44 Day til’ Christmas- Christmas/Winter digital ideas

I know, I know it’s not even Thanksgiving yet but I’m thinking of how fast it goes and Christmas will be here in no time and December is always FUN, FUN, FUN and busy too.  I wanted to share some fun activities that my students have enjoyed the past few years.

My ABSOLUTE very favorite project is the Holiday Card exchange. If you have not done this yet I HIGHLY RECOMMEND it.  It is the best thing I have done with my classroom in all my years of teaching.  My classroom has participated in the project for the past 6 years. You make 29 cards and send them to 29 different classrooms all over the United States and sometime even other parts of the world.  We just make one card and copy it 29 times.  It is so fun to get mail and open cards from other classrooms from so many different places. We have a map and color in where all the cards are from. We have even skyped with some of the classes too. Jen does a great job organizing the project and sets you up with a great variety of classes.  YOU HAVE TO GO SIGN UP SOON BY NOVEMBER 16TH.  It starts November 28 and you need to sign up before that to get in on the FUN.

Another idea is Personalized Stories. There are 3 different choices to pick from. Students fill out some information and a fun story is generated for them to read. It’s fun to have them pair up with students who had different stories and read them together.

An email from Santa. This is so fun to watch students do this each year. Sometimes even those who don’t believe change their mind a little. They fill out some things and then right away they get a response on their computer. I print the letters and have them read them.  Boy, oh Boy,  you never saw your struggling readers try to read something so hard in class before.  You have got to try this with your students if you haven’t before. Quick, Easy and very Motivating.

Snowline This game is Santa running down hills on a sled. Great for free computer time, inside recess, fun when work is finished. It has the thinking type problem solving as angry birds. They have to get the course right or Santa doesn’t make it.  Students really enjoyed this last year as a fun free time activity, especially on those cold winter days when we couldn’t go outside.

This is an my absolute favorite digital snowflake maker online. Great to use with Snowflake Bentley. I have my students make a flake, take a screen shot of it, and write a poem to go with it. Sometimes we print them and sometimes we put them on our class blogs.

Build a snowman is also a favorite for my students in past years. We make a picture and take a screen shot. Then students can chose to make a snowman poem or short story to go with their picture. They like to print the stories and poems off and take them home.

Hope you can try out some of these fun Digital Projects and Sites.

 And I finally got my Elf on the Shelf Activities done. I literally have been working on it for days. I am so excited to do some of these with my classroom after Thanksgiving.
Elf will witness someone stealing Candy Canes off of our Christmas tree. The mystery is 8 days long with clues to find letters that spell out Christmas words. There is a making words sheet and writing sheet to go along with the word for the day. The final day they take all the red letters out of the clues to spell 2 words and that is where the candies are hidden.  I also have 45 different ideas of what to do with Elf on the Shelf each day. Not sure how I will chose which ones to use with my class but I know they will love it.