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December 24, 2013

December Recap and Happy Holidays!!

Merry Christmas Eve! So, I've been MIA for awhile. Sorry about that. I'm going to try to fill you in on all of the December happenings as best I can!

First, this little cutie had a birthday:

I'm not quite sure where the past six years have gone, but I do know that I am incredibly proud of the little girl that Princess A has become. 

We had her birthday party here, and it was a huge hit!

In early December, both kids participated in school holiday programs, and dear goodness, were they adorable (yes, I'm biased!)!

Deedle LOVED receiving cards from his classmates (although, I have to admit, signing his very long first name twenty times became tedious quickly). This card was his favorite because the dog on the front looks like our Border Collie, McKinley.

That's my little one on the left in the plaid dress. She was so tickled that she was asked by her music teacher to be a sugar plum fairy in the "big kid" portion of the program. She rocked it, too!

As we approached the holiday break, I tried to incorporate some fun thematic activities, even though I had a good deal of curriculum to get through (I don't want to admit how far behind I am in Language Arts...with all of the assessments we have to get done, I feel like I don't have time to teach!). We had fun, using A Cupcake for the Teacher's reindeer craftivity (unfortunately, we got the writing portion of the lesson finished, but we never had the chance to make the craft because I was home with a sick kiddo...maybe next year!).


We had an unexpected "snow" delay on the last day before Winter Break (originally, the day had been an early dismissal day, so the delayed opening really messed with my head!), so we spent the entire afternoon, working with The Polar Express. After reading the book, we completed some of the activities below (and in between each activity, the students participated in The Daily Five rotations):

https://drive.google.com/folderview?id=0B8h6FEJTAyJKSWgwbVlieXRjR28&usp=sharing
https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B8h6FEJTAyJKNi1ZZktWSmlYYjg/edit?usp=sharing https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B8h6FEJTAyJKQm5GV0hKWnB0SW8/edit?usp=sharing https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B8h6FEJTAyJKTjNRV21NWTNLS0E/edit?usp=sharing https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B8h6FEJTAyJKUF9IX3h3aWpveVk/edit?usp=sharing https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B8h6FEJTAyJKUlhMLU9tRjJEeVU/edit?usp=sharing
Click on either picture above to grab your own copy of the Notebook file that I created for this lesson, along with all of the accompanying activities!

For my gifts for my students this year, I made them reindeer food. It's inexpensive and easy to make, and it's always a hit with my kiddos (I put my own kids to work this year, helping me assemble the gifts).

Princess A was not feeling well in this pic, but she insisted on helping out. Deedle helped himself to more than his fair share of candy canes...he bounced off the wall all evening!

The finished product!

One last random thought before I go enjoy some family time: I was lucky enough to find a team of bloggers from the Eastern Shore of Maryland (shout out to Kelly and Kim's Kindergarten Kreations!). We'd love to put together a Maryland blogger meet-up sometime in the new year. Are there any other Maryland bloggers who are interested? If so, let me know! I'd love to put something together.

Happy Christmas to all, and to all a good night!! Enjoy some well-deserved time with your family and friends...you've earned it!