It's the Most Wonderful Time of the Year... for classroom behavior?!

I want to share an oldie but goodie with you today and I'm linking up with my friends at i Teach Second.  One that I just absolutely love.  We do "bucket filling" at our school, but to do this, you don't NEED to be using it to be successful!

So, the biggest challenge going back after Turkey break--is the impending excitement of December.  I mean, what kid DOESN'T get excited about December, no matter what holiday they celebrate?  There's excitement all around, and in little bodies it's just harder to contain than in our bigger, adult bodies.  ;)

This is a quick, easy idea to get students thinking about others.  I created a little pack for filling STOCKINGS.  The pre-made recording sheet makes it simple for even the littlest-little to complete.  One extra step that I do is that I type up a class list of names for each student.  They circle their own name, so we know who's list it is when I find it on the floor it gets misplaced.

I realize that I do not have an example of the writing the kids did.  {I was out on maternity leave last year and didn't snap pics, obviously... and I'm unable to locate any from 2 years ago.  BUT-this pack is free, so feel free to download and decide for yourself if you think it's something you'd like!}  Click {HERE} or on the picture below to download your freebie!

Make sure to check out all my other friends' great ideas!

An InLinkz Link-up

Snowman Day!

We decided that we would have a different theme day this week, since the kids are beside themselves as it is!  Monday was a little bit of learning about different celebrations over the world.  We had a fabulous guest speaker talk about Diwali.

Tuesday was Snowman Day!  {and might I add, FULL MOON DAY!!!}  We were quite surprised by waking up to a 2 hour delay!  Of course, I LOVE those, but when your day is chock full of activities to get through the week, that really put a damper on things!

I feel like in order to be helpful here in bloggy land, I should have done this weeks ago to share, but--there's just no possible way!  I'm hanging on like a thread like the majority of you all.  Gotta say, Full Moon, week before Christmas AND SNOW----is just kicking my behind!  {Not to mention that today, one of my littles decided to TOUCH the ELF!!!!!

Okay-off topic.  Here's a quick, easy and adorable ornament to add to your pinterest board (if you haven't already!  That's how I found it!)  It fit perfectly with our snowman day.  I had planned on doing lots of activities from my Snowman at School pack, but in reality, we only accomplished 1 activity!  We will now do the rest on our first 2 days back in January.


Melted Snowman Ornament:
Materials Needed:  Salt (1 container was able to get 20 kids with a little left.... I still bought 2, JUST in case!)  Peppercorn (1 container will last you YEARS for this project!), orange construction paper (I think a 4x6 piece was more than enough for my ENTIRE class to tear a piece off), and of course, clear christmas balls.  (and some fancy ribbon--not necessary)

Step 1-pour the salt----it is VERY helpful to have a funnel!

Step 2-I added in a little "math"  Kids counted out 10 peppercorns (is that the right way to say that?!? lol)

Step 3-tear a small piece of orange construction paper.  I also had the kiddos fold or roll it.

Step 4-close it up and tie a ribbon! 

Super cute, EASY and memorable!  I was going to add something on the ball, but decided to leave it as is.   {I realize that I never snapped a pic of an individual one!  I'll do that tomorrow and upload it!}

Tomorrow is Reindeer Day in First grade (of course I'll have something to share with you about that too---but I'm just not ahead of the game with an example... It's going to be a create as I teach tomorrow-with the exception of the worksheet!  Make sure to stop back to have it for next year), followed by Polar Express on Friday!  Then BREAK!!!!  How many days left do you have?

I'm linking this post up with Simply Kinder to find some new and exciting blogs!  Make sure to go and check out all the other fabulous blogs you may have not known about before!