December was a whirlwind and I'm not gonna lie, blogging was last on my epic to-do list! No excuses, folks, just trying to catch up . . .
Here are some of Hunter's December highlights:
This free Christmas-themed alphabetizing activity from Hilary Lewis was a great way to warm up Hunter's mental muscles! He practiced "ABC order" to the third letter, and recorded the list in the correct order. There are 40 words included, and you can make the activity more or less challenging based on the words you choose. We did this twice, with two different lists of words. It was fun, and great practice! Get a free copy here!
How cute is this reindeer?! Poor Hunter hates it when I make him pose with his work, but he did such a great job that I just had to. There are many ways to complete this writing craftivity, depending on the writing level of the student. Hunter wrote about what it would be like if he were one of Santa's reindeer, and illustrated it. Grab the template and printables (23 pages worth) right here. It's inexpensive and oh so worth it!
I just love this "elf application" that Hunter filled out! He chose to apply for a job in Santa's bakery.
He listed his huge appetite and his interest in creating new recipes as qualifications. For a copy of this application for your own little elf, click here. It's free!
Hunter loved this Math Mystery Picture activity! It was a great way to practice his multiplication facts. Discovering one of his favorite video game characters dressed as Santa was a fun surprise for him! For a copy of this freebie from Mr. Peterson, click here! For the addition and subtraction version (also free), click here.
This simile/metaphor sort is one of a few activities we did to accompany our annual reading of "The Polar Express", by Chris Van Allsburg.
It's from "Polar Express Centers and Fun For Bigger Kids", a packet of activities for 3rd-5th graders by Fourth and Ten. I didn't get pictures of everything we did (and the ones I did get were all blurry!), so I can't show you how much fun we had, but I do recommend checking out the product! You can find it here.
This fun gingerbread house coloring/fractions activity is a freebie from More Time 2 Teach. Click here to get a copy of Fraction Winter Wonderland!
This is the poster Hunter made to show what he's learned about the Seven Summits. (This project was inspired by a photo we found on Pinterest, but I haven't been able to track down its origins.)
Each of the colored mountain peaks is to scale, with 1 cm = 1,000 ft.
He colored the continents to correspond with the paper mountain peaks . . .
. . . , and drew triangles to show the locations of the mountains.
He worked hard on it, and it looks fantastic up on the wall!
In addition to reading about the mountains and watching documentaries on YouTube and Netflix streaming, we visited each of the peaks on Google Earth. Viewing the satellite imagery and being able to zoom in from any angle was fascinating for him; he's addicted! He spent hours looking at mountains and rivers all over the planet, and regularly gets lost in foreign cities thanks to Street View.
And in no particular order, here are the TpT shops mentioned in this post:
