I always start with Jan Brett's "Wild Christmas Reindeer" and this year's group had so many questions about why the reindeer in this story had different and funny names? Where is Dasher and Dancer and all the other ones? That wasn't the conversation I was planning on....but OK I'll roll with it. Eventually I just said that this is a very old story so these reindeer were around before Blitzen and the others we usually hear about. So naturally the next question was, "Are they dead now?" Luckily, my unsure, "I don't know" was enough of a response. Even with all of that, I love reading this story about Teeka working to prepare all the "weird named" reindeer. So I hope my little tale hasn't deterred you from this book. It's a good one. It's by Jan Brett, how could it not be good?
We made these fun reindeer
And of course, Reindeer Week wouldn't be complete without including Rudolph! Look at this book...it's old! Probably born in the 70's just like this teacher! I think I have had it since I was little. There are so many versions out there, but I'm partial to this one.
I remember as a kid wondering- what are all these reindeer games that these reindeer are playing? And why are they so mean to Rudolph? So now, I ask my students the same questions. We make a circle map (forgot to snap a picture of it!) of what Reindeer games we think they play and the ideas they have always make me smile. And we talk about how it feels to be left out. Always a good little chat to have to remind everyone to be kind.
Then they get to name their own reindeer and write one reindeer game from the circle map:
Please notice we have a reindeer named Psy...as in the Gangnam Style Psy. Also notice the sun and grass in every picture. Clearly we haven't done our weather or habitat units yet. These little Southern California friends, are just like their teacher, we think "cold" is when it is 60 degrees outside.
And then there's this little friend who copies the words from the middle of the circle map...oh well. The sentence still makes sense and I love her illustration of the checkers game (or is it Connect Four?):
We made reindeer hats, a reindeer sandwich (yum!) and a class book about what we would do if we were reindeer.
We also played this sight word game:
All of these items are in my TPT Unit. Just click {HERE}
Happy Saturday everyone!
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