Weekend Warriors: Holiday Gift Ideas

Can you believe it's almost December!?!  It's amazing how quickly each year seems to fly by.  Just when you think you won't make it to October, it's suddenly time for the holidays and you're worried about fitting it all in before the end of the year.  

I work with a very diverse population of students and so many different holidays are celebrated this time of year.  I like to invite families to come in and teach the class about their own holidays and family traditions to honor the different cultures represented in my classroom.  The common theme throughout has always been the symbol of lights and how they are used in each celebration.

For the past few years, I have focused our holiday gifts on the celebration of the Winter Solstice.  We start by reading the book
by Wendy Pfeffer.
The book lends itself well to many science and social studies standards, too!

Then we create a symbol of light to give our families as a gift!
The Winter Solstice candle...

Here is what you will need:
1) Tree Rounds:  I get them from a Christmas Tree farm!  These are the pieces that are cut off of the bottom of the trunk.  They are usually more than happy for me to take them off their hands.
2) White school glue and a paint brush
3) Tea light candles
4) Star shaped pasta
5) Glitter

Paint the tree round with white glue.

Add glue to the bottom of the tea light candle.

Place the tea light in the center of the tree round.

Sprinkle star shaped pasta around the tea light.

Add glitter!

Once the glue is dry, we add a a gift tag.

You can grab these tags for free here!

What holiday gifts do you give each year?  Comment below or link up with the Weekend Warriors (don't forget to link back to this post!).

Then, hop on over and check out what the other Weekend Warriors have to share about Holiday Gifts below!  

Happy Holidays!

This post contains affiliate links for Amazon. By purchasing an item on the Amazon site using these links, I will receive a small commission on your purchase. 

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Avery & Austin: the #perfectplaydate


Being a mom and teaching full time is a lot of work.  Add blogging, creating, and managing multiple social media platforms and you wonder when you will find time to sleep!  Yet, the thought of giving up any of it would be letting go of something I really love or enjoy so what's a girl to do?  Then I found it.  A way to get some work done and give my kids some quality fun time together!
Avery & Austin is a monthly subscription box and it has totally rocked my world!  Each month, the box arrives at our door with two complete craft kits and snacks for two kids, plus a host gift for me!  (Wait, I get a present, too?! Yes, please!)

This month, I was struggling to find time to get my report cards done in time for conferences.  I tried working on them once the girls went to bed but by that time I was just too tired.  So one afternoon, I pulled out our Avery & Austin box and viola!  I had over an hour of nearly uninterrupted time to work and the girls got to do what they love (create!).  The best part, I didn't have to come up with the craft or gather the supplies.  It's all there!


This month's box included THREE different crafts!  My girls love to paint and I don't let them do it at home nearly enough.  So the camera craft from Woodshop Wizards was perfect!

                     
Look at that concentration!

The other two crafts were perfect for Thanksgiving.  A frame and photo prop for our Thanksgiving decor!


 

I can't wait for next month's box!  It will be great to have something for the girls to do during Winter Break!

Want to get in on the action?!  Sign up for a subscription by December 1st to receive the Winter Wonderland box!  You can get 50% off your first box by visiting the Avery & Austin website here!












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Celebrating Diwali



We love celebrating holidays and sharing traditions in our classroom!  This week, we are learning about the Hindu celebration of Diwali.  This festival of lights is celebrated in October or November and marks the beginning of the new year.


This is my favorite book to use to introduce Diwali to my students.  It's very kid friendly and compares Diwali to Hanukkah and Christmas.  You can find it on amazon, here.

Next, we make our own diyas!  

Students use model magic to create the shape of the diya.

Next, they add these gems to decorate.

Finally, we add a tea light (LED, of course!) and we're done!
This year, we found these super fun color changing lights.

Later this week, we will write about what we have learned.
You can grab this freebie writing page here!

What holidays do you share with your students?


Happy Diwali!

This post contains affiliate links for Amazon. By purchasing an item on the Amazon site using these links, I will receive a small commission on your purchase. 


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