Happy Friday, friends! I hope you and your family had the most lovely of Thanksgivings. For me, it was very lovely. One of my uncles married his fiance on Tuesday, so yesterday was an exciting time to welcome new members into our family! 🙂 Plus, I have loved being home, hanging out with Mom, sleeping in a real bed, eating coconut cake, and rocking out my December planning!
First, welcome Christmas! This Sunday is the first Sunday in advent, one of my favorite seasons in the church. Today I headed into church with Mom and we set up our children’s mitten tree!
Also, I am officially on the 7 day countdown! Until what??? Well, I am SO glad you asked. Only 7 days until I make my bi-annual trip to the Scholastic Warehouse! Friends, it is the happiest place in the world filled with a million books and wonderful bargains. I will be volunteering from 10:30-5:30 to earning $70 in FREE books ($10/hour), using a $25 off $100 coupon (I acquired here), and then, I will SHOP! All the books in the Warehouse are 50% their cover price!!!!! Last year, I snagged this load for only $2.78!!! Needless to say, I am pumped and so are my 5th graders. 🙂
Speaking of reading….As teachers, we have spent the past four months fostering classrooms where books are valued and loved, so the thought that my kiddos might go 2 FULL weeks without picking up a book breaks my heart. Knowing that many of my kids might revert back to their non-reader habits, I created this Winter Break Challenge.
This challenge is not meant to be daunting, serious, or involve a lot of rules. Rather, the goal is to keep students reading and writing in FUN ways. From reading in your PJs to sending an email to your teacher, I have included oodles of opportunities for families to ‘sneak’ in some literacy moments.
In this resource, I have included everything you and your students need to complete the challenge – an editable parent letter, reward coupons, completion certificates, 2 different calendar options, and any other materials students need to complete the tasks.
To motivate my students to make the time for these activities, I offer students raffle tickets for each challenge completed. I then raffle off 3 Scholastic Gift Certificates (I use the attached certificate and then, use my Scholastic Bonus Points to purchase the books my kids choose). Knowing that this might not work for everyone, I include lots of different options – a sweet treat, a homework pass, or merely a high five and a ‘Challenge Accepted’ certificate.
Addition and Subtraction Logic Puzzles for December and Christmas. Perfect for practicing doubles, missing addends, and early finishers! These holiday-themed puzzlers are ideal for math enrichment and challenge!
Word Problems are the perfect way to help students build their number sense and make math real-world. These December-themed differentiated mini-books allow all of your students to have just-right word problems to solve!
The next little ditty, is a Primary Habitat Study pack all about the Tundra! This is one of the first packs that I was able to make, plan for, and implement in the classroom while student teaching! 🙂 So, it definitely holds a special place in my heart, and includes EVERYTHING you need for a full week of Tundra learning – daily lesson outlines, links to videos/web cams, student exploration booklets, main idea activities, vocabulary cards, pre-assessments, vocabulary frayer models, and SO much more.
I had so much fun making the arctic come to life for ‘my’ kiddos! If you are in a primary classroom, this pack is for you! 🙂
4th & 5th Grade Grammar
I also finished up my ‘Tis the Season’ to Grammar pack. This is a Common Core aligned pack that practices and reviews grammar and language skills including perfect verbs, verb tense, comma placement, sentence editing, context clues, conjunctions, affixes
and suffixes, prepositions, and interjections.
It is perfect for homework packets, morning work, or just a little extra practice! You can read more about this resource in this
blog post!
5 Responses
Such cute ideas! LOVE, LOVE, LOVE!
I pinned!! Fingers crossed! 🙂 🙂
Jivey
I love the winter break challenge! If I don't win it is in my cart for the big sale 🙂
Hope
Teaching With Hope
LOOOOVE the Winter Break challenge. Perfect for those reluctant 5th graders 🙂 Already added to my wishlist- can't wait!! Hope you have a great week!!
Kelly Anne
AppleSlices
Hi Catherine, I just found your store and blog! I also teach 5th grade! I love the winter challenge pack. Here is the link that I pinned it with
http://www.pinterest.com/pin/399342691929705066/
Thank you for having a fun activity like this!!