The Holiday Rush - Now time to catch up and blog!

Is it just me, or is the month of December just one BIG BLUR!  From Thanksgiving on, I feel like I didn't stop!  So here is December in review.  Let's start first with super cute Rudolph hair.  My assistant made me this super cute reindeer hair kit.  So of course I had to give it a try.  

Adorable, huh?

The month of December brings out the excitement in all of us!  Keeping students engaged can be a challenge.  Consistency & routine is a must!  I tried to keep the same daily routines as much as possible.  It was definitely a challenge with all of the holiday fun...but I tried.  We made Christmas chains, made calendars for parents, graphed m&m's, had a Gingerbread week, a Polar Express week, learned about different Holiday traditions, and had a special visitor.

Here are some pictures from my classroom. 

Kindergarteners can code!  We participated in the hour of code!

Play doh makes learning numbers fun!

Making Christmas Countdown chains

We worked on number puzzles  (0-20)

One of my students was traveling to India during December so we found India on the map.  Did you know it takes 17 hours to fly there from the Midwest!

We are on a gingerbread hunt!  (Where could he be?)

Of all of the activities that we did my favorites was The Biggest Christmas Tree STEM activity.  I have been trying to incorporate STEM activities int o my class at least once  a month.  So far my students have been 100% engaged every time we have done a STEM activity.  I like to incorporate literacy into my STEM activities so I always try to start with a book. For this STEM activity I started with the book The Biggest Christmas Tree Ever.

Here are a few pictures from The Biggest Christmas Tree STEM activity:

 

Students drew a plan of their tree.



After they drew their plan they created a version of their plan using marshmallows and toothpicks.

  

 

We measured each creation with the tallest "tree" reaching 11 inches.  A few of the students took the project a step farther and re-engineered their tree to beat 11 inches.  Once again I realize STEM is the way to go and I can't wait to figure out what my January STEM activity will be.

I hope you enjoyed the peak into my classroom.