December Memoirs from My Family to Yours!

Welcome to another day of December Memoirs here at Upper Grades Memoirs! My name is Jennifer Smith-Sloane and most of the time you can find me over my blog 4mulaFun. 

December to me is a time for family, traditions and making memories and always has been since I was a little girl. I grew up loving the Christmas season and all that was in store each year. We always put up our tree after Thanksgiving and decorated it full of ornaments. Now that my husband and I are making our own traditions we have started to go and cut down our tree as I never did that growing up although he did.

Besides decorating it with our ornaments each year we do switch out on our lights that go on the tree. I am a WHITE LIGHTS kind of girl but he is all about the COLORED! HAHA! We decided last year that we would switch each year so that we could each get our favorite.

And another tradition that we have is that we alternate spending Christmas Day (well actually the week of Christmas) with our families since they live 700 miles apart (Dallas, TX to Omaha, NE). This is an Omaha year which means I am on the road to see my in-laws. Thankfully we have rented a hotel this year and I hope to do some work in the car on the way there but we all really know that means take as much of a nap as possible!

Here's to hoping I get to play in some snow while I'm in Nebraska. There is an 80% chance for rain/snow tomorrow (Tuesday)!

December Memoirs: Friendship cards, holiday mugs, and a whole lot of love!

There is so so much going on in my classroom this December! We have gift exchanges for the teachers and students, door decorating, standards left to teach, and end of the quarter testing. It's a crazy balancing game getting it all done! 

The Actual Teaching

My students finished a project at home where they create and decorate a tree to bring into class. Many brought Christmas trees, but my favorite was a very creative palm tree! Not all of my students celebrate Christmas, so this was a great activity that every student could do their own way. This week we are doing two writing assignments about the amazing tress they made! You can check out the specifics on how to do this activity on my blog.

Gift Exchanges

My class is participating in two gift exchanges this year. The first one is just our class, and each student is making a Friendship Card for the secret person they drew from a jar. This is my favorite holiday project because the supplies cost me less than $5 total, and they don't have to buy or bring anything to participate! 

The next gift exchange we're participating is with two other classrooms. Each student is bringing a mug and filling it with goodies. It's exciting to see what creative things students fill the mug with! We exchange the mugs during our holiday party, where we use them to drink hot chocolate. Yum!

Door Decorating

Every year at my school we have a fierce door decorating competition. There are a lot of Pinterest-worthy doors; none of those doors are mine. Each year, I have my students pick a theme and they make all of the decorations. I haven't won yet, but my students enjoy being such a large part of the process. This year was by far my best student-created door.

 

I have to say that the most exciting part of this holiday season is how much work my students put into creating! This is by far my hardest working group of kids!

What are you doing in your classroom for the holidays? Share in the comments below!