Merry
Christmas from Victoria @ KinderKorner ~ All underlined items are links
.
.
Our Christmas
wreaths
Are
fat and round
Made
of woodsy things
We found.
We tied
brown cones
Upon
the green
And
stuck red berries
In between.
Upon
the wreath
For
our front door
We tied
red ribbon
From
a store.
December
Song & Poetry Cards
Song
and Poetry Cards are one of my top three tools for teaching reading, writing,
and phonics ~ the other two tools are Big Books and Pocket Charts.
I have more than 200 Song & Poetry Cards in my room, and am always
making new ones. Once a card is introduced, we keep it out for the
rest of the school year.
Here
are a few of my December cards. They're made out of a half sheet
of poster board, and are approximately 14" x 24". I add stickers
or Ellison diecut shapes to give them lots of kid appeal, then laminate
them for durability. I've been using some of these cards for the
past eight years and they're holding up quite well. My "older"
cards are hand-written, and my newer cards are typed on the computer and
I print out the text, then use many types of illustrations, including clip
art, blackline coloring sheets, and illustrations from gift bags and wrapping
paper.
Tune: Row Your Boat
Tune: Camptown Ladies
Tune: Little Teapot
Tune: Bingo
Tune: Twinkle
Twinkle
Isn't it the strangest thing, That Santa is so shy? And we can never catch
him, No matter how we try. It isn't any use to watch, Because my parents said: "Santa Claus will only
come When children are in bed!"
Wonderful
thematic books for Shared Reading, Guided Reading, and Independent Reading.
Set includes ready-to-color
blackline masters for three Big Books and ready-to-copy masters for two
student-sized books. "Santa Song" comes in Big Book size only.
Includes instructions
for making Pocket Chart Sets and Seasonal/Thematic Vocabulary
Christmas
Theme
Emergent
Readers
December Sale ~
Save 50%
3 Big Books, 2 Little
Books
see sample pages from
each book below
High Frequency
Word List:
all, and, are, at,
black, boys, by, candy, cap, come, for, girls, his, is, like, look, my,
of, red, see, the, they, with, your
Wonderful
thematic books for Shared Reading, Guided Reading, and Independent Reading.
Set includes ready-to-color
blackline masters for six Big Books and ready-to-copy masters for six student-sized
books.
I color the illustrations
and mount the pictures and text on construction paper. You can also
simply color the pictures and laminated the full-size pages for durability,
without mounting on colored paper.
Includes instructions
for making Pocket Chart Sets and Seasonal/Thematic Vocabulary
Winter
Theme Emergent
Readers
6 Big Books, 6 Little
Books
see sample pages from
each book below
Only
$25
no shipping
charges
High Frequency
Word List:
a, am, an, and, are,
big, blue, brown, by, can, candy, can't, cap, circle, color, green, has,
hat, hop, is, kid, like, likes, little, my, name, on, oval, red, see, that,
the, these, to, too, two, we, yellow, your
December thematic
vocabulary, with matching cards (without the picture)
so students can take
a word to their seats during writing time.
We also use this as a
matching activity in the Pocket Charts Center.
"Evergreen Happy"
By Susie Haas
Santa
Had Some Little Elves Tune: Old MacDonald
Santa
had some little elves, Ho,
ho, ho, ho, ho. They
made toys to put on shelves. Ho,
ho, ho, ho, ho. With
a train set here, And
a teddy bear there, Here
a ball, there a doll, Toys
that went from wall to wall. Santa
had some little elves,
Ho, ho,
ho, ho, ho!
Spotlight
Story For December
Jan
Brett's newest Christmas story ~ published September 2002 ~ is a terrific
addition to our annual Jan Brett Author Study, which begins in late November
and lasts until the end of February. The illustrations are gorgeous,
and the story continues Brett's tradition of Christmas Troll tales.
My friend Patty gave me an extra-special copy of this book, autographed
by Brett on her trip to Phoenix in November 2002.
Brett's
website has some wonderful printable pages to accompany this story.
You'll find links to them at the bottom of this page, in the Printables
& Projects section.
These are large Ellison die
cuts
mounted on half sheets of construction paper. I make ten sheets --
using two different colors of paper in an ABAB pattern -- and write the
numbers 1 through 10 in the upper left hand corner. I add the correct
number of stickers at the bottom of the page for children who are still
learning to read numerals and/or for the kids who haven't mastered one-to-one
correspondence.
I laminate the cards for durability
(and to keep the stickers in place). I have two different sets of
the Christmas Tree cards, because this is a very popular activity.
Here's how the cards look when a child has finished the activity:
I use different manipulatives
for each of the Christmas Tree work jobs. One set has small Christmas
themed erasers from the Dollar Store, and the other set has miniature Christmas
ornaments and jewels. Children work alone or in pairs, sequencing
the cards, decorating the trees, and counting the objects. Each set
of ten cards requires 55 manipulatives.
December
Quilts
Here are some of the patches
I've used in recent years:
The Christmas Tree patch uses
a 9" x 9" background and a trunk made from a 1.5" x 3" rectangle.
The tree is made from three green construction paper squares ... 3", 4",
and 5".
Each green square is folded
in half to make a triangle, and only the top points of the triangle are
glued together, making a "puffy" triangle, which gives added dimension
to the quilt. Working from the bottom, the triangles are glued in
place, largest to smallest, and the tree is topped with either a star or
angel sticker.
The Santa head patch was adapted
from the TLC Make-A-Book called A Christmas Week.
I cut the pieces according
to their directions, substituting a 9" x 9" square for the background and
using cotton balls for the fur on Santa's hat.
To learn more about TLC --
Teaching Little Children -- directed art projects, visit their website
at http://www.tlclessons.com
The patchwork Star is also
on a 9" x 9" background sheet, and is assembled in four sections,
on background sheets that are 4 1/2" x 4 1/2".
Building the smaller sections
and attaching them to the larger background paper makes the work more manageable
for little hands, and helps keep things lined up correctly. I make
this patch from foil gift wrap, which makes it extra-special and shiny.
You
can combine the patches any way you wish. When I use the Christmas
Tree patch with the patchwork Star, I use a royal blue background
instead of the red background shown here. Here is pictures of a quilt
made with the Christmas Tree patch and the Santa Heads:
Here's
another version of the same quilt, with black sashing between the patches:
Quilt by Patty Hackett's KinderKids
~ December 2002
Zuni Hills School, Sun City,
Arizona
Many
months, we make a handprint patch to go with a cut paper patch.
One of our favorite December
handprints in this simple Santa:
To make the handprint,
paint the the thumb and upper part of the palm red, the center of the palm
pink, and the fingers white. Facial features and a cotton ball are
added after the paint is dry.
The handprint
Santa looks nice with the Christmas Tree, and makes a quick-and-easy quilt.
This
quilt was made by my friend Margaret Landucci's KinderKids in December
2000.
Angel
Handprints by Patty Hackett's KinderKids
These
adorable angels can be used as a quilt patch, or could be used as the cover
for a book of Christmas poems.
You
can also make an ornament by cutting around the finished angels and adding
a ribbon to the top.
To make
the angel body, paint one closed hand blue and press on paper. When
dry, paint both palms yellow and press onto paper, overlapping the blue
body. Add blue arms when wings are dry. Paint or sponge-in
a round head and fingerprint hands in an appropriate color, and let children
add hair and facial features when head is dry.
On this patch, the children
will glue on a photo of their face for an extra-special angel.
TLC
Christmas Star Quilt Patch December
2002 Free Lesson ~ from www.tlclessons.com
*note ~ free lesson is no longer online
Another
fun winter quilt is this handprint penguin:
Employing her mastery of repetition
and rhythm, Brown conveys the classic sensory images of the Christmas season.
Realistic, richly hued watercolors depict curious Pussycat as she recognizes
traditional holiday trappings -- sparkling Christmas-tree lights, forest-green
holly, orange tangerines, and brown walnuts.
Art
Projects
Directed
Art Elves
Another
fun project from Patty Hackett's class, done whole group or as a center.
You
can design your own elves to look similar to these, choosing colors and
sizes suitable to your classroom projects and available space.
Handprint
Wreath
Made by Patty's daughter Kelsey.
Poinsettias
Beautiful
flowers by Patty's very busy kindergarten class.
Finger-painted Tree
We give the KinderKids a pre-cut
tree and squirt blue and yellow paint on it, which they mix to get green.
The trees are decorated with dry lick-and-stick dots that are pressed onto
the wet paint.
Paint
child's palm and fingers white. Have child carefully grasp the ornament
to create the five snowmen. Use a paint marker to make hats, faces,
and scarves. Attach a tag with this poem:
These
aren't just five snowmen
As anyone
can see.
I made
them with my hand
Which
is a part of me.
Now
each year when you trim the tree
You'll
look back and recall
Christmas
of 2002
When
my hand was just this small!
Spray paint a coffee can.
Insert a wire handle and sponge paint a snowman decoration on the can.
Use the can to carry home Christmas ornament gifts.
See the many presents by the
Christmas tree,
Some for you,
And some for me.
Long ones,
Tall ones,
Short ones, too.
And here is a round one
Wrapped in blue.
Isn't it fun to look and see
All the presents by the Christmas
tree?
Santa
Claus Book
This is a book Martha
Ohe and Kelly Hill -- my K team co-teachers -- shared with me the
first year I taught kindergarten. It's an innovation on "Rosie's
Walk," and is a fun way to practice prepositions.
The cover is a full sheet
of construction paper, folded crosswise, and the pages are stapled inside
the top fold. Artwork is mainly construction paper, glued in by the
children.
The sleigh on the cover
is cut from a small white envelope, so that Santa can sit "inside" the
sleigh.
The Santa shown on the
cover is not glued on, it's just there to show one of the ones I've used
over the years. The children color him and I laminate him for durability,
then they move Santa across each page as they read the story. I've
also used the Ellison die cut Santa, cut from laminated red construction
paper.
The bed on the final page
is construction paper folded to make a pocket, so readers can tuck Santa
into bed. Sometimes we use wrapping paper or wallpaper for the bed,
or the kids color it like a quilt.
I've retyped the text
below each picture for easy reading, and added a note about the artwork
for each page.
One
night Santa went for a ride,
dark
blue rectangle
around
the world,
dark
black rectangle and blue circle
through
the clouds,
light
blue rectangle and cotton ball clouds
over
the roof tops,
squares
and rectangles
under
the telephone wires,
paper
poles with wires drawn between them
across
the snow,
light
blue rectangle and torn paper snow
past
the Christmas tree,
Ellison
diecut tree
and
got back in time for a warm winter's nap.
folded
"bed" glued beneath bedposts
"Oh, Christmas Tree" Book
This terrific idea is
from the online
Christmas Unit at Mrs. Broome's Room.
Each child receives a blackline master page with the words to the chorus
of the song, as follows:
The children draw a
picture of a Christmas tree, and the book is bound together and added to
the classroom library.
This project could be
extended by having the children paint trees on 10" x 14" sheets of art
paper, to be decorated items that can be glued on when the paintings are
dry. Other options for creating trees include colored markers,
colored pencils, torn paper mosaic, colored chalk, etc. The
completed trees are cut out and glued to sheets of 12" x 18"
construction paper (dark blue looks great!). The text shown above
could be added to either the top or bottom of the page.
To use the activity for
language acquisition, students could fill in the blanks in either of the
sentences below, which could also be typed and added to their big book
pages:
My Christmas tree is
__________, __________, and __________. (adjectives)
My tree has
__________, __________, and __________. (nouns)
More Art Projects from
TLC Lessons.com
many thanks to Tracie Pohlmeyer for
sharing her classroom photos
Tracie Pohlmeyer's
class uses the Santa Head pattern from
TLC's "Beginning
Lessons" to create a Big Book called "All I Want From Santa."
Cut-and-Paste
reindeer by Ms. Hackett's KinderKids
Ten
Little Reindeer (Tune: Ten Little
Indians variation)
By
Victoria Smith
Dasher
and Dancer and Prancer and Vixen, Comet
and Cupid and Donder and Blitzen, And
Rudolph with his nose so bright Lead
Santa’s sleigh through the cold starry night.
Hands-and-Footprint Reindeer From
Patty Hackett's class
My class
has made this one using painted handprints/footprints ~
it makes
a great keepsake ornament or quilt patch.
One more reindeer from Patty's class.
Handprints stapled to a simple paper headband
make great reindeer antlers for acting out songs and poems.
This can be used as an ornament or a gift
tag.
This sample has antlers and ears that are
traced and cut,
but I prefer handprint antlers and a pompom
nose.
Printable
Christmas Lists and Gift Tags from www.countryclipart.com
graphics license purchased
from
Original
Country Clipart By Lisa click
on images or links below to go to full-size printable pages
Kinder
Korner is owned by Victoria Smith an educator
and freelance writer
who
teaches kindergarten and first grade in California.
Victoria
also teaches teachers throughout the United States and Canada,
at district
and school site inservices, state and regional conferences,
and
her very popular KinderKorner Balanced Literacy Workshops.
These
pages are updated often,
so please
come back soon to see what's new at KinderKorner!
The KinderKorner.com
website, the KinderKorner Listserv, all KinderKorner Resource Products,
and
the business name/trade name "KinderKorner.com" are all owned and copyrighted
in full by Victoria Smith,
as are
all non-credited photos and text throughout the website. All rights
reserved.
Nothing
may be reproduced or placed on another website without the explicit written
permission
of the
copyright holder, Victoria Smith. All materials copyright the date
of their origin and/or posting.
Wonderful Winter Links 
