My Favorite Holiday Activity

Click image to download Nutcracker freebie.

Ever have one of those activities that's a win-win?  It's something that works so well, you keep bringing it back year after year.

That's how I feel about this one, Tchaikovsky's The Nutcracker.  I've done this activity with second graders for about 15 years now.

Every year, the children have loved this activity, and it practices some valuable skills:  visualizing, summarizing, and sequencing.  Plus, it gives them some exposure to classic holiday literature and classical music!

Come on over to Elementary Matters to enjoy this freebie!  It's one of my favorites!

See Our Seals!

This week, we have been reading "A Harbor Seal Pup Grows Up" out of the Treasures series. This is one of the favorite stories of the kids because the love the little seal, Sidney, in the story.  We have been working on sequencing and plural nouns. Today, I had the kids retell the story in their writing using sequencing words And if you know me, I want to cutesy it up a bit so we made some seal crafts. I think they are adorable and very easy to make.

I also made some simple sheets to go along with the skills of plural nouns and sequencing. Feel free to grab a copy by clicking on the picture.

Have a wonderful Friday!