Nuttin' for Christmas

The elementary school I'm student teaching at right now does a "Sing Around the Tree" program 4 times before Christmas. Every grade performs a couple of songs, a few teachers perform songs, and the whole school sings along to Christmas songs together. At faculty meeting a few weeks ago I signed up to be a part of this holiday activity and they assigned me to sing a solo! I decided to get my 6th graders involved, even though they were already singing two songs. I sang "Nuttin' for Christmas" and my kids posed for a picture for each line of the song earlier in the week. I made a slideshow of the pictures and then showed it on the giant screen while I sang for the whole school. Everyone loved it and now my students are famous!! It was a pretty funny slideshow...they were so creative! (Click here for a link to the words.)

There really is no place I'd rather be during the holidays than in an elementary school. Tomorrow I'm planning a Polar Express day and we're going to watch the movie with blankets, pillows, hot chocolate, and donuts, AND do lot's of fun Polar Expressy activities that I have yet to plan. (The students were mad that the school didn't allow them to watch the Grinch or Elf so I am trying to make it as fun as possible for them to watch the Polar Express). We're also doing a service chain. My students wanted to make a Christmas chain (you know, like the one you make in kindergarten) so I decided to do something good with it. Everytime a student does an act of service for another student or to help in the class, they can take a link off the chain. They briefly write what they did on the chain and then put it on a service poster. When the chain is done, there is a bag of candy at the end that I'll cut open like a pinata! Thanks momma for the fun idea - the students are starting to catch on. I love seeing them serve each other! Anyways, here are some of the pictures of my awesome students...