December Memoirs: Christmas Crafts with Kim from For a Love of Teaching

Hey friends!  It's Kim here from For a Love of Teaching, and today I'm going to share with you one of my favorite classroom memories!

It's the most wonderful time of the year!  If you're like me - you're singing that in your head now! However, for a teacher that last week of school before Christmas break is not always the "most wonderful time of the year"! Something happens to students that week before break.  You can literally feel the excitement in the air!  Pair that with all the festivities, special programs and anticipation of Santa coming, and you've got one geared up, wild bunch of students!  At this point in the year, they are ready for a break and teachers are, too!  By the end of this last week you can forget keeping them focused very long on a meaningful content lesson.

In upper grades, we don't spend a lot of time doing the fun "cutesy" activities that you might see going on if you enter any primary classroom.  Due to testing requirements, pacing guides and quarterly benchmarks we don't always have time for "the fun stuff."  However, I always use this last week before Christmas to do special Christmas crafts with my students.  I've always been "crafty" by nature, and any sort of hands-on craft catches my attention quickly!  What I like most about doing crafts with my students is the uniqueness that shines through with each individual product.  You can literally see their personalities in the special ornaments or crafts they make.  In turn, these make wonderful keepsakes for themselves and their families.

Making Christmas ornaments each year with my students is a classroom memory that I cherish, and hopefully my students cherish, too!

This year I chose to make a version of a Christmas tree craft ornament I saw on Pinterest.

This craft is fairly simple to make with upper grade students, but it involves some prep time. I thought I'd give you a "how-to" in case you'd like to make these special keepsakes with your class one year! Below are the items you need to make this craft.

You will need a high-temp glue gun to make sure these ornaments last for years! I do this craft in groups of 4-5 students, and I'm always the one in charge of the hot glue gun.  Students are not allowed to apply the glue on their own!

Final Product!

That's it! A 4th grade Christmas keepsake that will hopefully be treasured for years to come!  I hope this tutorial comes in handy if you decide to try this with your class. :)

Click here to download the gift tags I used for this project!  FREE!

*Note: The original idea (found on Pinterest) used cinnamon sticks instead of tree branches.  The cinnamon sticks I found were costly, so I opted for the cheaper way out and used tree branches instead. 

Thanks for sticking around to read all about my favorite classroom memory!  What's a cherished classroom memory that you have with your students?  I'd love to hear what you do around the holidays in the classroom!