Holiday Lesson

During the Cyber Monday sale, I shared a unit from my cart.  The Great Reindeer Rebellion by The Bubbly Blonde. This past week I was able to dive into holiday themed learning.

To engage students, I read Rudolph the Red Nose Reindeer.  As each character is introduced, we charted their characteristics.  Before reading the end of the story, I asked the kids which of the below listed reindeer was their favorite based on characteristic.  

Cupid {sure-footed}, Comet {fastest}, Donner and Blitzen {twist and turn with ease}, Dasher and Dancer {biggest and strongest}, Prancer and Vixen {smoothest landing}, Rudolph {guide}

After we finished reading, I asked the kids to "turned and talked" about why they connected to the character  selected.  During this discussion, I had students graph their data.  What a remarkable graphing and data analysis math lesson!!!

I began our studies of reindeer/caribou with Gladys' unit, Reindeer Magic.

She always does a magnificent job with incorporating vocabulary, easy readers, and graphic organizers in her units!  

I found a great resource online to help build background of caribou. Link here!

To build on our persuasive studies, I used Alisha's The Great Reindeer Rebellion Literature Unit.  She provides story vocabulary and fantastic organizers to compare and contrast the reindeer in the rebellion to caribou. 

I had some troubles getting the book to class before the holidays so I went to Barnes and Nobles online and purchased their book through Nook.  It's sooo cheap!  $4~   I don't have a nook but I do have an iPad.  With apps available, you can download the Nook app and read through your iPad or iPhone.  Cool Right?  In October I purchased a neat $29 dollar VGA-Adapter from the Apple Store.  {I use this anytime I cannot find books in print.  LOVE, LOVE, LOVE!}  This will allow you to project from your iPad or iPhone through a LCD projector!  You can click the image below to link.

 

With an already strong understanding of elements in persuasive {we've been working on this for a few weeks}, many students did a wonderful job at convincing Santa to hire their caribou for the job.  I had to share one of my little guys cute paper...all he wants to do is eat cookies with Santa.  Ha! So Honest!!

Happy Teachings!