or tears either! 

In addition we read many of Dr. Seuss' books and even read our own 'rhyming books' from this pack:

The kids loved that they could read these books all on their own!!

Due to snow I didn't get the bookmarks prepped this year, but you can download them for free and I hope to be able to give a set out next year!

Hope your week was just as exciting!

Don't forget to stop by my blog for the 5000 Followers Extravaganza!

Tomorrow (Saturday 3/7) is the last day to enter the giveaways and download the freebie!

You will also find a bunch of $1, $2 and $3 deals!

I will have this pack for $1: 

This one for $2:

And this one for $3: 

AND many of the TPT authors that have contributed to the giveaway are joining in on the $1-$3 deals!

And for those of you living in Eastern Standard Time, don't forget this weekend we 'Spring Ahead!'  We lose an hour (BOO) but more time to play when we get home now!

Until next post,