Polar Express Centers

Well, I know many of you are finished for the year. However, up in PA we are going strong until December 23rd. Fine by me -because we end with one of my favorite days - Polar Express Day! 

Last week I sent home this letter to parents to let them know their kids are to wear PJs to school on Wednesday. I have been finding a lot of teachers doing a grinch day, something I was going to look into for next year but - change of plans! 

So here is my plan of attack for the week.

Today we read the Polar Express Story. Yes, complete with train tickets. As they had their tickets punched they sat on the train in pairs. Of course I had to wear a conductor hat for the story!

Afterwards we had our Sinterklaas Party. (Hop over to my post on teaching Christmas in the Netherlands.) The ornaments and riddles turned out better than I expected!

Today I utilized my centers to accompany The Polar Express theme. We are only doing two of each center so that a teacher can be with each group. For math we have a roll and color. These combines addition as they roll a dice and then add one to find what number they are to color. 

Then they will complete a marshmallow addition activity. Since the marshmallows are included they need to count and write the correct addends in the addition sentence. 

In the afternoon we completed our literacy centers. The hot chocolate craft is a favorite that I have been using for a few years. The kids love it and it is such a cute way to practice the ch sound. 

Last they will do a read and sequence activity. This center asks them to recall the events of the story and place them in the correct sequence.I worked with them on this center and read what each rectangle said. However, do to the pictures they could really complete it independently! Even better, it shows me they can recognize numbers 1-6 ;). 

As always, my kinders loved their centers time! Today was the perfect way to get in solid teaching time with fun activities.

Later in the day we traveled to Nigeria. To accompany this trip we made Christmas cards for our parents!

Tomorrow I am giving Grinch Day a go! 

And for our final day together we are having our annual cookies, hot cocoa and Polar Express movie. Hang in there all!

Happy teaching!
Kristen