Tuesday, December 15, 2015

Spread the Joy of Christmas by Playing Pass the Present This Year

Pass the Present

The last week before vacation is always full of special activities in our school.  Classrooms are making crafts, celebrating and having parties.  Teachers are doing Secret Santa, we have sing-a-longs and Christmas movies planned.  It is always a fun week for the students and staff.

An activity that I am planning to do this year is pass the present.  I purchased small gifts, candy and one larger gift to give out to my students.  I put the small gift and candy in a small gift bag.  I wrap the larger gift first.  Then I place a gift bag on the outside and wrap it again.  I do this until all the gifts are wrapped alternating the color of the paper I use. This year I am making 2 of them.  One I am using when I push into Kindergarten and the other with my students who I see in my office.  The present I am using for my office is going to be filled with small rewards (erasers, stickers, piece of candy) and not a gift bag.


When I go into Kindergarten we are going to play pass the present.  We are going to form a large circle on the floor.  I am going to review left and right with the class, then I am going to set a timer for 15-30 seconds.  We are going to pass the present to the left or the right until the timer goes off.  Whoever is holding the present when the timer goes off is going to open the outside layer of the present.  We do this until everyone gets a present.  If someone is absent I plan to take a layer off before we start.

In my small groups I will be using it for the last five days before vacation as a reward at the end of the session. I am going to write numbers on Popsicle sticks.  Each student selects a stick and we are going to open the present from the smallest number to the largest. I am having students unwrap all week until the final gift is selected. Each student will get to open the present more than one time, which is why I am using small rewards. 

Wishing everyone a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year. I hope that 2015 has been a year filled with joy and happiness.







Sunday, December 6, 2015

Feed the Reindeer

Feed the Reindeer

I am a big advocate for interactive therapy activities.  I like my students to be doing something.  I created Feed the Reindeer activities to accomplish that.  This year I am pushing into a Kindergarten classroom and wanted fun phonemic awareness activities. 

Reindeer and carrots for initial /k/ sound


I glued reindeer onto small gift bags.  I cut out a hole for the mouth that the students could feed small pictures through.  I spread the pictures in the center of the table.  Each student selects card and tells the group what it is.  They then tap the word into individual phonemes.  If they select cat, it becomes c-a-t.  They count out how many phonemes and feed it to the correct reindeer.  I like to add a picture of Santa as a wild card.  The student who finds Santa wins.  To keep the game going I mix Santa back in with the cards and we continue playing.  It is always fun to have multiple winners.  This activity is always a hit with my Kindergarteners.  This year I decided to expand it to my articulation students.  They are going to feed the reindeer pictures with their target sounds.  I plan to send the reindeer and pictures as practice.

Until next week, Happy Holidays!


Cathy