A 12 Days of Christmas Giveaway!

Farley has teamed up with others to host a big giveaway. Don't miss out on the fun...Check out her blog for all the details! :)

Spread the Sunshine!

These sweet bloggers...





Gave me this sweet award...



And now, I'd like to pass it on. Here is how to play along...

One. Thank the person who gave you this award and write a post about it.
Two. Answer the following questions below.
Three. Pass the award along to some fabulous bloggers and let them know about it.

The questions are...

What is your favorite color? Pink and Blue!
What is your favorite animal? I'm a total dog lover. Like, big time.
What is your favorite number? 1
What is your favorite drink? Any type of delicious punch, you know, the good stuff they serve at wedding and baby showers! Preferably of the fruity ginger ale variation! :)
Do you prefer Facebook or Twitter? Twitter, but love blogs the most.
What is your passion? FAMILY, and of course teaching!
Do you prefer getting or giving presents? Giving
What is your favorite day? Sunday

I am passing this award on to some of my favorite teaching blogs.

A Teaching Life: Her writing inspires me to become a better writer!

Life is Better Messy Anyway: She cracks me up, and she is an awesome, creative teacher!

A Time to Share and Create: She is wonderful, and full of wonderful ideas.

A Little Christmas Convincing!

I love being able to teach with Christmas themed materials! Have I said this before? I looked through our curriculum guide and the TEKS (Texas Standards) and picked out a few subjects the would integrate well with Christmas. I love doing this because I feel like the kids remember it better when it comes time to reteach or review.

So, today we began our first project! I wanted to begin teaching persuasion. We talked about persuasion in advertising and the tactics used.

Persuasion Chart


Then we watched Christmas commercials on this You Tube video and discussed the vocabulary on our chart. ("appeal to audience" is a hard concept, so I had to go over that a bit!)



Then, after our discussion. We moved into a writing activity. We talked about all the things we would need to do to try to persuade Santa Clause to bring us a particular gift. It was perfect for discussing ways to "appeal to your audience"...The kids were naturally great at coming up with ways to appeal to Santa by connecting what they already know about him! --Infering and Connecting! Love.


(PS-I think my Santa looks more frightened that jolly :))

Both anchor charts together...



We discussed beginning the letter by introducing ourselves, etc. By then, we had plenty of ideas to begin writing our letters! We finished our rough drafts, and tomorrow we will publish them and mount them on little decorated stockings. I am so ready to get some Christmas Kid Art up in my room!