Free Christmas Activities

Christmas Word Recognition

Life has been so incredibly busy for me! 
I'm sure your life is just the same.

 

By the time I get home from my teaching, get the teenagers to where ever they need to go, find something to eat for dinner, go to sports events, make sure homework is done, get the toddler bathed and ready for bed, I can sometimes find the time to make a custom lesson or two for my fourth graders.  As far as blogging though, that has taken the back burner.  I have not made it a priority.

 

So, here I am on Thanksgiving break squeezing in a blog post.  And guess what?  You get some free Christmas activities out of this post.  You can't beat free, right? 

 

This is a Christmas activity for the younger kids.  Sometimes I will make something cute for my k-1 friends even though I won't be able to  use it in the classroom.  In this activity, the kids cut out words to glue down and label the picture.  They can then color it.  This will make for a cute center as it gets closer to the holiday break.  You can download this from my Teachers Pay Teachers store.

 

Christmas Activity - Word Recognition

 

 

This next activity I made for my fourth graders.  One of the fourth grade common core objectives is to form and use prepositional phrases.  This is a Christmas themed slide show to introduce the topic to my students.  I hope you can find a way to use it in your classroom.

 

Prepositional Phrase Christmas Activity

 

 

 

If you are interested, I also made an I Have Who Has activity for prepositional phrases.  It goes along with the slide show.  It is Christmas themed.  Get all of the details by clicking the link below.

 

I Have Who Has Prepositional Phrases 

 

  

 

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Election Activities

The election is just a short time away, and if you are like me, you have talked about it a time or two in your classroom.  Actually, I talked about the election today with my students because it was the feature article in my Scholastic News Magazine.  We had a long discussion about the title question that read, "Where do they stand?"  None of my students knew what that question meant.  We then talked about how people typically select who they are going to vote for based on where the candidates 'stand' on issues, such as education, health care, war, and jobs.  This was about the third time Scholastic has printed an article about the election, so my kids have become quite familiar with the candidates. 

Do you all do mock elections in your school?  We are having one this year, but surprisingly, we are not voting for the candidates that are running for the presidency.  I know.... I was a bit shocked too.  My husband, the political science/social studies teacher, was really shocked.  He said we might as well not even have an election if that is going to be the case.  So, who are we are voting for?..... that would be Lincoln or Washington.  Since no one has had time to teach their kids about these two candidates, I guess the kids will be doing 'one potato, two potato' to make their choice.  After all, I have been teaching my kids about the 2012 presidential candidates not two candidates that aren't even from the same time period (I know, seems so strange).  I am not really 100% sure why we didn't go with the real candidates, but I think it had something to do with this being a pretty heated election, and no one wanted to stir the pot with political views.  I dunno.  Regardless, I am sure the kids will have fun, and I know they will cheer if their candidate wins. 

I thought I would share with you a couple of election activities I made for my classroom.  One is a basic election word search that I plan to do for morning work.  Another one is a set of election themed writing paper that is very colorful and would look great  hanging outside the classroom in the hallway. You can find both of these in my Teachers Pay Teachers store by clicking on the links below.  Thanks for checking them out. 

Election Word Search Puzzle

 

Election Themed Writing Paper

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Words and Phrases Alluding to Mythology

Mythology Activity

If you are like me, that is exactly what you thought when you read this new common core objective:

CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RL.4.4 Determine the meaning of words and phrases as they are used in a text, including those that allude to significant characters found in mythology (e.g., Herculean).

If one thing is for sure, I could not stand mythology when I was in school, so the thought of me having to teach anything related to it just freaked me out.   Plus, when I went searching for material related to this common core objective, there was absolutely nothing to be found.  Don't you hate it when we get objectives to teach and yet there are not really any lessons prepared to help us out.  I mean, I know we are capable of designing lessons, but sometimes it just makes things difficult.  As in the case of this mythology lesson, I won't kid around, I had to read and search to find the descriptions of these characters from mythology. It took me some time, but I hope you like the finished product.  

This mythology lesson does not really teach mythology itself.  It really focuses on the basics of the common core objective listed above.  I put together some mythological character descriptions to help kids understand that these characters have traits based on their actions in the stories from mythology.  I then put together some common phrases used in today's time that might pop up in literature that make reference to these character traits, such as "opened Pandora's box".  When students see these phrases, they will have a better understanding of the fact that they allude to the characters found in mythology.  In addition, there is a little illustration activity where students take products from today's time and see how these product names actually originated from mythology.  A few examples, are Trident gum and Amazon.com.  

I hope your kids have fun with this lesson.  

Click the link below to find out more info. or to purchase this lesson.

Lesson: Words in Text Alluding to Characters in Mythology

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Sub Plans

Easy Sub Plan Notebook

What is it with teachers and being sick????
You know what I'm talking about!
Most of us would prefer to go in and teach rather than have to deal with those stinkin sub plans.

Do you think people in other career fields feel that way? Do they have to spend over an hour preparing plans, getting paperwork together, etc. just because they are sick and need to take a day off? 

Maybe I put too much pressure on myself (could be). Despite the fact that I have 'emergency sub plans' at school, I feel like if I am going to take a day off for something like a sinus infection, I need to prepare very detailed plans about how the day runs, especially if I want my sub to be able to keep me on my schedule of curriculum that has to be taught. After all, it's a race to get it all covered with me being there all 180 days. 

When I think about having to do the sub plans and about all the kids will probably miss if I am not there, I decide that it is probably best if I am there, so I don't even worry about getting a sub. There I go... trudging into work with weeks and weeks of sick leave built up that I never take, feeling like crap, going on with my day, teaching away. 

At the school I used to teach at you had to find your own sub - even if it was last minute and you were puking all over the place.  Yep, let's say you have been throwing up all night, you wake up the next morning realizing you have to have your class covered.  Guess what, you better get on the phone and start calling a hundred subs despite the fact that you have a fever, can't hold down your stomach acids, and can barely hold your head up.  Believe me, I know it to be true because it happened to me.
One time my daughter threw up in the car on the way to school. Once I got to school with my sick daugher in tow, I went to the front office and had to get on the phone and start calling subs. And yes, my sick daughter was right there beside me. After calling about thirty subs, I was told they would take care of it, but geeeesh.... I was so worked up about that situation, feeling terrible for my daughter, and I was so frustrated!!

Is that right?  It sounds so insensitive and backwards to me.  I always wonder if the general public knows these kinds of things go on for teachers.  I am fortunate where I am now.  If it is an emergency situation you can call a designated person and they will find your sub.  You only have to find a sub if you know in advance you are going to be out.

What is it like where you teach?  Do you feel like me when it comes to being out?

If you need some ideas for your sub plans, you may my sub folder activities helpful. You can find these in my Teachers Pay Teachers store. 

Click the link below to view these substitute folder ideas.

 

Substitute Teacher Folder

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FREE Multiplication Practice Paper

Multiplication Practice Paper

Yeah, I know..... It has been FOR-ever since I posted. My school year has gotten off to a very tiring start.  Maybe if I told you I have 32 fourth graders that would explain everything. :-/  WOW, right?

By the way, I haven't even blogged since my blog make over...

I do hope you like!

If you haven't been to my TpT store lately, please do check it out.  Although I haven't been blogging, I have tons of new products.  I will write a few blog posts about those soon. 

In the mean time, I wanted to offer up this new FREE multiplication practice sheet I made.  It has graph paper parts for each problem you give the kids. This helps with the lining up of the places, which can be so important when working with two digit by two digit multiplication.  The fun part about the multiplication sheet is the sticker part.  While you are walking around the room monitoring the kids as they practice problems, you will give them a sticker when they get one right.  They will do problem after problem when they know they get the colorful sticker if they do it correctly.  Before long, multiplication will be a breeze for them. I hope your students enjoy.

Click below for the freebie.

You will be taken directly to my TpT store where you can get a direct download.

Multiplication Practice Activity

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Thank you for helping to spread the word about Classroom Confections.

We appreciate you 'liking' us on facebook, tweeting about us, or pinning us on Pinterest.

For more fun and creative ideas for the classroom, click the above picture to go to my store.