It's December Already??

Ok, where did November go?  How is it December already?   December is such a magical and crazy time of the year.  I'm excited about all the great activities I have planned... I was able to get a ton done over the Thanksgiving holiday so December will be enjoyable.  Here are a few ideas I've been working on for the month of December.

Kindness Elves

These super cute elves arrived this past weekend and I'm so excited to share them with my kiddos.  Instead of doing the whole Elf on the Shelf thing I wanted to combine these elves with our character education word for the month of December (kindness).  

These Kindness Elves will visit our classroom each day to give us a way to spread kindness in our classroom as well as our school.  Each day when my kids arrive they will need to find the elves in our room and then read the task the elves have given to us.  Some tasks will be easy like giving our turn and talk buddies a compliment to something a bit more involved like making a card for our lunch monitors. 
Here are the notes I have prepared for the this week's tasks.

  

 Last year we completed random acts of kindness during December and it was a big hit so I'm sure the addition of these elves will make this year even better!

Gifts for Families

The last few years I've had my kiddos decorate Christmas ornaments with fingerprint snowmen.  Last year I waited a bit too long and spent a ton of money on ornaments because I couldn't find any cheaper options I went out this past weekend and found 30 balls for $12... thank you Walmart!  I can't wait to decorate these with my kiddos.  I kind of want to get them done either this week or next so it's one thing I can check off my list!  

Christmas Tree Craft

I have 3 large bulletin boards outside my room and I struggle each year to fill these boards and keep up with the holiday/themed crafts so I don't have bats out in December.  This year I decided to keep one board up year round.  This board has pictures of my kiddos and information about each of the kids so guests can "explore" our class whenever they want.  

That being said I still have two large boards to decorate and display work and its tough to keep up. I love this Christmas tree craft and I do it every year.  It requires little prep and the kids love it.  To prepare I cut out small circles from Christmas scrap-booking parer.  Then the kids use the circles to form a Christmas tree.  Typically I use black paper and draw an inverted triangle to give my kiddos a general idea of the shape they are trying to build.  These always turn out cute and I enjoy displaying them in a tree shape on the bulletin board.  

Student Gifts

I'm ahead of the game with student gifts.  I picked up 24 of these playing card sets at Target and I'm going to type up a few math game ideas the kids can play with these cards.  I'll also include these cute erasers and a pencil and the gift will be all set... now I need to get them put together so I can check it off my list.  

Teacher Gifts

Thank you Target dollar spot.  I found these cute pads and pens at the dollar spot that I'm going to give to my first grade colleagues.  What teacher doesn't love a cute pad and a few new pens!  I'll also put together these mason jars with some candy treats for some other teachers in my building as well all of our special area teachers.  Just a cute little something to show all these teacher/staff members that we are thinking about them at Christmas time.  

Happy December and Merry Christmas... enjoy the craziness that Christmas brings to your classroom!!