The holiday season has reached 115.
Many families at our school celebrate Christmas.
I happen to not be one of them (I mean, we rock those 8 crazy nights.)
;)
Regardless of what we celebrate, I want my entire class to be knowledgeable.
On customs around the world.
Not just in our neck of the world.
One great way to do this is to read books.
So.
My very first year I started collecting books.
Some were gifts to me or my class, some I picked up because I knew we needed them.
Kwanza, Christmas, Hanukah, Winter Solstice, and Winter theme books abound.
By December 1st, I wrap up one book for each student.
Not to give as a gift.
But to add to our classroom library.
They are all AR books, all levels.
Each school day I pull 1 or 2 numbers of a student.
That student opens the book.
I have a strong group of third graders this year, so when they open the books they also take my seat and read it to the class.
Two years ago, I had a third grade group that wouldn't have been successful (slash we tried one and it was pretty painful for that students, so I opted to read from there on out).
Still fun, still exciting.
And then best part is it's technically free.
I don't buy new books every year, I wrap up ones we already have!
Then once they are open they are back in the library.
My kids LOVE LOVE LOVE it.
Some of the books, especially the ones about winter will be kick off points for us for a winter activity. The best part of that it is - I don't know which ones they will choose.
It does take a little planning, but it's really fun.
I have all the activities ready to go, and when they are reading the book, my co-teacher and I get the activity ready.
Little Miss G. picked a poem book on Friday about a boy who wonders if the next day will be a snow day (even though it's summer).
The kids do a cute writing activity about if tomorrow were 100 degrees and it was a "sun day" instead of a snow day (we live in New England so snow days are much more likely.)
We served lemonade with a beach umbrellas while the kids worked. They loved it!
Adding a little magic to the season is always my goal.
This year we added MAP testing Benchmarking and AR Benchmarking to the month of December, that's a lot of testing before Winter Break.
I hope you can find time for a little magic in your classrooms this holiday season.
Our FAVORITE HOLIDAY reads:
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