Santa Hat Books

We started working on Christmas vocabulary words this week.  I used the Christmas vocabulary material from my Christmas Fun package.

The children seemed to really enjoy the activity and really did a great job! I decided to use the colour it yourself version and I am glad I did.  The colouring was a "want to" not a "have to" activity but most of the children choose to colour their booklets after they had finished matching the sentence strips to the correct picture.  Some even wanted to take their colouring pencils home so they could finish it at home!  They were doing that particular a job!  

I just used the pocket chart pages at the original size that they come in the package and they worked out great!  You can increase the size on your photocopier by selecting the option that lets you increase the size from an 8 X 11 sheet to an 11 X 17 sheet but I found I didn't need to.  I printed off a colour version of the pocket chart pictures and laminated them as well as the pocket chart strips this time.  But you don't have to as they work just as well just in paper form.  I didn't have time to laminate my Halloween package sentence strips and they are still in great shape.  

The children helped me match the sentence strips to the correct picture in the pocket chart.  When they went to their seats to do their own they did great.  I found that telling them to match the sentence strips to the pictures before cutting the sheets into pages worked really well. 

I made simple Santa hat covers for the books by folding a red construction paper in half and chopping off the  top two corners to make a hat shape.  A strip of white paper on the bottom and a cotton ball on the top and you have a funky Santa hat cover!  

We also worked on math addition concepts with the Christmas workspaces.  We call it "Add it Up" and the children really like it.   They use the workspaces to make an addition story at their desk.  They record their story on the Add it Up sheet and then go to their friend's desks and record their stories too.  There are 18 spaces on the worksheet and I have 22 students so they get lots of practise, have fun, and get a chance to move around too!  They love the new Christmas workspaces.  Especially the gingerbread house!  

I put out the counting tubs Christmas work spaces during Blue Bin time.  The children have to put the cards in order from one to ten.  Then they put the appropriate number of objects on each card.  Lots of counting practise and fun!