Secret Santa Blog Hop

Happy holidays friends, here at The Elementary Entourage we've been cooking up some extra special holiday fun that we can't wait to share. We are having a Secret Santa Blog Hop for the rest of December in which each of our bloggers has a special Secret Santa surprise for you. So please take some time to hop through the different blog posts and score some treats for yourself! 

We also want to thank you for following our little blog. We hope you take some time over your break for you and your family so you are refreshed and recharged for the upcoming year.  We know you'll find some awesome ideas to try out and can't wait to hear from you in the new year. We'll see you in January!

An InLinkz Link-up

Integrating the Arts (with A Love of Teaching)

I've always loved integrating arts and crafts into my curriculum. When I taught fourth-grade math and science I would do this on a consistent basis. To begin with, I integrated arts and crafts for fun but then gradually noticed that student's retention levels increased when pairing content with a matching art or craft activity. Studies have shown that arts integration uses teaching practices that have been shown in brain-based research to improve comprehension and long-term retention. For example, when students create artwork that expresses the content they are learning, they are also forming connections and helping to embed the information. Basically, this creates a memorable learning experience which lays the foundation for deeper retention levels in students.

One of my favorite ways to integrate art into the classroom is by using directed drawing.  Directed drawing is a step-by-step activity that guides students to produce a piece of artwork that is intended to look a certain way. What I love about directed drawing is that...

1. It sets the foundation for how shapes work together to create a bigger picture.
2. Every student produces a piece of artwork that looks so different, yet the same (makes a beautiful bulletin board).
3. Students feel incredibly successful when they are finished.
4. It's the perfect way to integrate art into the curriculum seasonally or through content.
5. It's super easy to tie directed drawing to the standards.

We have an amazing art teacher at my school who guides students each year to complete a directed drawing for Art to Remember, a PTO fundraiser (which I highly recommend). The image at the top of this page shows the directed drawing artwork my daughter completed last year. I was so in love with it that I ordered snowflake ornaments, coffee mugs, and refrigerator magnets with her artwork on it! 

If you Google "Direct Drawing" or search for it on Pinterest you'll find tons of examples and directions to use in the classroom. These 6 Christmas Themed Directed Drawings are a few of my favorites. They are perfect for any classroom, and I know students will love them, too!

6 Christmas Themed Directed Drawing Project for Kids 

Santa Claus Directed Drawing from Proud to be Primary

Proud to be Primary is my all time favorite go-to site for directed drawing projects. Elysa gives step-by-step instructions that are easy for kids to follow and the end result is always precious! 

Rudolph the Red Nose Reindeer Directed Drawing from Busy Kids Happy Mom
This activity is perfect for all ages. A list of drawing supplies needed and a step-by-step printable of directions are included. See if your students can follow directions. You'll know by the way the reindeer turns out!

Snowman Directed Drawing from Proud to be Primary
Another one of my favorites from Elysa over at Proud to be Primary! This project can be adapted for any primary classroom, and I absolutely love how she incorporates watercolor paint. Printable directions are included!

Grinch Directed Drawing from Art Projects for Kids
This website is amazing! There are so many directed drawing projects to choose from. You can download each project which includes step-by-step instructions. They have amazing projects to choose from including plants and animals, fall leaves, and holiday specific tutorials.

Elf Directed Drawing from Learning with Mrs. Parker
Mrs. Parker has created an easy to follow video for students to watch while drawing a Christmas elf. She also ties this project to elf themed literature. A list of recommended books to read to your class is included.

Christmas Tree Directed Drawing from Art for Kids Hub
This website is phenomenal! Rob (Mr. Hubs) creates video tutorials of directed drawings for kids. He includes his family in his videos which make them very entertaining for students to watch. You can find tons of directed drawing projects on his site that will tie to almost any content area or seasonal theme.

What's your favorite directed drawing project to complete with your students?

Secret Santa Blog Hop!

 Welcome, Friends!

Here at The Elementary Entourage we are having our first official Secret Santa Blog Hop!

Many of you know we've just become a group family of teacher bloggers circa October 2014. 

All 17 of us will be participating in the Blog Hop this month and will be offering a free product to allow you to get a jump start on your January planning.

How to get in on the fun:

1. Start at Mrs. Plemons' Kindergarten {click on her blog button in the link up}.

2. Visit the blog, read about the freebie and download it.

3. Leave a comment on the blog if you can so we can get to know you too! We love talking with fellow teachers!

4. Come back to the group page {where you are now}.

5. Click on another teacher's blog to read and grab the next freebie!

Helpful Hint:

Inlinkz, the program we are using to link up, will place a small check mark at the top of the blog when you visit the page. If there's some reason you need to stop and come back to the hop, you will know where you left off! 

From all of us here at The Elementary Entourage, we'd like to wish you a very happy holiday!

An InLinkz Link-up

May Your Students Be Merry and Bright {Amber from The Sunny Side of Second Grade}

This was a tough one for me because I feel like I do this all year. Hehe!

If your December is anything like mine, you are constantly scrambling for time. Between holiday activities, meetings, the hour of code, and field trips I felts like falling over come Friday! On top of that, the month of December is filled with assessing, assessing, and, you got it, more assessing. It is benchmarking season at Northwoods Elementary so it is difficult to keep these little ones merry, bright, engaged, and learning. But I am super woman, right? You got it!

One of the things I do is incorporate the holidays into all my lessons. Students are always wanting to learn about the holidays, and I have found that I get amazing work quality if I follow a holiday themed unit during the month of December. Therefore, all of my opinion writing pieces have a holiday twist, word problems involve elves, Santa, and reindeer, and reading...FORGET ABOUT IT! Reading is the best part!



Reading a new book or two every day is a sure fire way to keep those little sweeties engaged. For our reading assessments, we use mClass. Anyone who uses mClass knows that the most difficult part is the written comprehension. Fortunately I have learned to make this skill a priority and I have made it a mini lesson almost daily. With that said, when you read a holiday book, you can extend that right into a written comprehension lesson.

Take this book, for example:

First of all, if you haven't read this book, it is a season MUST! Have conversations about weather, cause and effect, sound in text, vocabulary and more! For written comprehension, I chose to discuss and model how to answer this question:

The title of this book is Cold Snap. If you could rename this book, what would you name it? Explain your answer and use at least two key details from the story.

Believe it or not, the students do not view this as an agonizing chore anymore. They are all helping look back in the text for key details. They are all recounting the story from beginning to the middle to the end. They are all participating and having conversations about what a good title could be for the book.









As you can see, we look at the question, break it down into parts and then we start answering the questions. My students actually love doing this now. They look forward to our written comprehension mini lessons, and I must say that the evidence is shown in their assessments for middle of the year. *Feeling accomplished*

How do you take something as mundane as written comprehension and keep it interesting?

May Your Students Be Merry and Bright {Brittany from Tickled Pink in Primary}

Hey Friends, it's Brittany from Tickled Pink in Primary again. As we get closer and closer to break, it gets harder and harder to keep students engaged. To keep my students "merry" during this time of year, I do a unit on the Gingerbread Man. It's one of their favorite units because we get to make gingerbread cookies and go on a gingerbread hunt! They also have to have good behavior if they want to participate in our Gingerbread House project at the end of the week. Throughout the week, we read many versions of the story and The Gingerbread Girl always seems to be one of their favorites. It's such a cute story! This unit is a great way to make your students "bright" because you can work on sequencing and comparing/contrasting.

Last year I found some foam Gingerbread Men in the Target dollar spot. The students decorated them and then I wrote the name of their favorite book on them. Can you tell I was being lazy and printed out my title instead of using the die-cut machine like I normally do? :)

At the end of our Gingerbread unit, we have a pajama party and decorate Gingerbread houses. I get so many parents that come in and volunteer for this project and are willing to donated the items needed for these houses. Throughout the week, I collect milk cartons. After they are washed and dried, I staple the top shut. Next, I lay out TONS of candy, icing, and graham crackers. I show the students how to use the icing like glue so everything will stick and they use popsicle sticks as knives. Remind students NOT to lick the popsicle sticks! 

Using his shirt as a napkin...seriously?!? 

Look at the finished Gingerbread houses! We do this project in the morning, so they have plenty of time to dry and harden up before they go home. 

Once finished, we do a writing prompt about our Gingerbread houses. You can grab this writing prompt FREE by clicking the picture below. 

I hope your last few days before Christmas/Winter break are fun and not too stressful! Happy Holidays!!

May Your Students Be Merry & Bright {Lauren from Mrs. Thompson's Treasures}

I love all the ideas that have already been shared about keeping your students merry and bright this holiday season!

One of my favorite activities to do during this crazy time is called, "Snowball Fight." Students get an answer sheet and one math problem to start. After they complete the problem you have given them, they crumple up the paper and throw it across the room when you say, "Snowball fight!"

 

Now each student picks up another paper and works that problem. When everyone is done, yell "snowball fight," again. Keep going until students have finished most of the problems. If they get a repeat they can just wait, or if there are extra snowballs, you can put them in the middle of the room for a student to pick from.

It can be difficult to make sure each student answer all the questions, so you can just continue the game until they have done most of them and let them know it's ok if they have a few blank spaces.

I've created a free multiplication version of this that you can get HERE if you'd like to try it, but it is simple to make your own if your students are working on a different skill.

You can also do this with spelling words or sight words by writing the words on the snowballs and having students copy them down for writing practice. Or make up questions that go with your science or social studies unit for them to answer.

I guarantee your students will love this and ask to play all the time!

May Your Students Be Merry and Bright! {Mrs. Grooms' Room}

Hello sweet friends!  

It's Shana Grooms from Mrs. Grooms' Room!!!   How are you these days?  I hope your days at school have been merry and bright!  I know mine have been CUH-RAZY lately!!  

It's always the second week of our holidays at school that seem like ping pong balls my kids are bouncing everywhere.  I try really hard to plan fun activities where students are up and about and learning!!  We play lots of write around the room activities and scoot games, and LOTS of GoNoodle activities.  Did I mention brain breaks?  Oh boy, it keeps the holiday wiggles at bay!! 

One thing that I like to do is keep the incentives gifts coming!  My students are very active in the classroom and they are reward-driven!  I give them about three goals to work on throughout the day.  When I see them achieving these goals,  I give the class a snowman part.  

The number of goals could be more for your students or less. You could also build to a higher number of goals which I will do later as well with possibly a different theme.   

Of course, I like to start with three goals because guess who has three parts?  A SNOWMAN!!  

(You can even add hats, scarves, or gloves to your snowman to give your students more goals.)

Every time my students show me how well they can behave as a class such as walking in line or not talking during work time, I reward them all with a snowman part.  I make an uber-big deal out of it because we all respond to positive reinforcement especially when it is our teacher bragging on us!  

(I am blogging nicely?? Hmmm...why...I am blogging nicely?!!!)   

Once we finally get the third part of the snowman, students get to choose a snowball and on the back of the snowball is a reward!  The reward is not candy (that will not be good...eesh!)  but things they can do like a dance party, drawing, games, centers, GoNoodle time, or crafts.  These rewards can be things you plan on doing anyway for the week or activities that are implemented into your activities and lessons.  That next snowball just might be the activity you planned for your lesson!   

Click here for your own classroom snowman!  

Try it!!  It's a fun way to get through the holidays!!!  And it keeps your students merry and bright!  Ummmm....and less ping-pongy!  :)

Have you wrote Santa yet?  You can try this letter-writing unit called "Dear Santa."  You will love it and the kids will, too!  Just another way to direct that energy!  

Happy Holidays, sweet friends!!  

  

May Your Students Be Merry and Bright {Keri from Enchanted Kinder Garden}

Hiya friends!! I'm here today to show how I keep my students bright and HAPPY during these hectic and crazy weeks in December.

There is so much that we do during the month of December, that it seems to just whirl right on by. However, I try to always remember to add in some holiday cheer with songs. One thing that I change in our routine is simply changing our Good Morning Greeting. We usually do things like "Today is a great day because *insert name* is here." and each child go around to high five and say good morning. This month, we've switched it up by saying Holly Jolly, Ho Ho Ho, pretending to be Rudolph (they decided on neigh, neigh - the noise LOL!), and a few others. It keeps our greetings fresh and they really enjoy them. This morning, we just went around and found two friends to tell what we wanted for Christmas. It gets them talking and keeps them so excited to start the day.

Also, during our Calendar time in the morning we SING! And when I say sing - we sing extremely LOUD and we dance. A LOT. Tons of dancing. They love it.

This is our current favorite.

I also make sure to decorate my classroom in a very lively Christmas cheer to keep us in happy spirits. I have a really great class this year and doubt I'll have to pull the "I'm calling Santa" on them. They're too afraid of Ms. Brown to do any wrong.

Hope you have a wonderful NINE day countdown to Christmas break. Happy Holidays!

May Your Students Be Merry and Bright {Kim from For a Love of Teaching}

Hello again!  It's Kim from For a Love of Teaching, and I'm so excited to share with you today one of my favorite ways to keep students MERRY and BRIGHT during the holiday season!

During the month of December I encourage my students to practice random acts of kindness not only in the classroom, but also outside of school.  I give them a 25 Random Acts of Christmas Kindness Calendar.

I have students keep the calendar in their 3-ring binder that goes back and forth with them from home to school each day.  Most acts of kindness on my calendar can be accomplished without an adult, so I don't allow any excuses for not trying! :)  I have students place a red X over each day they performed that particular act of kindness. During the month of December we have a contest to see who can get the most red X's on their calendar.  When we come back to school in January, we share our calendars. Those students with the most red X's win a prize (usually a trip to the treasure box or their choice of 2 classroom coupons).  Most students really get excited about this project!  They compete against each other to win - while at the same time learning a valuable character lesson in "kindness" and "Paying it Forward."  I also teach a kindness lesson from my Character Education in the Classroom unit which ties in nicely with this project.  It can be found here. 

Along with this challenge, I provide my students with "You've Been Racked" gift tags.  I encourage my students to put them on any gift, letter or special treat they give someone during the month of December.  I usually give students 2-3 tags to start with, then I leave a bunch of these in a basket for students to pick up when they need one.  I also love to make Christmas crafts with my students.  We typically make ornaments, door hangers, picture keepsakes, etc.  I use these tags to place on our finished products, because they are usually going to be given to a family member, a.k.a Mom or Dad. :)  

After I introduce the 25 Random Acts of Kindness calendar and ways to use the "You've Been Racked" gift tags, I have my students make a Stocking Stuffer craft.  They each color 2 stockings, place their name at the top, and cut them out.  We place the stockings back-to-back and staple closely around the edge - leaving the top open. Then, we place them on a bulletin board or our classroom door.  I made compliment cards for students to use as they write a kind compliment to each student in our classroom. I distribute the compliment cards to students (each student gets as many compliment cards as there are students in the classroom - not including themselves).  After they have written a compliment to each student, they secretly stuff each other's stockings!

  

Afterwards, they can place a red X over Day 1 on their calendar!

I leave the compliment cards in a basket in the room, so students can stuff stockings throughout the whole month of December.  No one is allowed to read their compliments until right before we leave for Christmas break.  During the last week of school before break, we have a little party and read our notes of kindness!  

Students LOVE this and can't wait to read what their friends have written to them!  It's also fun to make a stocking for yourself and add to the mix.  Students love stuffing their teacher's stocking with compliments!  (They are fun to read, too!) :)

One more thing before I go!  This activity ties in perfectly with the book Have You Filled a Bucket Today? by Carol McCloud.  An activity for it is included in my Character Education in the Classroom Unit on Kindness.

I hope you enjoyed my ideas for keeping students MERRY & BRIGHT during the holidays!  If you would like to challenge your students with the 24 Random Acts of Christmas Kindness, grab my free calendar here!  You can find the complete product with my calendar and stocking stuffer craft AND my Character Education the Classroom: Kindness printables in my store!  Click on the images below for a direct link.

 

Thanks for stopping by!

May Your Students Be Merry and Bright with {Mrs. Plemons' Kindergarten}

OMG how is it December already!?! Are your students already in holiday mode? If so, we have some great ideas in store for you here at The Elementary Entourage! We are all excited to share some ways to keep your little sweeties happy and engaged during this busy and stressful time of year.

One of my absolute favorite things to do starting on December 1st every year is introduce the Elf on the Shelf. I know a ton of you probably already know about this classroom management tool cute and fun little friend for your students. Let me tell you that he was a lifesaver for me on many occasions with my kinders.  I also loved finding ways to incorporate him into our daily learning just to spice things up.  Here are a few resources I LOVE for Elf on the Shelf fun:

First this Elf Antics pack from OWLways Learning by Kristina Stankovich is too cute and a great place to start. I absolutely adore the way she included "Magic Gloves" so her students could touch the elf just once! Stop by and check out all of the resources in her pack.

Another benefit to having that mischievous little elf around is that it takes the place of my morning work for the month! Of course my kiddos first order of business every day is finding the little trouble maker and laughing at his crazy antics. So after they get a good giggle in, they work on a journal about what he is up to. I just copy a journal with enough pages for the month, Easy Peasy! I love this one from Sunny Days.

It is part of her Elf Classroom Resources. This pack is also great because it includes resources that range from kindergarten to 5th grade!

And last, I made a little Freebie for you! I have seen a million cute Elf on the Shelf ideas on Pinterest and can never remember any of them when it is time to move that elf for the next day.  So I like to write ideas for each day on a calendar at the beginning of the month so I'm never scrambling for an idea.  You can grab my Elf on the Shelf Calendar for FREE here!

Thanks so much for stopping by today, I'd LOVE to hear how you use Elf on the Shelf or other tools to keep things going all December long. And don't forget to check out TPT today and tomorrow for the awesome Cyber Sale.  Click on Shop above to see what deals you can grab from our Elementary Entourage Authors.