Build Fluency and Fun with Christmas Partner Plays!

The first day of December, my kids used to walk into class, excitedly exclaiming, "It's CHRISTMAS!"

This was hilarious. It was not Christmas. It wasn't even winter yet. We were still eating leftover turkey, and my kids couldn't stop talking about the next big thing: Christmas.

And I decided to capitalize on this. One of my ongoing goals as an upper elementary teacher was to grow students' fluency.

And then I realized: I needed to write my own. I began writing partner plays to address different seasons and holidays!

Some holidays were easier than others. Christmas, for example, is abounding with ideas! In my Christmas Partner Plays, you meet Santa, Rudolph, talking ornaments, some very excited elves, and a couple of bells hanging out downtown.

The best part? Teachers who've used the plays have told me that their kids can't get enough! They actually ask for more fluency reading! *sniff* I guess my budding career as a writer has begun!

Check out the video I made with my third grade buddy - I promise you, it's pretty cute.

        And grab your set of Christmas Partner Plays on TPT! Great for grades 2 - 4! Monday & Tuesday, November 28 & 29, the plays are on sale for only $2.60! Fill up your cart today, and get them for a great low price tomorrow!

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10 Ugly Truths about My Winter Break

You know the drill. It's December 31 and I can see the end of my winter break looming ever closer. 

Without the structure of a school day, I've basically been a misshapen lump growing out of my couch. Like Homer, I've worn butt-grooves into the cushion. No one else will be comfortable on that couch ever again; I have claimed it. 

There are many ugly truths about how I have squandered my time this winter break. Here are ten of them.

10. I have eaten cookies instead of dinner on three different occasions. I didn't set out to eat cookies instead of dinner. It just happened. I started eating cookies at about, oh, three-thirty, and continued eating them until about seven, at which point I realized three things: It was seven, I'd been eating cookies for three and a half hours, and I was no longer hungry for anything of value. So I ate a few more cookies and called it a night.

9. I spent an obscene amount at after-Christmas sales. This one is kind of a secret (that I'm not sharing with the world via blogland). After Christmas, I buy a TON of gifts for throughout the year and for, yes, next Christmas. I have a special closet I keep the gifts in, and a list with everyone I love and what I've already bought for them. This year, I bought a LOT of gifts after Christmas... and a few decorations (read: fifty decorations).

8. The hour I want to open a bottle of wine has crept forward, to the point that now, at 2:30, I'm thinking... "Well, it's closer to five pm than eight am, right?"

7. I don't think I've actually had any water to drink since two days before Christmas. My beverage list is as follows: hot chocolate, coffee, wine, hot tea, a delicious sweet concoction called Rumchata, Butterscotch Schnapps, and Irish Cream.

6. I'm not sure how many hours I've spent staring at my cat and thinking about how much I'd like to be one. Cats don't go to work. Cats go where they want. Cats get attention when they want it, and they don't when they don't. Cats have it all.

5. I have watched absolute garbage on TV. You won't believe me if I tell you, but let's just say it included the epitome of awful Christmas specials: A Very Brady Christmas. Yes, I went there.

4. If I made even one out of every ten Tasty videos I've watched, I could open a restaurant. I am absolutely addicted to those short, action-packed recipe videos. Everything looks incredible: Garlic Parmesan Potato Wedges? Yum! Cinnamon Roll Cupcakes? Oh, yes! Nutella Cream Cheese Turnovers? I'll take two!

 I dare you to watch that without drooling.

3. I haven't shaved my legs in a week and a half. I look more like Chewy than Leia.

2. I only wear shoes when I leave the house, which means 90% of this break, I've worn fuzzy slipper socks. My floors are spotless...unlike the rest of the house.

1.  I am absolutely positive my pants no longer fit, but I am also too afraid to try them on. This is all I have to say about that.

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Five for FRIDAY!! December style

Holy cow, is it Christmas break yet? Seriously, this week was rough. I was at school at 7:00 in the morning twice this week, and I left school after 6:00 twice this week.  I made two trips to Wal-Mart, baked (and ate) about twenty five cookies, and made two dozen burritos.

On Friday, we had our giant Christmas program. It's an incredible show. We didn't get out until about 8:30. So naturally, on Saturday morning I was very excited to wake up early to help out at our area Grit Conference. I wasn't alone. After the conference ended at 12:30, I raced home to make cookies for our campus cookie exchange! I made butterscotch & white chocolate chip cookies...they were like candy.  Get the recipe on Google Drive!

   

 I decided to buy all the felt at Wal-Mart and make a felt Christmas tree with ornaments for my niece. My husband keeps walking into the den, looking at the piles of crafting crap all over the table, and turning right back around to watch TV in the bedroom.

 But I don't care! Because this tree is cute and she's going to love it!

Another project I worked on was our Poet-tree! We actually have three: a K-2 tree in English, a K-2 tree in Spanish, and a 3-5 tree in English. Each ornament has a poem printed on it and I decorated them with glitter paint. Our librarian tied on a ribbon and we hang them on our tree! When students visit the library, they can choose an ornament to keep.

And then I made two dozen burritos. At our school, the last twelve days before winter break, we have the 12 Days of Christmas. Each grade level/group is assigned a day. We were the 8th day. We decided to make burritos. This was my idea. At the time, I thought, "Oh, burritos will be a nice change from sweets," which is what most groups bring on their day. But then, the night before I realized that I would have to make 24 burritos... in the morning... before I went to work. I had to get up at 5:30. 5:30, people! I. Do. Not. Get. Up. Before. Six.

But I did. I set my alarm, and I woke up. I dragged myself into an upright position. I sat there for a minute, but then I was afraid I'd fall asleep sitting up. So I pulled myself out of bed and got myself ready. I remember thinking, "This was a stupid idea," but I quickly reminded myself that it was MY stupid idea.

Then I mixed up about 40 eggs and poured them into a pan with butter. I reheated the potatoes I'd cooked the night before, and warmed tortillas. I rolled and rolled and rolled. Until I had 24 burritos. I stuffed them into a tray and raced to work. In all, we'd made 100 burritos for our faculty.

This is my favorite. We hosted a Disguise a Gingerbread Man contest in the library. Students could swing by and pick up a cardstock gingerbread man to decorate, to help him escape. It had to be from a book.

We had a ton of submissions, and some of them were so clever and creative!

Hulk Hogan - something tells me this wasn't a book.

Pancho Villa

Chewbacca

Ruby the Reindeer

Arthur

These entries were from our teachers! The Abominable Snowman, Lily (from Lily's Purple Plastic Purse) and Skippyjon Jones! Are they precious or what?

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Five for Friday Link-Up, holiday style!

This week has been insane. I think I've overestimated how much I can fit into a day. Apparently, it's only about 16 hours worth of stuff, not the 28 hours I'm trying to squeeze in. It turns out, I am an ordinary human, like you. I'm not Wonder Woman. I'm kind of depressed to find this out.

Anyway, these pictures represent some of the things I've actually managed to accomplish this week. As you can see, Christmas is kind of a big priority.

This is our little library book tree! My librarian buddy and I made it out of boring reference books :)

 

And these are our Poet-Trees! We typed up poems on ornaments and copies them onto construction paper. Then we decorated each ornament with glitter paint and hung it out the tree. We made three trees: Grades 3 - 5, English for grades K - 2, and Spanish for grades K - 2. When the kids come to the library, they can choose a poem from the tree and keep it!

 

On Wednesday I met with my Harry Potter book club. We meet once a week to read Harry Potter and do some fun stuff. This week, we finished our bookmarks with glitter paint!

This is our little book tree in the library! 

 

 Each year, my school has a family night for the faculty. My dad has played Santa for the last two years - he greets the kids, does some ho-ho-ho-ing, and hands out the gifts the parents have brought for their kids. I always get my little brother a gift from Santa. He's 18 years old, and he's about 9 inches taller than our dad. So this, to me, is hilarious.

My hunnybun is a photographer, and he needed some holiday photos for backgrounds. So he took pictures of our Christmas tree! I love our tree. It's blue and silver and old-fashioned-y.

 Head over to DoodleBugs to check out the other Five for Friday posts or to link up yourself!
 

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Wordless Christmas Picture Linky Party!

I feel like I'm not allowed to use words to tell you this, but I'm linking up with Teaching in the Tongass for a Wordless Christmas Picture Linky Party! I'm a few days late, but it's not the new year yet!

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Hang Up the Holly!

I LOVE CHRISTMAS! Christmas is my favorite favorite favorite time of year.  I eat anything with a "Christmas" wrapper - or even if it's just red and green. I carry my shopping list with me everywhere I go, hunting for gifts. I am a sucker for old-fashioned decorations.   I love Christmas. So when Christina Bainbridge at Bunting, Books, and Bainbridge  told us about her Fa-la-la-la-la-Show off your house! Linky Party, I was like, "YES! Finally!"

Much like Christina Bainbridge's husband, my husband says, "Santa threw up on my house," every year. But this year, I guess I've finally grown on him and he's actually kind of excited. This is how I did it. At the store, I'll hold up two Christmas decorations I like. Either one will work for me. It's either one star or the other. But I'll ask him, "Which one do YOU like, hun?" and he'll choose. Later, when I put the decoration up, I'll say, "Look, hun! It's the star you liked!" Over time, the house has become more and more full of decorations that he chose. And now he likes our decorations. So ha! I've got him hanging lights outside and putting up the inflatables he bought and the lights he wanted so that will have to come another day. But I've had the inside of the house decorated since last week, so Fa-la-la-la-la-Here's my house! (I'm sorry for having eight million pictures. I love love love love to decorate for Christmas. Thank you for forgiving me.)

The entry to the den - this garland is so old lol. Next year, I might make something new!

I bought this adorable banner in London on our honeymoon! I couldn't wait to get home and hang it up... but it was only October. I finally get to use it!

Nowhere is safe. It's Christmas on the bookshelves! The adorable snowglobe was a gift from one of my kids a few years ago.

Not the best picture, but snowmen are hangin' out on the windowsill.

Christmas in the kitchen! I won this little sign a few years ago at our faculty Christmas luncheon!

I really like little Christmas trees. And in the middle is an old-fashioned sled.

My Christmas village on top of the record player!

And this is our tree! It's silver and blue, mostly.

These two items were chosen by the hunny - the star and the blue ornaments with swirls. Awww, he loves Christmas.

BIRDS!

This one's for the hunnybun - gotta have some love for him on the tree.

We love the Beatles!

Put a bird on it! I love bird ornaments!

These pale green ornaments are fairly-old. I think they were my Grandma's. 

Wreath on the back of the front door. It needs a little love, but I've had it for a long time, so I can't NOT put it up!

DINING ROOM!

We don't have a fireplace :( so we make do with our old buffet in the dining room!

The top is full of some of my favorite Christmas things! I really love old-fashioned trees.

The hunny bought this table runner, too!

Just bought this snowglobe - LOVE it!

This is my teacher tree! All my little teacher ornaments are on this tree. It's nice to remember all the kids and people who gave them to me!

A visitor in the dining room...

Here's the whole room!

And here's a very special Christmas decoration - the Christmas kitty.

Happy Christmas! Go link up at Books, Bunting, and Bainbridge, or check out all the other Christmas Houses linked up already!

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