It's been a while.

I haven't posted in quite a while and honestly, it's because I've been a little bit daunted by the amazing things that other teachers are doing. They seem to have much more, time, energy, technological savvy and new and fresh ideas, than I do. But I had a great moment yesterday. We had finished up our gingerbread hunt. (You know how those crazy cookies always run away from the school oven!) And one of my student's said, "You are the best, best teacher, you always have surprises for us!" That moment I realized that we all have gifts to share with our students, and with each other as teachers. Every idea or activity is new to someone and what I love about being an elementary teacher is how willing we are to share any and everything with each other. So remember that you are the best, best teacher and you have all kinds of surprises for your students.

Tube Advent Wreath

This idea is a combination of a bunch of suggestions from other K teacher. First I glued 4 tubes together. The multi-length effect of these tube candles is a result of using 2 paper towel tubes cut so that one part was slightly smaller than the other. (This was totally unintentional but the effect is cool) The kids painted 3 candles purple and 1 pink. When they were dry we added the tissue paper flames which can be pushed down or pulled up depending on the week.
The "wreath" is a paper plate with green hand cut outs. This particular child didn't totally cover his plate but it all worked out.