Christmas Crafts

Here are some of the Christmas crafts that we made in December.  My favorite is the large elves using the kids' faces.  They really made our hallway happy!  I wish I had taken a photo of the hallway display of them, but I didn't.  Our tree was decorated with ornaments that the kids colored on the hot pad to make the crayon melt as they colored.  They also made the "lights" on the tree.  Each light bulb had a letter of the student's name to create a light strand.  It turned out really cute!  

Hanging on our art wall in the hallway were the mini elves with the kids' faces and their reindeer.  They used the hot pad again to color the elves.  Too cute!!!

I found all of these ideas on Pinterest!  

Next we made the Grinch.  I found pictures of these on Pinterest but couldn't find a pattern, so I just made up one! With the help of sweet Elizabeth and the construction paper copier, we were able to print these babies out!   I LOVE these!  I love how even though they kids had all the same "parts" of the Grinch to assemble, their little personalities show through with how they put them altogether. Precious!  

The last week before Christmas break we watched the old cartoon version of "How the Grinch Stole Christmas" using my projector and white board. (I can't wait until the Promethean is installed!)  After watching it, the students wrote how they would "make the Grinch grin".  We attached it to the bottom of the Grinch craft and "waaala" ~ a masterpiece!

The last thing that we did was listen to the song "You're a Mean One Mr. Grinch".  Afterward, we brainstormed adjectives that could describe the Grinch.  Here's the sheet that we completed afterward.  I got it off of Pinterest as well!  

                                             

Source: petersons-pad.blogspot.com via Tina on Pinterest

Teal Ridge Christmas Carols

Our first trip to Teal Ridge was so precious that we decided to go back and sing Christmas carols.  What a neat way to teach students how to serve and be like Jesus!  They did a super job!  Mrs. Tobey is such a great music teacher!  We are so blessed!  You can see the photos below and watch the video of two songs that I recorded.  You can tell that the students brought great joy to the residents by the smiles on their faces.  

Christmas Play

Here are some pictures from the dress rehearsal for our Christmas play.  It was so adorable!  The students worked hard and my little angels did a fantastic job!  It's great to be at a school where we can celebrate the birth of our Savior!  We are indeed blessed!

A Visit From an Author!

We had a wonderful visit from John Brooks,  the author of the book series Bobby Bright's Christmas Heroics.  He is also the "voice of OU" (so I am told).  I haven't read his book, but it sounds very interesting.  It is about a light bulb on a Christmas tree that comes to life and makes all kinds of mischief.  The students were mesmerized by his voice.  (I wish I could speak that way so that they would be just as captivated by me!)   His book was illustrated by some of the artists that did popular Disney movie illustrations.  It was cool for the students to actually see an author, since we talk about "the author of the story" all the time.  It was also neat to see and hear how the illustrations were made.  If you didn't get to order a book and are still interested, I believe you can order them from the school at a discounted price.  Here are some pictures from that day!  Enjoy!