Day 6 of My 12 Days of December is totally FREE!!!

 FREE Center Signs to Brighten Your Classroom:

Let everyone know how important Center Time is with these bright signs. The colors pop even more if you copy them onto cardstock and  laminate them. 

You can grab the entire set of 10 signs by CLICKING HERE! Then, check out the other 20+ FrEeBiEs in my TpT Store. 

See y'all tomorrow for more! 

Day 5 of My 12 Days of December

 Teachers Have Discovered This Set:

It has become my newest BEST SELLER & it's ON SALE TODAY!

AND check out my other FREEBIES on TpT!

Your students will LOVE tracing ONLY the focus letter 

on each page with a colored marker and then, counting 

how many letters they traced! 

By tracing ONLY the focus letter, they have to really think and analyze each letter. And having them count the letters they traced integrates a bit of math into this fun activity. 

I used these poems, which are filled with alliteration and have a rhyming text, to label each pocket of their alphabet book.

We placed all of our work about each letter in each pocket. 

I did divide the book up into 4 parts of 6-7 pages to keep it manageable. 

You can grab this entire set by 

CLICKING HERE. 

Did you know that DJ Inkers is also having a 12 day sale?

Check out what they offer each day by 

CLICKING HERE.

See y'all tomorrow for Day 6!

Day 4 of The 12 Days of December: Give YOURSELF These Gifts:

You Do So Much For Everyone All Year Long. 

Here are 3 ideas to make your career better!

1.  FREE:  Save hundreds of hours in your classroom and ESGI will donate to the Make A Wish Foundation too! Grab your FREE 90-day trial when you sign up for your FREE trial (no credit card required) when you use my code: PALMAWISHES

CLICK HERE

to grab this FREEBIE

I am a huge fan of ESGI and I would not teach without it! 

2.  Have you heard about The California Kindergarten Association?

They host an amazing conference in Northern California every January and members get to view virtual webinars at a super low price throughout the year! You can join CKA and you can find more info about their upcoming conference by...

CLICKING HERE

I will be presenting at this conference along with 

these amazing presenters: 

3.  Make everything in your classroom cuter, from bulletin boards to worksheets, to go-home notices with graphics from DJ Inkers. They are having a huge SALE right now and they also have FREEBIES available too! 

CLICK HERE

to see their SALE & FREEBIES

I hope you get EVERYTHING you want for the holidays! 

See you all tomorrow for DAY 4 of the 12 Days of December. 

Day 2 of My 12 Days of December

You Can't Have Too Much Fun With The Gingerbread Man!

From tracing numerals with colored glue...

to re-telling the story of the Gingerbread Man... 

There is just soooooo much FUN you can have learning with the Gingerbread Man!

We started by making a book:

Click on the image.

The students illustrated 4 major events from the story as I read the rhyming text to them:

Students traded the dotted font and illustrated the scene.

On the next page, they traced the giant numerals with colored glue.  Just add food coloring to bottles of white glue and shake!  You will want to use glue bottles that are not full so you have room to shake the glue around.

This is what a glue tracing page looks like.

Tracing the numbers slowly with colored glue really helps them to understand the formation
of the numeral.  When the glue dries, it creates a raised font which is tactile and colorful. 

The Gingerbread Man Number Formation Book:

All of the fonts, borders, and graphics are from DJ Inkers & they are having a GR8 SALE right now! CLICK HERE to see all of their goodies!  

How about teaching about "settings" with the 

Gingerbread Man Book of Settings Class Book Cover:  IT'S FREE!

And it has more graphics from DJ Inkers!

Your students create a setting on the computer and glue a paper gingerbread man to their scene to create a class book.

We followed up by making character puppets and a "setting" envelope:

We colored and cut out the main characters and glued them to popsicle sticks.

Students re-telling the Gingerbread Man story with their setting envelopes.

Then, we made a setting envelope by drawing the inside of the house and the oven on the front of the construction paper envelope and the river on the back of the envelope.  The setting envelope was the perfect place to store our characters.  You can see the blue setting envelope in the photo below.

Developing oral language as we "turn and talk" asking questions about the story.

And Check Out This Cute Descriptive Song About The Gingerbread Man:

Click the image 

This is a cute descriptive song about the gingerbread man by my friend, Dan Colquhoun.  He lives in Australia and writes the cutest songs for kids.  This one is a great one to use when you are preparing for descriptive writing. You can hear his song and watch the animated gingerbread man by clicking HERE.

We also made gingerbread ornaments out of clay:

We cut them out with a cookie cutter and the children decorated them by using the tip of a pencil to create a face, buttons, and icing lines.  If you don't have a kiln at your school, consider using air-drying clay.

After we glazed them with clear glaze, we added pretend rhinestone sticky-back eyes and a ribbon.

We wrapped them up in a laced envelope and sent them home as gifts for our families.

Grab This Gingerbread Man Play:

Check out this cute Gingerbread Man play from my friend, Heidi, from Heidi's Songs.  It's a fabulous Gingerbread Man play! You can get more info by clicking HERE.

Click the image

See y'all tomorrow for Day 3!

Day 1 of My 12 Days of December:

Start & End the Month With This Question:

All of these CUTE graphics are from DJ Inkers and...

            they are having a huge SALE right now!  

                           CLICK HERE to see their sale.

Click the image above. 

 I start every unit with an opinion graph. Then, we end the unit with the same graph to see if your opinion changed.

My holiday unit starts with this question and I use these icons to create a class graph. Students add their photo or just their name on the graph. Here are the icons. The sign and the set of icons is only $1. 

CLICK HERE TO GRAB THIS SET.

This is also a GREAT way to get students to 

write an opinion piece. 

They get to explain WHY they chose that character. 

CLICK THE IMAGE to grab this writing set.

At the end of the unit, we also had them 

choose again 

and most students had changed their mind!

To make this even more fun, 

I have a reindeer antler headband,

a huge gingerbread man cut-out

(where they hold it up & look through the hole for the face),

an elf apron & cap, 

and a snowman cut-out.

So I was able to take their photo all dressed up and attach it to their writing.