Reindeer Theme

 Teaching kindergarten in December is just so fun! I love bringing the magic of the season into the classroom. One of my favorite themes to teach is reindeer. I pull out all my reindeer books (fiction and non fiction). After reading the books at the end of the week we make a Venn diagram about fantasy reindeer and real reindeer. 

Another fun thing to do with all the books you read is to make a reindeer tree map. Then have students use their tree map to help them write all about reindeer. Attach their writing to a cute reindeer craft. 

You could also make a reindeer diagram. We used shared writing to label the parts of the reindeer. Then the kiddos made their own reindeer diagram in their science notebook.

And we can't forget the crafts! Here are a few that we made. 

I make these handprint reindeer every year and send home as parent gifts. Glue their yearbook photo on the back and have the students write their name and year on the back with a sharpie marker.

If you need a Christmas present idea to give to your students I love to give reindeer noses! Each baggie is filled with whoopers and one chewy cheery sour. And if you can't find chewy cheery sours just use whoopers like I did this year.

I hope you liked these ideas! You can check my other reindeer posts for more ideas. Happy teaching. 

Click here to download my reindeer unit with much more to help you out this holiday season. 

Grinch and reindeer fun

Where did the month of December go? Seriously, it flew by. I have completely neglected this blog. Because we had four weeks between Thanksgiving and Christmas I finally had enough time to do all the fun Christmas stuff I normally just whiz through.

We had a whole week of Grinch fun. We brainstormed some adjectives that describe the Grinch. We also brainstormed some adjectives that describe the Grinch's heart at the end of the strory.

 

Just click below to grab a copy of the Grinch write the room

 

Grinch Dust

Click the picture below to download label

 

I passed out reindeer noses for my girft to the kids.

click the picture below to download the label

 These are the reindeer ornamants they made for their parents. I got the idea from Mrs. Lemons over at step into second grade.

 

Here is a peek at the non-fiction reindeer unit I actually had time to teach. We never have four weeks between Thanksgiving and Christmas.

 

We compared real reindeer and fantasy reindeer and made a venn diagram. I read them the sentences and they had to tell me if it was fantasy or real.

We added this poem to our poetry journals. They had to illustrate the poem and butter the popcorn words.

 

We learned that an adult reindeer stands about four feet tall. Then we measured to find out how tall we are compared to a reindeer.

 We used interactive writing to write about reindeer.

We practiced non fiction writing.

 

 

 We did a reindeer directed drawing. First in pencil then we outlined in black crayon. Then they painted the reindeer. They used their fingerprints to make the snow. Then they measured how tall their reindeer was using cubes.

 

We started the unit with a schema chart and added to the new learning section throughout the week.

 

 Enjoy your time off. It goes too fast. You can find the reindeer activities in my reindeer unit on TPT.

 

Reindeer and The Grinch

We spent a day on reindeer this week. Love the extra touch on the reindeer Teacher Bits and Bobs added.

We also wrote reindeer applications. We had already read non-fiction books about reindeer and completed a reindeer tree map so the kids knew what skills were needed to be a good reindeer. The application came from ??? I used this last year.

We used interactive writing to complete the reindeer tree map. Kim Adsit wrote a great post on interactive writing over at her blog. We get in a circle and pass out the white boards and markers and everybody writes while I share the marker with someone.

Interactive writing in action

We've been singing this cute song to the tune of camptown ladies.

Grinch Day!!!!

Activities inspired by Deanna Jump and Cara Carroll

This one is so cute! It says, "To make the Grinch grin I would be his girlfriend." Love it!

Grinchy adjectives for when his heart was two sizes too small.

 Who pudding and green candy canes.

Grinch dolls were at Kohl's last year.

Grinch shirts are from Wal-mart. All but one kid dressed in green today. It was so fun and everybody looked adorable.