Recap of Week 17 and Peek at my Week 18

That is my sister’s classroom elf, Sparkle! Her class was really hit hard with the flu and so did Sparkle! To be a kid again, right? This past week was reindeer week! I was out of my classroom and working in another classroom within my building for a few days so I had to squish a bunch of reindeer fun into just a couple of days for my kiddos! You can view the close read plan HERE and the book we used on Amazon.

Here are some snapshots from my sister’s room…

Reindeer are/can/have….

Our close read essential questions, schema, and vocabulary…

These adorable and EASY to make reindeer helped to decorate our rooms bright and cheery! 🙂 They are found in my December Taking Back Weekends packet, but they are very easy to make!

Our main writing focus this week was a published piece so the kiddos wrote nonfiction reindeer reports! They were SO proud of their very own books! We referenced ourselves as authors for the rest of the day, as if we were famous!

{Grab these freebies below!}

The kids loved getting photographs for their covers. Photographs were part of our nonfiction focus for the week as well!

On each page the kids wrote reindeer facts….

Reindeer can have babies.

Reindeer have big antlers.

Reindeer are wild.

We also labeled reindeer for our books!

You can grab what you need for your reindeer reports as a freebie below…

When I was out of the room I wanted to make writing fun so I added in a couple of opinion story starters… Would you rather be an elf or a reindeer? I also had the students give their opinions on snow! The kids had to support their answers with a “because.”

I can be a reindeer because I can fly.

I can be a reindeer because I can run.

I can be an elf because I can work.

I do not like snow because I get sick. I got a cold. I had to stay home.

I like snow because I like to eat snow.

I like snow because we can make snowmen.

The kiddos also colored snowy scenes! Unfortunately we haven’t had any real “big deal” snow here in Missouri! I don’t love snow, but I enjoy it at least a few times 😉

Here is our elf, Dash! He doesn’t get too creative …if ya know what I mean! He usually just hangs around and assesses the situation! HA!

Alrighty, now it is time for Christmas plans! I say it every week, but I am in shock that it is THE week….the week before Christmas break!

I am using or have used just about every sheet of paper inside this packet! It has been a life-save this month! A lot of the activities below are from this packet as well…

Here is a very brief look at my next week! Basically we have a whole lot of fun-ness planned! Our close read is The Gingerbread Boy! We will also work on a few fun gingerbread man activities from my December packet, go on a gingerbread man hunt {a freebie from Katie Mense}, and eat yummy gingerbread cookies- yes I buy store bought…HA! 🙂

For writing we will be watching The Grinch and writing how we could make him smile! We will also be doing a Frozen writing and craft 🙂 Not to mention our Polar Express party, winter party, parent gits, etc. etc.

You can click on the plans below to click the links!