December Freebies

It has come to my attention how many freebies I have for the month of December. 

Here are some of my favorites:

Hanukkah is super early this year. In fact, it's happening now! Be sure to download this Hanukkah Game Board. It can be used with skill that needs practicing: math facts, sight words, task cards. Just do a card, check, and roll your way around the game board.  

Holiday Fluency Sample is a fun way to practice reading phrases. With holiday words, of course!

This is my favorite holiday activity. It focuses on classic holiday music and the storyline that goes along with it. Tchaikovsky's The Nutcracker includes suggestions on which music to play with each part of the storyline. It's a great exercise in visualization, and the kids absolutely love it! Yes, even the boys! How can you miss it when the setting is a place called The Kingdom of Sweets? (I've done this every year for at least 15 years!)

 

 

This is what my students are working on tomorrow: Acts of Kindness Countdown gives the kids a chance to count down the days until Christmas and enjoy the joy of giving at the same time.  Plus, everything they are giving is free!

The two resources below are NOT free, but are totally worth it!

I had to throw in my newest resources, although this one is not free. December Holidays True or False Boom Digital Task Cards This digital resource allows students to practice reading skills while learning about holidays around the world. Boom Learning digital task cards are easy to use, perfect for remote or distance learning, and fun for the students!

And here's one more new one, that's very popular with the children! Boom Learning December General Knowledge Trivia Questions and Enrichment

 

The December holidays are great fun for the students and an excuse for fun learning!

What Does a Bunny Have to Do With Easter?

Did you ever wonder where the bunny came from? Or, for that fact, baby chicks? Or eggs? 

What do all these things have in common?

I often wondered that, so I looked it up, and it all made sense. Rabbits, chicks, and eggs all represent new life.

It is also appropriate that the date of Easter is close to the Spring Equinox. Again, we're talking about new life: rebirth, the world comes back to life.  

It all goes together, doesn't it?

Here are a few books about Easter that I found!  

• The Easter Egg by Jan Brett
• Rechenka's Eggs by Patricia Polacco
• It's Not Easy Being a Bunny: An Easter Book for Kids
• Pete the Cat: Big Easter Adventure
• The Story of the Easter Bunny: An Easter and Springtime Book for Kids

Here are a couple of books with a Spring focus!

• When Will it Be Spring?
• When Spring Comes
• It's Spring
• Spring is Here: A Bear and Mole Story

What post about Easter would be complete with this classic?

• The Velveteen Rabbit

or this one?

• The Tale of Peter Rabbit

Happy Easter!

This blog post contains links to items on Amazon. These are affiliate links. If you use them, I'll make a small profit from your purchase, but it won't affect what you pay Amazon!  If you use them, THANK YOU! (It's not much, but every bit helps!)

Celebrate the King of Nonsense

Read Across America Day is coming up!  

Happy Birthday to Dr. Seuss on March 2nd!

We'll be celebrating the whole week of his birthday!

Dr. Seuss was the master of rhyme and nonsense.  In his books, if he didn't have a word that rhymed that fit, he made one up!  And he did it well! Just look at this list of some of my favorite Dr. Seuss books! (Each title is an affiliate link to Amazon.)

• Oh, the Places You'll Go
• Green Eggs and Ham
• One Fish Two Fish Red Fish Blue Fish
• The Lorax
• How the Grinch Stole Christmas
• The Cat in the Hat
• If I Ran the Zoo
• Bartholomew and the Oobleck
• In a People House
• Yertle the Turtle
• The Foot Book   

So, how do I celebrate Dr. Seuss?  With Nonsense words, of course!  Click the image to read more about this resource!

This resource has 30 short vowel words, 18 long vowel words, and 18 vowel pairs, and R-controlled vowels. Explore the image for the link to this resource.

Nonsense Word Sort and Game Board

  

Looking for a little more about Dr. Seuss? Try these activities in this Science and Social Studies resource! (This has 2 activities related to Dr. Seuss, plus several other March-themed Science and Social Studies activities!)

Social Studies and Science for March

How do you celebrate the King of Nonsense?

My Favorite Holiday Activity

Have you ever had one of those activities that's a win-win? It's something that works so well that you keep bringing it back year after year. 

That's how I feel about this resource: Tchaikovsky's The Nutcracker.  I've done this activity with second graders for about 15 years now. It integrates a classic piece of holiday literature with music and visualization.

I've always loved the music from The Nutcracker. When my daughter was 5, I figured she was old enough to go into Boston to see the Boston Ballet perform the classic. We read a few versions of the story so she'd know what to expect, put on our very best holiday dresses, and drove into the city.

Since I knew the story so well, I brought the CD into school and shared it with my students. I wrote this summary of the classic story, played the music while the children visualized what it must look like, and illustrated the different parts of the story.

Every year, the children loved the activity, which practiced valuable skills such as visualizing, summarizing, and sequencing. Plus, it exposed them to classic holiday literature and classical music. Of course, you can't miss it when the setting is The Kingdom of Sweets!

A couple of years after seeing the production in Boston, my daughter had the opportunity to audition for a production of The Nutcracker. She was in the youngest group, and the little ones had a very small part, but it was priceless. She went on to perform in The Nutcracker 3 years in a row before life just got too busy with other performances. However, the story of The Nutcracker will always be near and dear to my heart.

Enjoy this freebie: The Nutcracker story for Visualizing, Summarizing, and Illustration! It's one of my favorites!