Spectacular Secret Santa

During a normal holiday season I have so much to get excited about... Decorating the tree, Christmas light drives, baking cookies, sing alongs, Santa train rides with the kids, and that amazing Balsam Fir scented candle.  This year I had one added thing to get excited about. I participated in the Spectacular Secret Santa!  

I got home one night and found that this had come in the mail. 

I was soooooo excited about this beautifully wrapped package and my daughters (5 and 3 years old) could not understand why this colorful gift wasn't for them.  Sorry kids, it's time for mom to be the surprise(ee) and not the surprise(er).

My Secret Santa (who I never met before) had given me the most perfect gift.  

Yup!! There was Candy Cane ground coffee in there!!!! As well as,  Mr. Sketch scented markers!!!  (Only a teacher can understand how exciting a gift that is).  Also, there was a Vera Bradley cosmetic bag. It's perfect!! 

This Spectacular Secret Santa was a ton of fun and I am happy to have made a new friend who added a bit more excitement to this already exciting time of the year.  Thank you Nicole from All Things Apple in 2nd for my special gift.

Merry Christmas to all the Spectacular Secret Santas!

An InLinkz Link-up

Deck The Halls and Classroom Walls

I just got back from my school's second grade Holiday Concert.  My kids have been practicing so hard and they got all dressed up tonight to perform for their friends and families.  Listening to "Jingle Bell Rock" and "Super Santa"  is exactly what I needed to get me into the holiday spirit.

We've been busy in the classroom "Decking our Halls" with all kinds of holiday fun. I am linking up with Amy at Step Into Second Grade with Mrs. Lemons to showcase some of the exciting things we've been up to these past few weeks.

In Math we are doing all kinds of fraction practice so I changed up an old favorite of mine, "Fractionpillar" and made it into a strand of Fraction Holiday Lights. The kids got to choose any 8 colored lights and filled out the fraction for each color. 

I needed a second hallway craft for the area that is just at the foot of the stairs going up to my room.  For this we did a very simple triangle reindeer.  A couple of traces and cuts and this reindeer is good to go.  

From my TpT Shop: Two Simple Holiday Crafts

To go with these cute reindeer we read the classic "Rudolph The Red Nosed Reindeer" and "The Wild Christmas Reindeer" by Jan Brett.  

When we finished reading both books we did a little Compare and Contrast activity to finish it all up.  These compare and contrast pages are from Detectives Only Book Club by Tiffany Gannon.   

Every year we make something in the classroom that the students can give to their family.  In the past I've done an ornament of some kind but this year we are doing something a little different.  Instead of an ornament we are making calendars.  

The kids illustrated the four seasons in each of the boxes, I laminated them, and attached a 12 month calendar which was a free download one of my coworkers found online.  Voila! I let the kids pick their color background and I had one little guy choose the color "beige, because that's the color of my kitchen where my mom will hang it up." I asked him what the accent color was in his kitchen to liven up the background and he had NO IDEA what I was talking about. Ha :)

Less than 2 weeks until Christmas!!!  

I don't know about you but my little ones at home and at school are starting to be taken over by the excitement.  I found this sign at HomeGoods which for the next two weeks I want to tattoo onto my forehead.  I think it would send a friendly reminder both at school and at home :)

 

By Santa, I mean this little guy. (His sisters got a kick out of this outfit.)