Monthly Archives: December 2019

Santa’s Workshop

With Winter Break just one day away, the goal in kindergarten is to keep the students busy and engaged! The students were greeted by an elf this morning (me!) who had cooked up quite a surprise. The classroom was transformed into “Santa’s Workshop.” A little elf hat eagerly awaited each of the students. Throughout the morning, the elves completed five different learning activities.

 

Station 1: Deck the Halls

Students found a stocking and read the CVC word that was tucked inside. They then found a picture of the word and recorded it.

  

 

Station 2: The Bakery

Students used gingerbread scented play dough to make “cookies” while working on number sense.

Station 3: Santa’s Workshop

Students assembled word puzzles to see the toys the elves are busy building.

 

Station 4: Measure It

Students used unifix cubes to measure the length of sparkly presents.

 

Station 5: Gift Wrapping

This was a special station! Students wrapped adorable gifts for their parents and strengthened their fine motor skills!

Oh, what fun we had today! Next year, I will have to make sure those elf hats stay on a little better!

Gingerbread Field Trip

Not only have the students been listening to different versions of the Gingerbread Man, but they have been studying architecture in Art Class. Students created their very own gingerbread house with the help of Mrs. Guay, our art instructor.

Mrs. Guay and I thought it would be incredible for the students to see a large-scale gingerbread house in person.  A special thank you to the Four Seasons Biltmore for making this happen for us! We hopped on the bus and headed over to see the magic.

The theme for the Biltmore’s gingerbread house this year was Charlie and the Chocolate Factory.

The children were amazed at the amount of detail!

We even had a chance to speak with the head baker who designed the gingerbread house!

 

This is what was needed to create the gingerbread masterpiece!

Then, we went on a tour of the kitchen where all the baked goods for the hotel are made. The highlight of the kitchen tour was of course…

getting to go inside the freezer AND

the refrigerator!

Next, students were taken to the dining room and given hot chocolate and a giant chocolate chip cookie! Who could ask for anything more?!

I was very proud to hear lots of “pleases” and “thank you’s.”

The trip ended with each student choosing a Beanie Boo keychain. This was definitely a trip to remember. Thank you Four Seasons Biltmore for giving such a special holiday experience.

 

The Kindness Cookie

We are off and running with our new monthly thematic unit…Gingerbread! When students arrived at school on Monday morning, I had a new center set up and ready for them to explore. This center utilized gingerbread scented playdough, differentiated skill mats, and letter stampers.

This mat has students identifying beginning sounds in words and stamping their playdough cookie to match.

Students spell CVC words on this mat.

Students match letters on this mat.

 

The children LOVED making these “cookies!” After recess, we came back into the classroom and discovered that our gingerbread scented playdough had been taken, and I had received a suspicious email with this video attached:

Wow. Were we surprised …..and disappointed that our new playdough was gone. Minutes later, one of the students saw another surprise:

The Kindness Cookie was sitting on our SMART Board with a special message. We decided that this Kindness Cookie must have come to our classroom because we needed some extra kindness after our playdough was taken. So far we have completed two kindness missions.

Students were confused with this first mission. Why would cleaning up after yourself be kind? A student explained that if you clean up after yourself, then someone else doesn’t have to do it for you…and THAT is kind!

Our second mission has been very successful so far. Is it happening at home too?

I have a feeling this Kindness Cookie will be showing up with a new mission daily. As for the playdough? We made a new batch!