If you are a teacher, you probably love Target just as much as I do!  I LOVE shopping the Dollar Spot and I always find the cutest things for my classroom!  My teammate told me that she was giving her students the Christmas wands from Target to her students for Christmas gifts and I thought it was the perfect idea!  I made a gift tag that goes perfectly with the Christmas wands from Target. 

  So if you haven't been to the Target Dollar Spot lately, right now they have the cutest Christmas items out!  These Santa, Snowman, and Reindeer Christmas wands were just too cute to pass up.  They are only $1 each.  They actually light up when you tap them on something, which I'm sure the kids will love.  I'm going to tell them to use them as pointers while they are reading!  

  To get these tags ready, I just printed them on white cardstock.  I also have a black and white version included in the FREE download.  The black and white versions would look festive printed on green or red cardstock.  I just used my paper cutter to cut the tags in half horizontally and vertically.  Super easy!  Then I used a hole puncher to punch a hole in the left corner of the tag.  I found some festive ribbon, looped it through the hole on the tag, and tied it around the Christmas wand.   

  I included two different options for you to use.  One version says, "Have a WAND-erful Christmas!" and one version says, "Have a WAND-erful Winter Break!"  To grab your FREE download, just click the image below! 

  You might also be interested in these gift tags that you can find in my Teachers Pay Teachers Store!

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Recipe for Teaching

Coverall games are always a big hit with my kindergarten students during math.  They are perfect for my students to play with a partner and can be easily differentiated.  These Gingerbread Coverall games will have your students counting and covering the matching ten frame or numeral on their game board.  They will love trying to cover all of their gingerbread men on the board. 

To prepare this game I printed and laminated the Gingerbread Coverall game boards.  Included are 4 versions of the game: *Ten frames 1-6 *Numerals 1-6 *Ten frames 2-12 *Numerals 2-12 The different versions allow for differentiation to meet the needs of my students.  I also grabbed some dice and counters to use to cover the gingerbread men.  

  To play the Gingerbread Coverall game students either use one or two dot cubes to roll, depending on the version they are playing.  For the 1-6 versions, students roll one dot cube and then cover that number representation on their board. The goal is to cover all of the gingerbread men on the board.

 

For the 2-12 versions of the game, students roll two dot cubes, combine the dots, and cover that number representation on their board.  

  These games make a great math warm-up for your class, independent or partner work, and are great to add to a math station basket.  When I am introducing these games to my students I like to project the game up on my board from my computer and play as a class.  They love to see the game board enlarged on the big screen.  

  To grab your FREE download of the Gingerbread Coverall games, just click the image below to download!

  Looking for more Gingerbread Themed Activities?!?!  Be sure to check out these SWEET ideas from some amazing bloggers!

FROM LEFT TO RIGHT:

Gingerbread Math - Making Five // Mrs. Jones' Creation Station

Gingerbread Pattern Cards // The STEM Laboratory

Science Christmas Ornaments: Long Lasting Gingerbread Ornaments // Schooling a Monkey

Initial Sound Gingerbread Puzzles // A Dab of Glue Will Do

Decorate a Gingerbread Man Art Activity // Mom Inspired Life

Gingerbread Addition Mats // The Kindergarten Connection

Gingerbread Coverall Games // Recipe for Teaching

Gingerbread Man Counting Cards // Sara J Creations

Gingerbread Pre-Writing Strips // Letters of Literacy

Gingerbread Clip Cards // Fun With Mama

Gingerbread 2D Shape Match and Count // Liz's Early Learning Spot

Gingerbread Story Sequencing // DIY Farm Wife

Gingerbread Play Dough// Play and Learn Everyday

Gingerbread House Building STEM // Science Kiddo

Gingerbread Ten Frame Counting Mats // Modern Preschool

Gingerbread Man Busy Box // Teach Me Mommy

Gingerbread Man Sight Word Game // Playdough to Plato

Gingerbread Man Stamping // Simple Play Ideas

Gingerbread Number Line Addition to 12 // Fairy Poppins

Gingerbread Man Addition Cork Board Game // Adventures of Adam

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Recipe for Teaching

So if you are anything like me, you are addicted to the adorable erasers from the Target Dollar Spot!  They make the most perfect math manipulatives for my students.  Target currently has snowmen, tree, and penguin erasers in the Dollar Spot.  I picked up a few bags of each and created a Winter Race Math Game.  This game will have your students spinning and counting to see which eraser makes it to the top first!  It is the perfect match to the Fall Race Math Game.

These are the erasers that I picked up from Target.  They are super cute and festive!

  To prepare this game I first printed it on white cardstock.  I like to laminate the game for durability, but a plastic page protector would also work.  I grabbed a paper clip and pencil to use for the spinner on the game.  I used erasers from the Target Dollar Spot to mark the spots on the graph, but if you don't have them, you could use a dry erase marker or other manipulative as a marking piece.

  For this game students spin the snowman, tree, and penguin spinner using the paper clip and pencil.  To spin, they just put the pencil inside the paper clip and put the pencil point on the dot in the middle of the spinner.  They give the paper clip a flick to spin it.  When the spinner stops, students mark that same spot on the graph using their manipulative.

  Students continue spinning until one of the winter erasers reach the top first.  Some of the ways I like to have my students talk about math while playing this game are: *Counting how many of each eraser they have collected *Counting how many more to reach the top *Counting which has more/less     There are a lot of opportunities for students to discuss math within this simple and fun activity.  This game can easily be played independently or with a partner and would make a great addition to a math station in your classroom.

  Ready for some Winter Race math fun?!  Just click the image below to grab your FREE download! 

  But that's not all!!!  I've teamed up with some of my favorite blogging friends and we are all sharing a Christmas Themed Activity with you!  Hop on over to their blogs to check out their FREE download!

    

From Left to Right:

Have the Target Christmas erasers? 

Have fun counting to 20 with these Christmas Eraser Counting Cards from The Kindergarten Connection. 

Have a blast with blends with these Christmas Tree Blends Puzzles from A Dab of Glue Will Do. 

Don't put those erasers away yet! Spin and graph with this fun Winter Race game from Recipe for Teaching. 

Grab some dice to roll and dazzle your friends with this fun Decorate a Tree activity from Kindergarten Planet

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Recipe for Teaching

We had tons of HOLIDAY FUN LEARNING in our classroom before the Winter Break and I wanted to share some of it with you!

Jingle Bell Math Chat I have blogged about Math Chats before and I just love doing them with my students.  I posted the picture with the jingle bells and then we talked about what my students saw on the picture.  You can see all of the ideas they came up with.  Tons of learning in this simple activity.  

Jingle Bell Problem Solving To go along with the Jingle Bell Math Chat, I brought in a box with 15 bells.  Some of the bells were red and some of the bells were green.  I had my students work to determine how many they thought were red and how many they though were green.  They were able to use red and green cubes if they wanted to help them solve the problem.   I also differentiated this activity by giving some students the recording sheet with 15 bells on it and some students a paper with a blank space to draw the bells independently.  

Gingerbread Cookie Math We decorated gingerbread cookies with icing, chocolate chips, marshmallows, jelly beans, and m&m's.  I had my students record how many of each candy they used.  They ate their gingerbread cookie after decorating and recording the number of candies.  Yum!  

   Student Holiday Gift Tags I gave my students a container of white Play-Doh (thank you Walmart for having Play-Doh for 50 cents a container) as a holiday gift with a tag that said, "Do you want to build a snowman?  Happy Holidays!"  I told them it was "Snowman building Play-Doh."  They were super excited about it!   If you want to use these resources with your students, just click the image below to grab them for FREE!

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Recipe for Teaching

It's the most wonderful time of the year!  I love all things Christmas and I know my students are excited about Christmas! 

 

I recently had my students share what they wanted for Christmas and give reasons for why they should get that gift.  One of my students said that he wanted a vacuum cleaner!!!  I emailed his mom and she said that he wants a real vacuum cleaner!  I just think that is the cutest!     I decided to put a "My List for Santa" paper out at a reading center because I just knew my kids would go crazy for it.  I love activities where they are doing work, but don't realize they are doing work.  This is one of those activities because they think they are just writing a list to Santa, but little do they know, they have to sound out words, write their list, and draw a little picture next to their word.  Lots of work in one little activity and they LOVE it!     The great part about this writing paper is you can use it with your students AND you could also use it with your own kids!  Just click the image to download.  Happy Holidays! 

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Recipe for Teaching

Ugly Christmas Sweater Parties seem to be pretty popular these days!  My husband and I just hosted an "Ugly Sweater" themed Christmas party and I created the invite, as well as printable image to put out as a decoration, using the adorable Melonheadz clipart.  The image below is the set that I used!     I LOVE to bake (which is why I went with the blog name Recipe for Teaching).  I've been baking a lot for Christmas and here are some of the yummy treats we had at the party:

  And here is the printable image that I made to set out as a decoration:

  If you are hosting an "Ugly Sweater" party here is the image I used.  Feel free to use this for personal use for your holiday party FUN!

   I also wanted to include something you might be able to use with your students.  We are having an "Ugly Sweater Day" at school this week and I thought this would be a fun activity for my students to do on that day.  Just click the image below to grab the free download!

 

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Recipe for Teaching