Gingerbread Glyph and Line Plots... {FREEBIE}

My kids are loving the month of December!  This past week, we focused on all things gingerbread.  We read oodles of gingerbread books and focused a lot on Jan Brett.  The kids were really into the videos on her website.  To kick off our gingerbread week, we made a gingerbread glyph for math.  The next day we analyzed our data and put it on a line plot.  For writing, we used our same gingerbread people to write a story.  Let me just tell you... my kids were sooooo into their gingerbread stories.  Even my struggling writers sat there and tried until they got something down on paper.  I was so proud!

You can get my gingerbread glyph and line plots for {FREE} in my TPT store! 

The gingerbread writing paper is from my "Christmas Writing Pack"

This week, we also tasted ginger items and graphed our favorite.  I've never had a class consume their ginger items like these kids... that ginger ale was gone in one big gulp!!  You can find this activity in my "All About Ginger" unit on TPT.



Switching gears.... you know those moments when you're teaching and a child you never thought would get it has that light bulb moment?!  We all have those moments in the classroom.  I had one on Friday.  I got all teary-eyed.  We were discussing different versions of gingerbread books and one of my students answered a question and then he said, "You know how I know that?  'Cuz I turned on my schema!"  Did you hear that... he used the word SCHEMA... correctly!  That's what teaching is all about for me.  :)

Reindeer Week!

Well, my reindeer week is off to a great start!  The kids are loving it... I can't wait to do more.

Before giving any new information this morning we activated our schema by writing on yellow post-its what we already knew about reindeer.  Most of my kids wrote that they have 4 legs.  After reading a non-fiction reindeer book titled "A Day in the Life: Polar Animals--Reindeer", we wrote our new learning on purple post-its.  Then, we labeled our own reindeer. 

Here's our labeled reindeer:

Click {HERE} to download your own reindeer labels for FREE!

By the way... do you know how hard it is to find a non-fiction reindeer book?!  I finally found this one on Amazon.  It said it would arrive Tuesday, which was too late, but it was a Christmas miracle that it arrived on Saturday!  I was so excited when I opened my door and there it sat like Santa himself dropped it off!  I was so worried that it wouldn't come that I actually ended up writing my own.  (It's included in my "The Wild Christmas Reindeer" pack on TPT and TN.)

Here's a question for you.... as I was planning all of my reindeer stuff for this week and doing the fiction and non-fiction I thought about how the kids will say reindeer can fly and some reindeer have red noses.  What do you do about that?  I kept going back and forth between just leaving it and telling them they're correct or telling them that only the special Santa reindeer can fly and have red noses.  Thoughts?

--Mrs. Pollard

The Wild Christmas Reindeer

Don't get me wrong... I am L.O.V.I.N.G. my break from school, but I am very excited about my reindeer week at school starting Monday.  I've worked hard to come up with meaningful lessons tied to our curriculum, but fun enough to keep my kids focused during December.  (It's always so hard to keep them focused with Christmas just around the corner!)

I've just posted my 44 page unit about reindeer stemming from Jan Brett's "The Wild Christmas Reindeer".  The unit includes a week's worth of reading lessons, math lessons, and writing lessons, as well as everything you'll need to go with it!  I am so excited!  :)

Check it out at my TPT store or Teachers Notebook store.

I'll be offering 20% off everything in my TPT store for Cyber Monday, plus another 10% off from TPT-- that's 30% off!  Check it out on Monday, November 28.

--Mrs. Pollard



Christmas Goodies... TPT

It's hard to avoid the holiday spirit when the stores are fully decorated for Christmas and playing Christmas music overhead (even though we're still weeks away from Thanksgiving).  I got sucked in this weekend when my husband and I headed out to do some holiday shopping... then, I got excited and started creating lessons and stations for my classroom this Christmas!

Check out all of my Christmas goodies at my TPT store!

All About Ginger

Christmas Cookie Long Vowel Word Family Sort

Gingerbread Short Vowel Word Family Sort

Christmas Number Order

Christmas Noun, Adjective, & Verb Sort

Christmas Writing Pack

I also have everything for sale in my Teachers Notebook store.

Studying different versions of The Gingerbread Man is probably my favorite thing to do with my students in December.  They get so excited about the Gingerbread Man and it can so easily be tied across the curriculum.  What is your favorite thing to do with your students in December?

--Mrs. Pollard