Happy Christmas break friends! Lindsay here . . .
Isn't being on break THE. BEST. THING. EVER?! I had my in-laws visiting from Florida last week, and my mom is coming into town today (YAY!) and its just soooo nice to be "stay-at-home-mommy" for two weeks with my little guys.
Except on the days when the baby refuses to take his second nap.
Or when my three year old pees in a public parking lot.
Yup. Both true stories . . . just from yesterday. But I digress . . .
So December when by in the blink of an eye. I should have known - it ALWAYS does, right?
Room 17 was a busy place this December. We made cards for the troops, gifts for our parents, did a whole unit on gingerbread stories AND had our holiday program . . .
I saw this cute cartoon and just about died. Is this not totally true??
(I think my favorite is always the Super Loud Singer.)
I really enjoyed all of the fun gingerbread-y activities that went along with our gingerbread unit. I was on maternity leave this time last year and I really missed all of the fun holiday activities . . . such as . . . our Gingerbread Hunt!!
Last year our grade level team decided to have each student decorate their own gingerbread man ornament (made of salt dough) to take home . . . only to have them DISAPPEAR.
(Insert dramatic gasp here)
You know what happens next folks: a clue magically appears which leads the students through the school right to the runaway gingerbread men.
THIS YEAR I was totally excited to join in on the fun! Except that I REAAAAAALLY wanted to up the drama factor. It went a little something like this:
Teacher (straight-faced): Boys and girls, when I call your color row I would like you to take your gingerbread man ornament off the back table where it was drying and put it in your cubby. Red row . . .
(Red row goes to back table. Students look around, start milling about in a highly confused manner . . .)
Student #1: I can't find them.
Student #2: Me needer (neither)!
Teacher (still straight-faced . . . should probably get an Academy Award for the ability to keep this face going for so long): They are ON the table boys and girls.
Students: No they're not!
Student #3: I know! They ran away!
Entire class: (GASP!!)
Yup. It was goooooooooooood!
So obviously the first thing you need to do when your gingerbread man runs away is make a WANTED poster. So we did. I LOVED all of the reward ideas they came up with, and the creative places in the classroom they chose to hang their posters . . .
WANTED poster template
Student (dressed as Santa) working hard on his poster . . .
Using color words to describe what his gingerbread man looked like . . .
Seriously, my favorite one! The reward: WfAAOZin (one thousand) trophies and pigs. And yes, he decided to just draw the trophies and pigs rather than sounding out the words. Funny kid . . .
Another great reward: 1000 Xaviers (student in our class)
Our room was COVERED in their little posters.
Then, of course, our first clue arrived . . . leading us to the cafeteria. So we tiptoed all around the school, following our clues . . .
. . . until we found our runaway gingerbread men in the library!!
Later that day we sequenced the events of our hunt by remembering all of the places the clues took us and drew & labeled them here:
If you would like to check out any of the resources I used in my hunt, just click on the picture below:
Well, that's it for now folks . . . I will be back soon to talk about some great January activities that I am prepping soon! Hope you all enjoy the rest of your break with your friends and loved ones . . .
Talk to you soon!
Lindsay
P.S. Almost forgot the MOST important part of this entire blog post . . . my Christmas gift from one of my students. Meet . . . Santa Pig! I mean, it doesn't get any cuter than that, right? (Did I mention I am a crazy pig collector lady?!) Folks . . . I never woulda guessed that I would be the proud owner of a three foot light-up pig lawn ornament - but here we are. And I kind of love it. And I hope my neighbors do too! ;)
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