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.

Aaaaargh You Ready? It's Almost 'Talk Like A Pirate Day!'

'Aaaarrrgh' You Ready For A Fun Day?

September 19th is 'Talk Like A Pirate' Day!

Last year was the first time I had heard about this and only had 1 day 'notice,' so this year I was determined to plan out some fun stuff to do...

and then I found out I am scheduled for a day of professional development out of the classroom that day!

But, I am going to leave some fun 'treasures' for my substitute to do with my little pirates!

I pulled out my (limited collection of) pirate books:

This one I found as a fairly new release...

and there is a YouTube reading of it that is FABULOUS!

The narrator uses GREAT voices- far better than I could have done myself- and it is PERFECT for 'TALK' like a pirate day!!

I am going to show the kids this video on Thursday during snack to build anticipation for Friday- and especially since I don't want them to miss out on it!!!

Take a look at it here, or you can find it on YouTube by searching:

Pirate Pete's Talk Like A Pirate Narration & Characterizations

by Jonathan Mertz

My kiddos will start the day by making a pirate hat.

Simply color the hat, cut on the dotted line and staple to a sentence strip!

Our 'Word of the Week' this week is 'I,' so I made a quick foldable reader for them to practice writing in the word, and then reading.  I put dots under each word to assist with 1:1 correspondence and pointing while reading.

I also like to leave a little something extra for the sub, so I made a pirate themed cut, stack, staple, read activity.  They will be working with our 't' cut, stack, staple, read activity in centers this week, so they will be familiar with what is expected!

 

You can find all of these printables for free by clicking here!!

Although I show them in color, the free printables are only in black and white (I used colored ones as models for the sub to show my kids).

If you want to grab the graphics to make your own goodies, they are found in Krista Wallden's Pirate Combo Pack.

In addition to what I mentioned above, I have themed a lot of my lessons around 'pirates' for the day...

Our read aloud will be I Love My Pirate Papa and they will then use it as a springboard for Writers Workshop.  We are working on Interactive Writing, so my little 'mateys' will be labeling some pirate clip art I printed.  I will be laminating it and then attaching it to chart paper.

They will then use their 'independent writing time' to draw (and attempt to label) something a pirate has.  I will bind all the pages together to make a class book.

For math we are ending our shapes unit, so I made this review printable for them to use:

They had practiced using a paperclip/pencil spinner last week and it was quite successful- plus they really had fun with it!  

(this is not in the free printable pack, but you can try to save it as a picture/insert into a document)

And for snack time I have a package of 

for each of them, along with a little note and some pirate tattoos for them to take home to continue the celebration!

I didn't want to send the substitute over the edge, so I decided against a pirate craft for this year, but if you are searching for one, there are a ton of really cute ones on Pinterest!

Now I think we 'Aaarrrrgh' all ready for 'Talk Like A Pirate' Day!!!

If you are in search of some more pirate goodies, I just uploaded these two (virtually no prep) pirate 'treasures' to my TpT store that are perfect for literacy and math centers:

Want a chance to win one?

Leave me a blog post comment with a 'pirate' term/saying that you are going to teach your students!

I will select a winner on Monday night so that they have plenty of time to get it ready for Friday!

Don't forget to leave an email address and which pack (ELA or Math) you prefer!

I hope you found some fun pirate 'treasures' to share with all your 'mateys!'

Until next post,