Whew! We survived! Hello Christmas Break!

I have been wanting to sit down and take a few minutes to share our Christmas Spirit with y’all… but there is always something else that has to be done or to be very honest I had to go to bed!

So here is one big, gigantic, enormous post about all the fun we’ve had in first grade the last few weeks.

   

I had my first graders make these ornaments last year and they always turn out cute for such a simple, low prep activity. They each made two. I cut strips of green scrapbooking paper and they had to cut them in smaller strips to make a tree from the smallest to biggest pieces.

  

They also cut a small brown trunk for the bottom. I did use a star punch for the top. We mounted these on red cardstock templates with the year at the bottom. I laminated each one.

---

  

A few years ago my niece gave me a HUGE stash of perler beads. I ordered Christmas molds from Oriental Trading and these ornaments have been a huge hit the last few years. I was really worried it would be a disaster the first time we made these.

But, each time has been perfect!

 

We made balls and Christmas trees one day. And since I had at least a million beads left- we pulled all the supplies back out and made candy canes a different day.

 

And the good news… I have TONS and TONS of beads left for next year!

---

I needed a simple, independent project that my students could do by themselves while I pulled them one at a time to work on our flower pot Rudolphs {see below} and this was perfect! These tree patterns are from my super talented friend Amy Lemons.

We mounted these on black construction paper and then my very generous mom cut around them for me. The black border really made them POP!

---

   

Our class stockings were hanging on our bulletin board and I had to take them down and then I was left with an empty blank bulletin board and that is NOT an option. So, while my little ones were at specials one day I put together this super quick Rudolph project.

Definitely nothing fancy.. but quickly solved the empty bulletin board dilemma! I hung the other pictures in a different spot in our room.

   

And a little glitter to make Rudolph’s nose sparkle is always a hit!

   

---

This year I bought class stockings and each student was asked to bring something for their classmates stockings. This was a HUGE HUGE HUGE hit! After about 3 kids brought their stocking gifts our stockings were all ready full and too heavy to hang on the bulletin board.

So, we had to put the stockings in these big white bags to finish “stuffing” them! They built up a ton of anticipation and was all my first graders wanted to talk about. My parents went above what I expected!

    

I gave all of them a little goody bag with a notebook and some gel pens or markers. I gave my boys matchbox cars and a stuffed animal snake. I gave my girls lipgloss and a stuffed elf. I also dropped in some candy and rice krispy treats! They got to dig in their stocking bags and open everything during our class party today! It was a huge hit!

---

 

We also made these stained glass looking ornaments one day. I pulled out scrap construction paper and hole punches and they were quiet as a mouse as they worked on these ornaments.

There is contact paper on both sides. They really looked good hanging on our class Christmas tree. The lights shining through made them really sparkle!

---

 

Way back when Pinterest first started these little flower pot Rudolphs were one of my first pins. We made them three years ago but I haven’t made them since. I saw the little pots back in the fall and I bought them and stored them until Christmas time. They are precious and I hope they are something my students will keep at home for many years.

Today was my student’s last day before Christmas. We have a short teacher work day tomorrow and I am looking forward to getting some Winter/January stuff planned. Have a blessed Christmas! Don’t forget I took a break from Five for Friday but it will be back in January!