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Monday, November 30, 2015

Word of the Day Holidays Around the World and a FREE song:)



We wanted to take this opportunity to share a little bit about our Word of the Day resources.  These resources are a great way for your kids to learn important, relevant, seasonally appropriate vocabulary for each month.  December is a perfect month to give this great program a try as it is solely focused on holidays around the world.  You can get it today and tomorrow on sale here!  We will be focusing on a different holiday each week in this blog post, so be sure and check back for updates.

Hanukkah

Since it is the beginning of December, this is the best time to introduce you to the center of our Word of the Day resources, our Word of the Day Calendar.


These calendars are an awesome resource because they provide a word of the day, interactive student calendars, and a daily math pattern.  Days 3-9 are all about Hanukkah.  





You can  purchase our book about Hanukkah now on sale during the Cyber Smile Sale! This book comes in color and black and white for the kiddos to highlight the holiday words. There is also an acappella  recording of the song.   We will be releasing more holiday books this week so stay tuned. 
For your students:  Hanukkah is a holiday celebrated by the Jewish faith.  It celebrates a time in Jewish history when the Maccabees were at war and their oil was only supposed to last 3 nights.  Instead it lasted 8 and that is why the Jews light 8 candles on a menorah each year at Hanukkah.  They exchange gifts each night, celebrating with latkes, a dreidle game, and family time.  Children win gelt through playing dreidle or will sometimes receive it as a gift from relatives.
Here's a fun, easy, process-based menorah craftivity for your kiddos:
I drew a menorah on the board for the students to copy on their green construction paper.
Then they glued popsicle sticks for the candles.
Next I put glue on each stick and they sprinkled glitter on them for flames. They loved this part:)

For more details, check out our Holiday Fun post

See some other fun ideas for Hanukkah below:


St. Lucia's Day

Another great word of the day product is our concentration game.  A fun, inexpensive way for your kiddos to learn more about holidays around the world.  Click here to buy it now!


For your students: St. Lucia's Day is on December 13 and celebrates Saint Lucy, the patron saint of Sweden.  The girls all dress in white and wear wreaths with candles in them.  They serve cookies and other treats to their families.  One traditional treat for St. Lucia's day is saffron bread.  Boys wear white hats with stars that are appropriately named "starboy hats."  This holiday is meant to bring light in the darkest time of the year.

See this holiday blog feature Pam did in her classroom.  It includes a snippet about St. Lucia's Day.

Here are some more ideas for St. Lucia's Day:




We wanted to take this opportunity to share a little bit about our Word of the Day resources.  These resources are a great way for your kids to learn important, relevant, seasonally appropriate vocabulary for each month.  December is a perfect month to give this great program a try as it is solely focused on holidays around the world.   

Hanukkah

The first resource we want to introduce you to is our Word of the Day calendar.


These calendars are an awesome resource because they provide a word of the day, interactive student calendars, and a daily math pattern.  Days 3-9 are all about Hanukkah.  





You can  purchase our book about Hanukkah or the growing bundle with all 5 holidays!  This book comes in color and black and white for the kiddos to highlight the holiday words. There is also an acappella  recording of the song.   We will be releasing more holiday books this week so stay tuned. 
For your students:  Hanukkah is a holiday celebrated by the Jewish faith.  It celebrates a time in Jewish history when the Maccabees were at war and their oil was only supposed to last 3 nights.  Instead it lasted 8 and that is why the Jews light 8 candles on a menorah each year at Hanukkah.  They exchange gifts each night, celebrating with latkes, a dreidle game, and family time.  Children win gelt through playing dreidle or will sometimes receive it as a gift from relatives.
Here's a fun, easy, process-based menorah craftivity for your kiddos:


I drew a menorah on the board for the students to copy on their green construction paper.
Then they glued popsicle sticks for the candles.


Next I put glue on each stick and they sprinkled glitter on them for flames. They loved this part:)





See some other fun ideas for Hanukkah below:

St. Lucia's Day
Another great word of the day product is our concentration game.  A fun, inexpensive way for your kiddos to learn more about holidays around the world.  Click here to buy it now!  We have lots more great resources for holidays around the world that you can check out here


For your students: St. Lucia's Day is on December 13 and celebrates Saint Lucy, the patron saint of Sweden.  The girls all dress in white and wear wreaths with candles in them.  They serve cookies and other treats to their families.  One traditional treat for St. Lucia's day is saffron bread.  Boys wear white hats with stars that are appropriately named "starboy hats."  This holiday is meant to bring light in the darkest time of the year.


Below are a few pictures of the St. Lucia wreaths and starboy attire Pam does in her classroom:



Here are some more ideas for St. Lucia's Day:

Las Posadas

Las Posadas is a holiday that started in Mexico.  It is now celebrated in Mexico, Guatemala, and a few other South American countries.  The celebration is a time to remember the birth of Jesus and the journey Joseph and Mary took to find a place to give birth.  In spanish, "Las Posadas," means "the inns," which didn't have room for Joseph, Mary and Baby Jesus.  This holiday is celebrated from December 16-24 with parades, piñatas, and other festivities.  Each night a child dresses as an angel and leads the parade through town.  They stop at each house and are refused lodging until they reach the end of the procession.  The poinsettia is a flower used for decoration during Las Posadas.

Here are some ideas for Las Posadas:

Christmas

Christmas is a holiday celebrated around the world in many different ways.  It began as a way to remember the birth of baby Jesus and grew into many different traditions.  Many families have a Christmas tree that they decorate with ornaments.  Kids hang stockings for Santa to fill and he leaves presents under the tree.  Families also give presents this time of year.  Lots of people like to eat candy canes and bake cookies for Santa.

Here are some pictures of activities Pam has done in her classroom:




Here's a summary of our Sugar Cone Christmas Trees:
We had so much fun decorating sugar cones to look like Christmas trees.  You just color white can frosting with green food coloring and frost a sugar cone.   The students also created a snow village on the plate.  We used powdered sugar for snow.

  
These are just a couple examples of the finished products.  This is so much easier than the gingerbread houses! You can use teddy grahams or gummy bears as villagers.  You can also make candy sleds to go on the plate and marshmallow snowmen!



Here are some other Christmas ideas:

St. Nicholas Day

Christmas in Other Countries

Candy Cane Hunt

Christmas STEM



Kwanzaa


Kwanzaa is a holiday celebrated by African-Americans around the world.  Families celebrate from December 26-January 1 and they focus on seven principles: umoja(unity), kuji-chagulia(self-determination or working hard), ujima(working together and being responsible), nia(purpose), kuumba(creativity), imani(faith).  Families have a kinara with 3 green candles, 3 red candles, and 1 black candle.  All gifts are handmade to symbolize the labor of the parents.



Here are some Kwanzaa ideas:

Have your kids pair up and make gifts for one another.  This is a nice way to celebrate unity.

Umoja or unity chain

Video about Kwanzaa

Lots of great Kwanzaa crafts



As a bonus, we also have a Holidays Around the World poem freebie for you.  Hope your kiddos enjoy it!







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Sunday, November 29, 2015

TPT Cyber Smile SALE! and FREEBIE:)

We are excited to share some fun holiday resources with you! And they are all on SALE!



Here are some exciting offers we have for you during the sale!




 31 words to teach your kiddos about holidays around the world.  Includes Hannukah, St. Lucia's Day, Las Posadas, Christmas, Kwanzaa.  Interactive calendars for your students, a journal page, and a math pattern that grows with each day! Just click on the picture above to see more!











 Here's what one of our happy customers had to say about this awesome resource: "Thanks so much for this great resource. I t has really been a great tool for learning new vocabulary and then being able to incorporate it into the writing." 

We have added a cut and paste student calendar with two options for you to customize your class experience.

Here are a few writing examples that my kiddos did in November with our calendar words. As you can see, the words are a great way to keep them on topic      



This is a fun game that assesses your students' knowledge of the holiday words from our December calendar.


One customer had this to say about our Brain Bounce: "Just what I needed to choose for valuable work for the extended reader- thank you" 


 This made a great center for my kiddos! I added little magnifying glasses and told them that they were "word detectives"
Here's what one of our teachers said about our resource: "Loved it. My students had fun trying to find the words."

This fun game includes holiday words from our December Calendar. There is a picture that matches each holiday word.
Here is a comment from one of our satisfied teachers: "Awesome for a station" 

We also have this game that includes these holiday words. Click on the picture to see more:) There is a word and picture to match.
Our resources are great for multiple years.  One of our teachers said "Great for vocabulary activities and is fun! Can't wait to use it again this year in 2nd grade!" 

We also have holiday math products!
Here are some thoughts our customers shared with us:

Some are saying these fun fact family task cards are "PERFECT for centers! Thank you."


"Great word problems. I will be using them as of Monday. Thank you!" 


"My students love SCOOT! Thanks!" 
You will enjoy the fun manipulatives we have included that are a staple for all our Scoot games.

Bestseller

"Thank you, my students really enjoyed this - who knew that practicing math could be so fun?! ;)"

Look out for more of our brand new fun holiday products that we will be announcing here.

We also have units that include our songs and activities. Our Community Helpers unit was in the TPT newsletter and our Five Senses unit was on the TPT blog. Check them out as well as all our fun scoot games that the kiddos love to play!

We appreciate y'all stopping by and looking at our resources. Definitely check out our store and be sure to follow us if you haven't already, so you will be notified of all our new resources and FREEBIES:) 

Enjoy this poem about holidays around the world. 



Smile and Happy Shopping:) 


Saturday, November 28, 2015

Storewide Educents SALE!

Hey all,

We want to invite you to check out this awesome site for educational resources.  The unique feature of Educents is that sellers' prices aren't available elsewhere for less.  You are ensured the lowest price by visiting Educents.  It is a very popular resource amongst homeschool teachers with a limited budget and now through Monday, they are slashing prices EVEN FURTHER.  Our entire store is 20% off.  For Black Friday & Cyber Monday, everyone gets an extra 10% off already discounted educational gifts PLUS free shipping on all orders. We also hope that y'all will follow our store so you will be notified of all our new deals:)


http://www.educents.com/sol-train-learning

Educational Toys & Games | Subscriptions

Curriculum | Musical Instruments Educents Black Friday

Here are some exciting offers we have for you for December:



 31 words to teach your kiddos about holidays around the world.  Includes Hannukah, St. Lucia's Day, Las Posadas, Christmas, Kwanzaa.  Interactive calendars for your students, a journal page, and a math pattern that grows with each day! Just click on the picture above to see more!

 

This fun game includes our holiday words from the December Calendar. There is a picture that matches a holiday word.




We also have this game that includes these holiday words. Click on the picture to see more:)







Scoot games that help your kiddos practice addition and subtraction from 0-20. There are cute manipulatives as well as recording sheets and answer sheets  if you want to use this as a center Lots of Winter fun that will last through December, January, and February!



Didn't find what you're looking for? Educents is offering an extra discount and free shipping on DOZENS of educational products on Black Friday!