Making the Next Three Weeks Count

It's that time of year again, magic is in the air!  All our students can think about is Christmas!  And, quite frankly, that's about all I can think about, too! Even before Pinterest was the twinkle in some crafty person's eye, teachers had tons and tons of hand-made items for our students to assemble out of construction paper, googly eyes and more Elmer's glue than the school supply bin at Wal-Mart in August.  We have all kinds of great things our kids could dump glitter and sparkles on!  And while it's tempting to tell ourselves our kids won't remember anything we teach them now anyway, we do need to keep teaching--and here are a few reminds why.

1) Every day is one more opportunity to prepare our kiddos for life.
Like most teachers who have students in grade-levels that will be taking state assessments this year, I am constantly thinking about preparing my 3rd Grade reading students for STAAR, the "big test" in Texas.  And while I'm not positive the students I see once or twice a week will retain much of what I teach them about comprehension and decoding these next few sessions, I do have the opportunity to teach them a few life lessons, like persistence, responsibility, focus, oh, and time management.  It would be really great if we could all just sink into a holiday coma for a few weeks but, just like each of us, our students still have work to do.  We need to teach them that the normal responsibilities we have each day don't freeze in time just because a major holiday is coming up.  Most of the world doesn't get a two week holiday like we do, in fact, a lot of people only get one day (if that!) so we need to keep working, too!  But, we can play some Christmas music in the background, just to change it up a bit! ;0)
2) Christmas literature is WONDERFUL! We can continue to build life-long readers through great holiday stories.
There are so many amazing Christmas books (assuming you still work in a school district that lets you read them, like I do!) that incorporate great comprehension skills.  One of my favorites is Harvey Slumfenburger's Christmas Present by John Burningham.  It's sort of similar to Arthur Christmas, in that one present doesn't get delivered but it is a great writing prompt because we never find out what the present was!  What a great way to teach students about predictions and give them an opportunity to write.  I also love Auntie Claus by Elise Primevera.  Every year I find someone to co-teach it with.  It's a great story full of mystery where students can infer Auntie Claus's true identity.  It's also a great read-aloud because it lends itself so nicely to awesome character voices.  If you haven't read these two books, check them out.  I think you and your students will really enjoy them.
3) "Magic" can be incorporated into all subjects!
Do you remember what it was like to be a child those few weeks leading up to Christmas?  I certainly do.  Everyday seemed to last a week!  My parents always tried to make each day count with something special and magical, like making cookies or going caroling.   We have the opportunity to spread some of that magic and cheer into our lessons as well.  Teach a science experiment that has to do with winter, or freezing, or whatever you can come up with to incorporate what's going on in "the real world" into your curriculum without stepping away from the core content too much.  Do some Elf math problems!  If Santa needs to get 60 presents to Toronto in 2 hours, how fast will he have to go and how big will his sleigh need to be if the area of each present is 2.5 feet? Let your kids write their own Christmas themed math problems! If you are lucky enough to put up a class Christmas tree, forget the stand and see what your kids can come up with as a solution.  Give some geographical clues about where Santa is headed and see if the kids can come up with the town, state, country or continent.  There are a lot of ways to spread the Christmas magic into every content area with a little bit of planning, you just have to remember what it's like to be a kid at Christmas!
4) All that sparkles isn't covered in glitter!
I absolutely love it when my daughters make me an ornament, especially if it has their handprint or footprint on it.  I definitely think that students need time during the holiday season to be creative and make something special for their families. That being said, I also love it when my first grader brings home a story she wrote about our family, even more so if it is illustrated!  I love it when her teacher emails pictures of what she was doing in class, especially when it's something authentic and hands-on.  And, since my daughter is in a one-to-one iPad classroom, I love it when I see something amazing she has worked on with her group of classmates that incorporates an application or website where she can be creative and still apply the content of the curriculum to whatever she is working on. While it is tempting to haul out the Holiday word searches, color-by-numbers, and word-sort worksheets, please don't use Christmas as an excuse to knock Bloom's back into the dark ages.
5) If you don't use these three weeks wisely, you'll probably be wishing you had them back in a few months!
How many times have you ever said, or heard a colleague say, "Boy, I just don't know what I'm going to do with all of this extra time I have! My kids already know everything in this unit, I've covered it all completely, and the curriculum writers built in so much extra time, I'm going to have to scrounge up something else to incorporate!" Uhm, never! We never say that because there's always too much to cover, too much to reteach, and too much to squeeze in!  So, if we don't continue to teach to our fullest these three weeks (and pray that our little friends are focused enough and ENGAGED enough to stick the information in their brains where it can be retrieved again!) we are essentially giving up at least three weeks from the spring to go back over what we were supposed to have taught these three weeks.  And, let's not forget, teaching means a transfer of knowledge, so it isn't enough to just SAY the information, the knowledge has to actually transfer. The only way that is going to happen is if we get creative and find some fun ways to teach our students at a high comprehension level with authentic hands-on activities, like technology projects, writing assignments that allow them to choose a topic of their own interest to research and report on,  and real-world problem solving.
We all know that this is a difficult time of year to be a teacher  The kids are excited, we're both excited and exhausted, and we worry that our students just won't retain anything when they finally return after New Year's. Let's continue to work hard, encourage each other, and try to do something magical each day that will really give our students the opportunity to stretch their minds.   It really is the most wonderful time of the year so let's spread that wonder into the curriculum as well!