The Gingerbread Man

I think the Gingerbread Man is my favourite fairy tale to study. I usually spend the whole month of December reading and comparing different versions of the Gingerbread Man. We started on Monday this week, so from now until Christmas Break we will read a total of 19 Gingerbread Man books. My students always love them! They can't wait to see which one we'll read each day.

I love making a large Gingerbread House to keep track of the different books we read. The title cards on the side came from an old Gingerbread unit from Deanna Jump. The decorations are just enlarged clipart from KPM Doodles. I printed off covers of all the books and tape them to the top of the chart each day. Then after we read the story, we write down the characters (in order of appearance), the refrain (repeated part), and the ending. We include a :) or :( depending on the ending for the Gingerbread character!

Here are my favourite 20 versions of the Gingerbread Man. (Click the links below to find them on Amazon.ca through my affiliate link.):

1. The Gingerbread Man - retold by Catherine McCafferty 

2. The Gingerbread Girl - Lisa Campbell Ernst

3. The Gingerbread Boy - Richard Egielski 

4. The Gingerbread Cowboy - Janet Squires

5. The Gingerbread Bear - Robert Dennis

6. The Ninjabread Man - Katrina Charman

7. The Ninjabread Man -  C J Leigh

8. Gingerbread Man Superhero! - Dotti Enderle

9. Gingerbread Baby - Jan Brett

10. Keep Running, Gingerbread Man!: A Story About Keeping Active - Steve Smallman

11. The Sourdough Man: An Alaska Folktale - Cherie Stihler 

12. Kolobok: The Small Round Bun - Olha Tkachenko

13. The Musubi Man: Hawai'i's Gingerbread Man - Sandi Takayama 

14. Stop That Pickle! - Peter Armour

15. The Stinky Cheese Man - Jon Scieszka

16. The Library Gingerbread Man - Dotti Enderle

17. The Gingerbread Man Loose in the School - Laura Murray

18. Catch That Cookie! - Hallie Durand

19. The Gingerbread Kid Goes to School - Joan Holub

20. The Gingerbread Man 2: What Happened Later? - Stephen Dixon

Social Studies Explore Tubs - Christmas Around the World {with freebies}

I'm back with another Explore Tub post. Sorry, if you're getting sick of these. I only have a few more to share! ;) I have a few fun Christmas freebies for you here though, so stick around! Here are the theme topics that we study each month:

September - Social Studies: I Belong

October - Health: Bus and Fire Safety

November - Science: Weather & Seasons

December - Social Studies: Christmas Around the World

In December, I teach a Christmas Around the World unit using my Scrapbook & Craft pack. This unit recently got an update--8 additional countries (including Kwanzaa, Hanukkah, and Diwali!).

I wanted to come up with some fun Explore Tubs for Christmas time to keep my students engaged until the last possible second before Christmas Break! So although these tubs are not exactly Christmas Around the World related, they are Christmas-y and they are a lot of fun! There's a few STEM-type challenges thrown in for them too. Check them out below:

*Christmas Around the World books: A Porcupine in a Pine Tree, Dashing Through the Snow, The Twelve Days of Christmas in Canada, Santa is Coming to Canada, Christmas Is..., Carter's Christmas, The Legend of the Poinsettia, Kevin's Kwanzaa, Caleb's Hanukkah, Babushka, Wombat Divine, Diary of a Christmas Wombat

*Christmas Play-Doh Mats {freebie from me here}
*Christmas Cookie Cutters {from Amazon}
*Play-Doh {from Amazon} --> I'll probably make some homemade gingerbread smelling playdough. Check out these Christmas playdough recipes from Kleinworth & Co.

*The Elf on the Shelf Find It Game {from Amazon}
*Question Cards {freebie from me here}: Students choose a card and have to try to find the object inside the game tube.

*Random Christmas STEM Challenge Supplies {from Michaels, Dollar Store, etc.}: straws, popsicle sticks, pom poms, Play-Doh, washi tape, mini solo cups
*Christmas Tree Building Challenge Design Sheet {freebie from me here}: Students have to design and build a Christmas tree using the various materials in the bin.

*Santa Claus Floor Puzzle {from Scholastic many years ago}
*The Elf on the Shelf Floor Puzzle {from Amazon}

*LEGO {from Amazon}
*Examples of Christmas LEGO Creations {images found from Google}

*Pattern Blocks {from Amazon}

*December Pattern Blocks Activities {from Katie Mense on TpT}

You can read more about my other Explore Tubs here:

What Are Explore Tubs?

Daily Schedule: Theme

Science: Weather & Seasons Explore Tubs

Science: Five Senses Explore Tubs

Science: Objects & Materials Explore Tubs

Science: Living Things Explore Tubs

Social Studies: Canada Explore Tubs
Social Studies: I Belong Explore Tubs
Health: Safety Explore Tubs

Christmas Around the World Updates!

Hey folks! I'm back again! I'm here to share with you an update of my best selling item--my Christmas Around the World Scrapbook & Craft pack! This update has been a year in the making and I've finally gotten around to it!

I have added 8 new scrapbook pages, crafts, and suitcase stickers for Canada, U.S.A., Hawaii, Kwanzaa (U.S.A.), Russia, Ukraine, Diwali (India), and Hanukkah (Israel).

I've also added a new, full colour answer key for all the countries that has the map, flag, fill-in-the-blank answers, and a sample picture to draw in the circle. No more research for you--it's all right there!

And lastly, I've added bulletin board decorations so you can display your trip around the world in your classroom! I added a country card to the bulletin board after each "visit" and even used push pins and string to show the location of the country on the large world map!

If you have already purchased my Christmas Around the World Scrapbook & Craft pack, you can redownload the unit and find the new additions for no extra charge! Just login into your TeachersPayTeachers account, go to My Purchases, search for Christmas Around the World, and redownload the file. The new and improved file will be there waiting for you!

*Note* If you purchased the Christmas Around the World Interactive Slideshow or Informational Text or Christmas Around the World Bundle, I am currently finishing the updates for the slideshow and will post them soon! I will add the updated scrapbook pack to the bundle when I am done the slideshow! Thanks so much!

What Have We Been Up To? Monthly Update

How is it December already?? I swear I was just getting my classroom set up last week. I can't believe it. I also haven't blogged in almost two months.... ugh! Sorry about that! I've had so many good intentions, but life just gets in the way! Oh well, here's a quick recap of some stuff we have done since I last blogged...

We had pumpkin day and costume day. I was the hot dog from the Pop See Ko 2.0 video! (Any Go Noodle fans here??)

I also presented my first solo PD session--Engaging and Interactive Science Ideas! Eeek! I got some positive feedback, so hopefully I didn't come off as nervous as I felt!

We learned about peace, war, and Remembrance Day. We made these scrapbook poppy artworks.

We had report cards and parent teach conferences. We put up a board of all the reasons why we Go Noodle so parents can see why we do it! It's also a place to keep track of our maxed out champs! :)

On December 1st our classroom elf made a visit! Santa delivered a present for us with our elf, the book, voting tags, and elf notebooks (from Mel D's The Ultimate Classroom Elf Kit). We voted and our elf's name is "The Good Elf". So creative. lol

We actually started our Christmas Around the World unit two weeks ago. We have been having so much fun!! We've traveled to Mexico, Brazil, France, Italy, and South Africa.

Each day we fill in a page in our scrapbook, add a stamp to our suitcase, and make a craft to go with it! Here's a look at our poinsettias, tinsel-tail birds, and yule logs! So much fun and a great way to keep the kiddos engaged until Christmas!

I also saw this life-size gingerbread house over at Mrs. Goff's Pre-K Tales and knew that the giant boxes sitting in my basement would be put to good use! I cut the pieces at home, shoved them in the backseat of my little Civic, and then assembled it at school. My kiddos love it! I printed out some decorations to colour and set out some scrap paper/art supplies for my students to make for the gingerbread whenever they have spare time. It's looking pretty cute so far. They even decorate the inside!

We're reading and comparing fifteen of my favourite gingerbread stories this month! It's pretty sad that I have even more than 15 versions though.... I can't help it! I just love the stories! :)

That's about it! We've got two weeks until Christmas break. I have not even started my Christmas shopping yet, so I better get on that soon. Have a happy Monday tomorrow!

A Christmas Conversation Linky Party

I'm linking up with Abby over at The Inspired Apple for her cute Christmas Conversation linky party. Click the picture below to go link up yourself!

Christmas Blast From the Past

Seeing as I'm not in the classroom this year, I feel bad that I don't have any awesome classroom pictures to share with you. So I started going back through my old classroom photos and found some of my Christmas bulletin boards throughout the years. Some of these are from Grade 3/4, 4, and 1. Some you may have seen before and some will be new! Take a look...

Christmas Symme"tree": We made symmetrical Christmas ornaments out of scrapbook paper and hung them on our tree. We also made symmetrical snowflakes!

Christmas Symmetry Faces: I took a picture of the students wearing a Christmas hat (Santa, Mrs. Claus, reindeer, or snowman hat), cut it in half, and had them draw the other half of their face! They turned out super cute!

Winter Pastels: We used oil pastels on blue construction paper to make Christmas/wintry scenes. This would be great to do with some writing! Prompts: What do you like to do in the winter? What do snowmen do when no one is watching?

Tissue Paper Trees: Photocopy a large tree for each student. Use a mixture of glue and water to modge podge tissue paper squares to the tree. Use different shades of green. It's ok to go outside the lines! We cut them out. Afterwards we decorate the trees with glitter glue.

Christmas Post Cards: I had students write a postcard instead of a letter one year. We talked about the parts of a postcard. Then I gave students a list of characters they could write to. This activity is available in my Jolly Letters unit.

Christmas Kindness: On a large light bulb, I had students write a way that they could spread kindness at Christmas time.

Poinsettia Artwork: This lesson was on Deep Space Sparkle. We used sponges to print the poinsettias, gold paint on the pots, and glitter glue to decorate.

Birch Tree Art: I also found these on Deep Space Sparkle. Tissue paper collage background and water colour birch trees. Super pretty, but a lot of work for fourth graders!

Christmas Kindness: Another year, the same writing activity.

Candy Cane Patterns and Christmas Quilt: We coloured candy canes in a pattern and wrote the letter name of the pattern. We also made a Christmas quilt when we were practicing the letter q. You can find the candy cane patterns for free in this post.

Elf Craft: These adorable crafts are from First Grade Blue Skies' Let's Make an Elf pack. We made these with our Grade 4 reading buddies.

Gingerbread Houses: We made a gingerbread house out of brown construction paper, scrap paper, and stickers. Then we wrote a descriptive paragraph about our house. You can get the writing paper for free in this post.

Pattern Trees: This was an adorable craft from Tunstall's Christmas Art Projects pack. We made repeating patterns with coloured shape ornaments.

Stockings: We made these stockings from my Christmas Around the World pack. We used oil pastels to decorate the stockings and added cotton balls at the top to give it the added fluff!

That's it for now! I hope you survive your last two weeks before Christmas vacation! You can do it! :)

Homemade Christmas Advent Calendar

Growing up at home, one of my favourite Christmas traditions was the advent calendar. It was a felt tree homemade by my mom with a variety of felt Christmas tree ornaments that we pinned onto the tree each day. Every morning my brother and I would take turns putting the ornament up on the tree. I'm pretty sure my mom and brother are still putting the ornaments up this year too! :) The last ornament on Christmas tree was always the star for the top of the tree. My brother and I would always take turns being the one to put the star up.

I wanted to start this own tradition with my little family, so I made an advent calendar for us. I know Zoe is a little too young to understand or appreciate it, but it will be here as she gets older. (Plus I have some time on my hands this year... hehe)

First up I checked Pinterest for some inspiration and found {this tree} and {this one} and {this one}. Next I went on a little shopping trip to Michaels and bought some felt, thread, buttons, bows, jewels, number stickers, and ribbon. I had tons of burlap at home from the wedding and a wooden dowel hanging out in the garage. Then I started making the ornaments. I sketched out what I wanted to make, using some of my favourite clipart as inspiration. I cut out felt, hot glue gunned the pieces together, stitched some of the edges, added some embellishments, and finally added a piece of thin ribbon. Here's a close up of all the ornaments I made:

Then I cut out the pieces for the tree. I used a Christmas tree clipart from Ashley Hughes and printed it out poster size. I cut out the different pieces, layered them on the burlap, and stitched around the edges. My sewing skills are not the greatest, but I love the way the bubbled fabric looks. It gives it a three-dimensional look! The hardest part was sewing on 25 buttons. I hate sewing buttons. I am never sewing another button as long as I live. A button fell of your pants? Trash it. We'll buy new pants. Haha JK! Kind of.

Lastly I cut out 2.5 x 2.5" squares of different coloured felt and positioned them on the bottom of the burlap. I sewed around three edges of each square to make a little pocket for each ornament. For the numbers, I found some glittery clapboard number stickers and hot glued them to the pockets. I also stitched around the outside of the burlap piece to avoid it fraying completely. I sewed three red felt tabs at the top of the burlap to stick the dowel through, then added ribbon to hang it!

So there we go! It was a lot of work, but I love how it turned out! I hope Zoe will enjoy decorating the tree as much as I did growing up. 17 more days until Christmas. Woo hoo! We just put our tree up tonight and most of the shopping is done. We've visited Santa and started our RACKs (Random Acts of Christma Kindness). Now to do some baking, head to all those Christmas parties, and enjoy our time with family! Merry Christmas everyone!