Secret Santa of Kind Words & Five for Friday Freebies!

This week began all things gingerbread in my classroom 

and it's beginning to look a lot like Christmas! We started 

my Catch Me If You Can! unit and since we lost a week

this year between Thanksgiving and Christmas we're doing

a shortened version! With a little pang in my heart, because 

I love this unit so much, I'm having to choose what we 

can and can't do.

We read The Gingerbread Girl and The Gingerbread Girl 

Goes Animal Crackers. I found this ADORABLE 

animal cracker clip art and decided to use it with 

our idioms & opinions activity.

After talking about the meaning of a "tough cookie" 

and a "smart cookie", students wrote their opinions 

on whether the Gingerbread Girl is a tough cookie

or a smart cookie and found events and evidence to prove it.

I *may* have had to intercept a few placements on the chart 

since my kiddos thought it would be hilarious to make the 

dogs and the polar bears sniffing the other animals behinds!

(You gotta' love the 7 year old sense of humor!)

We also read The Gingerbread Man Loose in the School!

This is one of my very favorite books.  My kids love

the graphic novel look of the illustrations and 

I love that it's written with the same rhythm as 

Twas the Night Before Christmas with many 

of the same action verbs which my kiddos were

 quite tickled to point out!

This is the chart we made last year.  To save time 

I drew this little guy on my SMARTBoard, we did the lesson 

and recorded our character traits and evidence all around him.

I have a LOT more gingerbread fun planned for next week! 

You can see the whole shebang from last year 

{HERE} and {HERE}!

On Friday afternoon we did the most precious activity!

Secret Santa of Kind Words....It's the perfect thing for that last

week before the break!

Students picked a classmate's name from a hat and 

wrote words of kindness to them.

I wrote a little poem for them to include inside 

along with a candy cane.I wish I could show you the smiles! 

I always get teary watching their reactions 

as they read the sweetness from their friends.

I just updated this file with templates for secret angels, 

secret buddies, and secret reading buddies.

You can grab this sweet little activity along with 

I Shine When I'm Kind

in my Christmas Kindness Kit in my TPT shop!

Next week my kiddos will come in to these on their desks!

 You can grab this little freebie {HERE}

We also did our Gingerbread Jog this week and
 made gingerbread house folders to organize all of
our projects and learning!

I made these little cuties for my amazing & fabulous, 

couldn't live without them, parent volunteers! 

Did I mention how much I appreciate them?

I found the gloves, lotion, and candy canes at 

Target then made this matching gift tag.

You can download it {HERE}

Be sure to follow my Gifts for Parents, Students & Teachers

and December in the Classroom 

boards on Pinterest for more holiday activities

and gift ideas!

Well there you have it! One week left before break! 

I'm linking up with  Doodle Bugs Teaching 

for another Five for Friday!

Click on the button to head over to see more

holiday happenings!