Saturday, November 1, 2014

Spark Student Motivation: Holiday Themed Ideas

Halloween is over and it's time to think about Christmas! I know that sounds crazy, but if we don't start thinking about it now, it will sneak up on us!

 
 I plan to motivate my students this holiday season by tricking them with meaningful learning activities with a holiday theme! Add a little cuteness to something and kids love it! I'm linking up with some friends for Holidays Around the Blog! Thank you Mrs. Labrasciano for hosting!!
http://mrslabrasciano.blogspot.com/2014/11/holidays-around-blog.html
I want to share some resources I plan to use in my classroom during the next couple months:
Introducing...My FIRST Craftivity I've created!
A Christmas Reading Wreath-template cut-outs for fiction and non-fiction! Your students will love completing this kind of culminating activity after finishing a text! This would also be an excellent take home project for families! 
Special Offer: FREE Fall Reading Wreath Craftivity for Fiction if you purchase the Christmas Wreath and leave feedback before Wednesday!
 
These Stocking Stuffers are from last year's class and are for Brian from Hatchet. What would Brian want to see in his stocking? I thought for sure some students would say cell phones or video games. They came up with very practical items and supported their thinking-Such critical thinkers!!!
(Oops-this one says Brain! haha) I love the insect repellent! Brian gets eaten alive after he crashes. 
The following pages are from  Snowflake Bentley after we analyzed Wilson Bentley, a perfect story for winter. I blogged about this book and additional resources here.  
Look at some of those traits: tenacious and bright with quotes for text evidence! Yay!
The student featured below told me she tried to think "out of the box" with her traits! (so cute)
Mature, tolerant, determined, and honorable (all with quoted evidence). I think they were motivated to do well on this assignment because I told them they could color/outline their gift packages when they finished!  
I display their "GIFTS" in our hallway bulletin board-I love showing off their hard work!
 
In Florida, we don't get to play in the snow, but that doesn't mean we can't have a  SNOWBALL FIGHT!
Snowball fights are a quick way to review for vocabulary! Each student writes one of our vocabulary words with the synonym and antonym on a piece of white paper. (Don't tell them what they're going to do with the paper-they'll just figured you're going to play some sort of review game). Then have them crinkle it up and tell them they're going to have a snowball fight...{insert lots of squeals of delight}.
 Okay, get ready...
 
THROW!
I let them throw their snowballs for about a minute each time. 
I let them throw them several times before I yell, "FREEZE!"
 Then my students open their "snowball" to review their vocabulary words.
We play a few rounds and they LOVE it and then BEG to for more!
 This could be used for any subject matter...a fun, easy, quick, seasonal way to motivate your students! :) 
 

I hope you had a wonderful week! Please link up any lessons, ideas, tips, tricks, incentives, ANYTHING you do get your students motivated or excited!
Don't forget to grab my button and link back to this post!
If you have an idea, lesson, or tip to Spark Student Motivation, please link up here:


If you'd like to see some other holiday themed ideas and lessons, click on these links or link up your own idea:
 

5 comments:

  1. I love the snowball fight idea! It sounds like a lot of fun and a very sneaky way to review.

    I Have 2 Questions

    ReplyDelete
  2. I love the snowball fight idea! I'm always looking for fun ways to incorporate movement into my speech-language therapy lessons! My students will have a blast with this one! Thank you for sharing this idea!
    -Marcie

    ReplyDelete
  3. Great ideas you have shared here dear. I am also going to organize a holiday party for my kid’s friends only, and It will be a themed party. The decoration will be in golden and silver color. I am sure the venue will look great.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Such kind of the activities really make students able to transform every possible fact to which they are going to meet up in the near future. So we must appreciate the teachers for such ideas. paraphrase my essay

    ReplyDelete

Related Posts Plugin for WordPress, Blogger...