Holiday Time in the Classroom: Frosty Frenzy

Polar Express parties are THE HOTTEST THING... right now on IG and Pinterest.  I of course wanted to do one in my classroom because we are use The Polar Express as a mentor text for mentor sentences this week.

But I realized.... A) Polar Express is not on Netflix or Amazon Prime (boooo!) B) It was close to a two hour movie and C) I usually like to put a spin on things.

So I figured that Frosty the Snowman is a classic, one hour and a few minutes in length and FREE on Netflix.  So my students still get to enjoy some hot chocolate, snuggle with their favorite teddy bear, wear comfy pajamas and watch a fun movie.

I made this flyer up... to add extra hype to the special Frosty Frenzy.

Enjoy the holidays with your kiddos!

Author's Purpose

My students were having a tough time understanding Author's Purpose. I decided I needed a hands-on way that my students could sort persuade, inform and entertain.

Let's be honest.... there's always old Scholastic Book Orders left over. So my students first sorted the mini-passages into the PIE categories.  Then they had a blast in cutting, sorting and gluing the clippings from the book orders.

I also do a STOP! GRAB YOUR BOOK! My students quickly grab their book and I have them tell me the Author's Purpose of their book. Using the sentence frame... The author's purpose of my book is to________. I know this because ( and they give a few reasons why!) This is a quick win-win as a teacher... I get to assess for speaking and listening standards, the other kids get good ideas of what book to read next and it is a perfect way to effectively use those 5 minutes before recess.

Teacher HACKS: #1

When ALL love TOMS as teachers!

My teacher HACKS consist of buying youth TOMS. For example, (I do not have dainty, petite feet) I wear a size 9 in women TOMS and I wear a youth size 6.  The reason, I like buying youth is because they are CHEAPER, have more CUSHION and there are so many PATTERNS you can choose from!!

If my wide, solid caveman feet can fit into a youth TOMS... consider trying them on!!!