Gingerbread Houses Mean Christmas Vacation is Here!

Well, I can't believe it. Christmas vacation is finally here! Every year, we have our kiddos earn gingerbread houses by mastering their addition facts. This year I forgot to bring my camera, but I have pictures from previous years that I can show you, so you can get the basic idea. Every time they make a 100 on a timed test, they get an item for the gingerbread house ( IE, +1's would be the plate, +2's the form, +3's the sides, + 4's the roof and so on....) We use the small milk cartons from the cafeteria for the form, and graham crackers for the sides and roof. We used to make our icing, but we finally got smart and started buying the ready-made icing. We have the students bring one can of icing and one item. It's great when everybody contributes! That way the teachers don't go broke. Here are a few pics from previous years:

























Here is wishing you all a Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!!!

Reindeer Thumbprint Ornament

I found this super cute idea for Christmas gifts the kids can make for their loved ones! My colleague said she was going to do the snowman thumbprints, but I think I might have my kiddos make these. I found them on Pinterest and tracked them back to a blog called Little Bit Funky. Go visit Crystal's blog. She has other cute craft ideas as well.

Poet Trees

I got this idea to display our kiddos' poems on "Poet Trees" from Amanda Nickerson at One Extra Degree. She has this great poetry unit at her TpT Store, called Poetry the Music of Our Hearts. Go check it out!


We just finished our poetry unit and I thought this was a great way to incorporate it into a holiday display. My team member Brynna helped cut the trees and staple them to the wall (she is really tall) and Heather painted the beautiful Christmas balls, the signs, and made the star toppers. I am really short, so I stapled the trunks, and of course our wonderfully talented 3rd graders created the poems you see hanging on the trees.

We have three trees, one for Haiku, one for Acrostic, and one for our Diamond poems.

Here are some of my favorites:











I think it turned out super cute! What do you think?

Peppermint Fact Families

I finally remembered to take my camera to school and take some pictures of what we've been doing in math.

My team mate, Heather, saw this cute peppermint math fact activity on the web, and said she would love to use this with fact families. I had seen it as well, and thought it was a great idea.

The original pic was from Ms. Arnold at Oceans of First Grade who said she got the idea from Ms. Caroll at First Grade Parade (thank you ladies for the inspiration). She had her kids write two addition and one subtraction fact.

We took it a step further and had our kiddos write a multiplication/division fact family on one side, and an addition/subtraction fact family on the other. In order to do this, we divided our candy into 8 pieces (4 colored and 4 with fact families).

I also found a peppermint spinner activity from the November/December Edition of Teacher 's Mailbox that I used to go with this activity.

Here's what we did:

First, I divided my kids into groups and assigned each group a number to multiply by (2's, 3's, 4's, and 5's).



Then I had them pair up and take turns spinning the spinner and filling in the other factor. They could only use a number once, so this got them though all ten facts. They have not memorized their multiplication facts yet, so I had them use real peppermints to figure out the products.



Next, I had them write the entire fact family to go with each equation in their math journal.



After that, I had them choose one of the fact families and had them write it on the front, and then they took the product and used it for the sum to create another addition/subtraction fact family on the back.




I extended the lesson further the next day by having students pick one of the multiplication/division fact families from their math journal, and work backwards to turn it into a word problem. They wrote each equation, the fact family triangle, the equation in word form, and drew a picture using the peppermint candies to help. Last they wrote the word problem to go with the picture using students and peppermints.

Boy, I'm tired just typing all of this. I didn't realize how much work we got done, because it was so fun! I let my kiddos eat some peppermints at the end of the activity. They loved it, and I LOVE the beautiful hanging peppermint decorations in my classroom.


Oh, the peppermints were made with two paper plates (stapled together) , markers or crayons, cellophane or plastic wrap, and ribbon.

New Holiday Freebie

Head on over to my TpT or Teachers NB Store and grab this new holiday freebie for your kiddos! Enjoy and HAPPY HOLIDAYS!!!

Tremendous Giveaway at Adventures of Room 129

My friend over at Adventures of Room 129 is having a tremendous giveaway!

She is giving away an item of your choice from her TpT Store as well as a $20 Gift Card.

And to top that off, she is also having a sale at her TpT store.

All you have to do is go over to her blog and do the following:

1. Follow her blog and post a comment on her blog.

2. Follow her TpT and post a comment on her blog about it.

3. Create a post about her giveaway on your blog about it and go back and post a comment on her blog about it.

Simple, right? What are you waiting for? Hurry on over there!

Gingerfolk Freebie

I just posted a freebie at both of my online shops and wanted to share it with you. It is a short passage and comprehension questions on the origin of the Gingerbread Man. You can download it at my TpT Store or my Teachers Notebook Store. I hope it puts you in the holiday spirit!

Happy Holidays!