Christmas Time

It is finally beginning to look a lot like Christmas. I love snow and I want more snow as long as I don't have to drive in the stuff. Well I just wanted to wish everyone Happy Holidays.

I am currently in the process of finishing my basement which should be complete in just a few weeks (Around the first week of January) I can't wait until the chaos of construction is finished. After the basement is complete I will be starting tutoring groups for kids. I am focusing the group work on social and communication skills. I will also be working on academics more on an individual basis. I can't wait. I have a friend that is going to paint a jungle with animals in my tutoring room. I am excited to get everything set up. Happy Holidays, Peace, Love, and Joy! 

Ho Ho Ho

Several years ago we painted wooden signs that said "Ho Ho Ho" These were gifts for the parents. Each word was a different color one was red, one was green, and one was white. I was trying to figure out who hadn't painted all 3 colors. One of my 2nd graders said "I need a white Ho" "I need a white Ho" the teachers all laughed so hard luckily the kids never knew why we thought that was funny.

Graham Cracker Houses

Last year we made graham cracker houses for the first time. I will admit I was very skeptical about this activity but it became one of my favorite memories from teaching. I sent home a letter with various candy items and told the parents that if they could send one item with their child that would be helpful for making our graham cracker houses. The teachers hot glued the graham crackers together. You could also have the kids use Royal Icing to make their own but this takes time and patience. Then with Royal Icing (very stiff frosting there are recipes on the Internet) in Ziploc bags with a tiny slit in the corner so that it becomes like a frosting bag the students begin to decorate. We let them plaster as much candy to their houses as they wanted.

Ceramics

I have discovered a love for ceramics. Each year our class made ornaments for their family Christmas tree. The last 2 years we made ceramic ornaments. There are 2 ways to do this activity. One you can buy clay roll it out and use cookie cutters of things like Christmas trees, stars, gingerbread men, candy canes, and angels. Let the clay dry and fire the clay in a kiln. Most schools have kilns or you can take your project over to Patty's Ceramics in Provo and she will fire your project for you. The other way to complete this is to go to Patty's Ceramics or another ceramic store and you will find little ornaments for around $1.00. Then the kids can paint or glaze the decorations. If you paint with acrylics you will not have to fire the ornament in a kiln. The glaze does require firing. I enjoy watching the kids paint because they use their own creativity. Sometimes the Christmas trees end up pink or the gingerbread men end up blue and that is great because it represents the child that painted the ornament.