Teacher Feature Sunday: Volume 17 (5 Holiday Hacks so You Can Enjoy Your Break!)

 

You are almost there! Just a few more days left to go and you will get to turn off that alarm for the next week or so and simply enjoy the peace and quiet (or as I like to call it P&Q). However, we both know that before that can even be a twinkle of a thought we still have to get through this week ahead without too many glitches getting in our way. We here at Lesson Plan Toolbox decided what better way to help teachers than to share our 5 teacher holiday hacks that saved us so much time and had us prepared for starting break as soon as the last bell rang on Friday!


Teacher Holiday Hack #1: 
Thank You Notes
! I work in a school where students are known to bring you gifts as we head into the winter break and they are always sooooooo excited! That said, there are many students that want to bring a gift but simply can't, and you can often see the disappointment in their eyes. Obviously, I LOVED all of my students and appreciated the gifts but they certainly weren't necessary. However, for a few years I foolishly would only write thank you notes to the students who brought me gifts because that's what all of the teachers did in our building. Finally, one year it dawned on me, "Lauren, write out thank you cards to all of your students for being members of our community. If you receive a gift, then address it in the card." Gamechanger! I can't even tell you! I would write the cards out over the weekend or throughout the month and they would be all ready to go that last week of school. When students went to art class, I would quickly open what was there and write a brief note in the card. On Friday afternoon as we would pack up our things, I would pass out each card with a candy cane and a new box of crayons (bought on sale during the back-to-school season!) They LOVED it and I didn't have the stress of thank you notes because the bulk of the work was done! 

Teacher Holiday Hack #2: Oral Assessments! Yes, this is the week that when I had to give a grade, it was through oral assessment. It could be students retelling a story, answering a certain number of math problems, spelling sight words, or reviewing phonics sounds. I loved this because I didn't have a mountain of papers to grade and my students loved it because they got one-on-one time with me at the teacher center (my desk). Simply have a rubric prepared ahead of time for the content you are assessing. The rest of my students would work at centers which they loved!


Teacher Holiday Hack #3:
Polar Express! Beginning in early December, our class would travel to different places throughout the world and learn about what holidays are celebrated in December. Picture books are a great way to do this (see Teacher Feature: Volume 16 for suggestions). Our last stop would be the North Pole. We would use both fiction and nonfiction books to learn about the North Pole, so on Monday of the last week we would read the Polar Express. This was a great time to discuss why this book is fictional, similes, metaphors, and point of view. For the next three days, I would show the movie Polar Express for about 30 minutes a day while students completed a Venn Diagram comparing the book to the movie. You could literally hear a pin drop because they were so engaged.

Teacher Holiday Hack #4: Don't wait, send it now! Each December my students would always complete a special craft. It wasn't so much Christmassy as I wanted families to be able to display it all year, but we would wrap them and make cards. For whatever reason I would always wait until the last day to send them home and sure enough someone was always absent! I quickly learned not to wait and would send it home once it was wrapped. My students loved having that element of surprise so this really worked for us. Plus, I had a whole week to get the presents home which means I didn't have to worry about absences.


Teacher Holiday Hack #5:
 Celebration! If you are anything like me, then anytime during the school year you have a "party" it feels like the most hectic day and you go home exhausted! For years I dreaded the celebration days because they made me so tired, so I decided I needed to find something that worked for me. Being that students were allowed to bring in wrapped store bought treats (even this year), I would have students decorate their bags while listening to Christmas music. They loved this! Next, we would pass out any treats that were brought in, but students were not allowed to eat anything. All of these treats went home. I provided juice and a small snack to meet all dietary restrictions and they would watch a movie. While they watched, I would clean up the classroom and organize my desk. It was the most peaceful way to end the week. 

Are all of these teacher holiday hacks going to work for you? Probably not, but if even just one does then that means you're saving time. Don't let the hustle and bustle of the holiday rush take over your classroom. Do your best to keep things calm while still covering the curriculum. As always, please feel free to reach out to us if you need anything (@lessonplantoolbox). We're happy to serve you:) 

Teach~Relax~Repeat

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