How to keep the kids off the ceiling and my Sunday Scoop!

I'm currently sat here watching 'Elf' one of my all time faves! 'The best way to spread Christmas cheer is…' if you can't finish that quote then I don't want to know you!

As we all know, this time of year is amazing hellish in school- the children are far too hyper to produce work of any standard and we are far too worn out to actually plan and deliver a lesson! All we are truly doing is counting down the days until the answer to the following question is no-  'Is it too early to put a DVD on or do we have wait until next week?' You hear me… I know you do!

It is at this point, with almost 2 weeks of term time left, that I try to have some go-to tried and tested activities ready to squeeze in between the endless play rehearsals- obviously we have to get the obligatory cards, calendars and gifts made but if your school is anything like mine where these have to be kept to afternoons and 'real' lessons must continue in the mornings then keep reading!

Having finished our work on The Polar Express last week I decided to eek out another lesson using a super cute craftivity from Megan Astor on TPT. We started off with a picture from The Polar Express of all of the 'Elves' gathered in the town square and a suitably glittered letter declaring that Santa wished to recruit some more. It directed us to hit play on the computer to see what an applicant would have to be able to do.. cue fits of laughter as 6 of the class appeared as elves dancing away to a christmas song curtesy of the super 'Elf Yourself' computer app. The letter then went on to inform the class that all interested parties must 'Elf' themselves and fill in an application form.

This product was so easy to use and well thought out that it basically ran itself- my children were inspired to write for a purpose and had a real giggle while doing so… a 'real' lesson if ever I saw one!

Another activity I am planning to use is the amazing 'Christmas Activities: Reindeer Edition' freebie (yes you read that right!) from First Grade Schoolhouse's TPT store. I am going to link this with a visit to the Reindeer Barn on northpole.com a must visit website for me at this time of year.

This coming week we will be doing our Numeracy assessments and as I have a vast range of abilities in my class, we will be doing them in small ability based groups. This is always a nightmare as the rest of the class need to be doing something worthwhile but easy to manage and oversee.

I have developed this simple Gingerbread Counting Snap & Scoot activity to use for the less able in my class to practise basic counting skills and will be using it this week. It's available in my TPT store now but click on the image to grab it for free here!

I introduced these fun Christmas themed games from Games 4 Learning last week and intend on having them run as an independent activity this week- they are straightforward, no fuss and excellent for lots of calculation practise.

Well I hope that has given you some food for thought- if you have or intend on trying out any of the activities mentioned above then please comment bellow and let me know how you get on.

Now to the Sunday Scoop- I love this link-up with the fabulous Teaching Trio

I know I am not the only one stressing that their little lot are going to be 'THAT' class in the Christmas show!!!! 'God loves a trier' and my goodness these kids are trying even my tone deaf patience! Also, apologies for the lack of apostrophe in 'work's'!!! 

I am pretty sure I'm the only teacher left in the UK who hasn't been to watch Nativity 3 yet- I loooooved the first, second er…so so and I'm hearing that I shouldn't bother with the third but I just can't help myself- I will see it before it gets to DVD! 

Who else loves gingerbread at Christmas? It's the smell that fills the house I love most- yum!

Have a super week y'all