Christmas is Coming! Watch out for the Elf!

I hope you all are having a fun December so far!  It can get crazy with Kinders the closer it gets to Christmas!  We have been super busy ~ trying to cover everything that needs to be covered, and indulging in a little Christmas fun.  We got to shop at Santa's Secret Shop which our PTO organized.  The kiddos had fun shopping for their families at school.  Next Friday our corporation superintendent will make his annual visit to read a Christmas book to us.  The following week we will have our Christmas party & Polar Express day.

And, now for my Five for Friday.



1. Here are some of the Literacy Stations we did last week.

The first three are from my Christmas Literacy Centers set, and the other two are from Sarah's Christmas set.

Find the elf write the room

 Syllable sort

 Naughty or Nice nonsense word sort

 Beginning sounds

 CVC spelling ~ I guess I put the wrong page with these cards!  Sarah's set has two sets of cards - each with worksheets for two different skills.

2. Some of our math stations.  These are from my Christmas Math Centers set.

 Gingerbread numbers

 before/after

 Skip counting by tens (my set also includes cards for counting by fives and twos)

 Making numbers 11 - 19 pocket chart activity cards

 Matching activity

 Making numbers with foam ten frames

3. Elf on the Shelf Linky

 

 Our elf, Mr. Gingerbread made his appearance on Monday.  Here are some pictures of him as he watched over the Kinders.

 It is so cute, the kids write letters to Mr. Gingerbread in their free time.  I have also caught them talking to him - from a distance so as not to take away his magic.  One little boy pleaded his case for a real, live puppy. Yikes!  I quickly explained that Santa had to talk to his parents if he wanted a puppy. 

4. Oh Christmas Tree!  Oh how I love my Christmas Tree(s)!  We put up five trees each year.  It takes a while to get everything up, and with Thanksgiving being so late this year, I am still not quite finished.  (Our real tree is still on the back porch.)

 Our "main" tree in the family room.  It holds all kinds of ornaments.  Many of them were made by my mother, grandmother, and me.

 The dining room tree is decorated by repro vintage ornaments.  I love the look of the old ornaments, but don't want to risk them falling onto my hardwood floors, so I put my vintage ornaments into this big glass bowl, and hang some from the light fixture.

 One of my vintage Christmas balls.

 The kitchen tree holds all of my fancy Diva Birds.  (The sunroom tree is peeking through the window.)

 Sweet Little Kitty & Macie under the Diva Bird tree.

 The piano room tree is covered in snowmen & snowflakes.

 Sweet Little Kitty and a tin soldier flank the foyer tree.  Santa ornaments will go onto this tree.

 The living room tree is just a silly little tree that stands by my antique library table covered in Santa figurines.

(Daughter Gabrielle painted the picture of a vase.)

 Tinsel trees on the coffee table in the sunroom.  The silver angels in the windows are from Germany.

 Upstairs landing tree is covered with glass balls - nothing fancy, but it brightens up the space.

 Downstairs landing tree and snowmen.  A friend made the snowman on the left for me several years ago - it lights up through the cut out star.  This little tree stays up all year (with the snowman, too).  When Isabella was a toddler she loved snowmen, so I left it up.  

5.  This should have gone into a post closer to Thanksgiving.  I love how Xbox, iPads, and other material items weren't mentioned when we brainstormed this list.