Christmas ornament crafts with Oriental Trading Company!


Oriental Trading Company is your go-to place for FUN inspiration!  They are the nation's largest direct merchant of value-priced party supplies, arts and crafts, toys and novelties, and a leading provider of school supplies and affordable home décor and gift ware.  They serve tons of customers through colorful catalogs and the Internet and offer more than 40,000 products to meet the needs of all kinds of businesses, not-for-profit organizations, individuals, schools, churches and teachers.

Oriental Trading Company has so many awesome and affordable Christmas related products!  They have everything you could possibly need to celebrate the holidays- decorations, crafts, candy, toys and stocking stuffers, party supplies, ornaments, and advent calendars.  I said everything and I really meant it!  I regularly shop at Oriental Trading Company for so many different things that I use at school from treats for the treasure chest to fun crafts and classroom decor.


I was lucky enough to get the opportunity to review a couple of the ornament crafts from Oriental Trading Company.  Pretty much every year I use at least one ornament craft with my students during our winter holiday party.  This year I chose for them to make Blue Snowflake Layered Christmas Ornament Craft Kit and the Peace, Hope, & Joy Ornament Craft.


These ornaments were prefect for my 2nd graders!  They had a blast making these during our holiday party centers.  Each ornament crafts comes individually packaged with all of the supplies needed to make the ornament and directions.  This is great for class projects or even for girl scout crafts or to do as a little party craft with your kids and their friends.


The layered felt snowflake ornaments were gorgeous and perfect for a winter themed party if you aren't celebrating a specific Christmas theme.  My students were able to make these completely on their own with just a little help folding the pipe cleaner in the beginning and tying the string on at the end.


These were bigger than I expected (about 8") and turned out beautifully.  The kids absolutely loved them!


The Hope, Peace, & Joy ornament crafts were also a hit! 


Each piece on this foam ornament is self- adhesive- including the jewels.  As a teacher I love this because that means there's no messy glue to deal with and every piece will actually stick when the kids put these together and not fall off 30 minutes later.   My students made these their own by deciding exactly where they were going to put each jewel.  I did hot glue the hanging string to each of their ornaments when they were finished to make sure the string would stick.


Right now is the perfect time to pick up some ornament crafts for next year since a lot of them are up to 65% off!  You can connect with Oriental Trading Company by liking them on Facebook or following them on Twitter or Pinterest.

post signature
Disclaimer:  I received these ornament crafts for free in exchange for a review of my honest opinion.
0

Christmas Questionnaire



Today, I'm linking up with Fabulous in First for a fun Christmas Questionnaire.  I thought it would be a fun way for you all to know a little bit more about me.

Hot Chocolate or Eggnog? 
I like both, but I do love to indulge in the Eggnog flavored coffee creamers this time of year.  It’s a little better on the calorie count than regular eggnog.

Does Santa wrap presents or just sit them underneath the tree? 
Oh, Santa definitely wrapped presents when I was growing up unless it was too big to wrap.  I did find out about the “real” Santa by finding the wrapping paper in the trunk of my mom’s car, so I thought about just having a Santa sack for presents for my little guy.  But, my hubby and I decided to stick with wrapping them since it’s fun to watch them unwrap the presents!

Colored lights or white? 
Colored.  Always colored.

When do you decorate? 
Never before Thanksgiving and usually I feel like I find us out and about getting a tree sometime around December 9th.  I don’t know why that date sticks with me, but it does.

Real or Fake Tree? 
Real.

What Tops Your Tree?
A star always sits atop our tree now and in childhood.

Favorite Christmas Memories or Traditions?
When I was little, my grandparents always came up for Christmas with at our house.  Christmas Eve is my little sister’s birthday so we would always go to church and then come home and eat a Santa cake that my grandparents brought for her every year.  Then, we always got to open one present of our choice on Christmas Eve.  On Christmas morning, I remember hating having to wait for them to wake up so we could open presents thinking it was sooo late!  (In reality, it may have been 7 or 7:30 a.m.)  We used to site by their bedroom and stick our fingers under their door saying “Grandma, Grandpa are you awake yet?”

Do you remember your favorite gift as a child? 
One gift that sticks out in my head was a doll called Little Miss Make-Up that I was dying to have and I got it on Christmas morning one year from Santa. 

Do prefer giving or receiving? 
Let’s be honest- I love both.  I always tend to over shop for my family and I do like receiving gifts too.

What is your favorite Christmas song? 
Have Yourself  A Merry Little Christmas

Candy Canes. Yuck or Yum? 
I’m indifferent.  I don’t love them or hate them.

Favorite Christmas Movie? 

Do you shop online or at stores?
Both.  I try to find things wherever they’re the best deal.

Photo Cards, Letter or Store Bought Card? 
Usually photo cards.   
Here’s our this year:

post signature
0

Edible Christmas Trees

Every year my school has a Polar Express Day the day before winter break where everybody gets to wear their pajamas and sometime during the day we make hot chocolate and watch Polar Express.  Along with this, my co-teacher and I like to do some fun holiday centers.  (We like to do fun stuff every once in awhile since the majority of the time it's work, work, work, learn, learn, learn.)  This year in my class we have 38 kids,  so we had to think of a few more centers than we have had in the past.  So, we added edible Christmas trees to the holiday center repertoire.  It's fun and only needs minor supervision if you're a third grader.

Here's what you'll need to make your edible trees:


  • Sugar cookies
  • Icing
  • Green food coloring
  • Sugar cones (You can use waffle cones, but they have a curved bottom which is hard to lay flat on the sugar cookie.  Sugar cones are tree shaped, but have completely flat bottoms.
  • Small candies for decorating (M&M's, sprinkles, mini chocolate chips, spice drops, whatever your little heart desires...)


1. Dye the icing green using food coloring and mix it up really well.   

2.  Use the frosting as glue and frost the sugar cookie for a base and put the cone on top upside down.

3.  Frost the whole cone with icing.

4.  Decorate any way you wish.

5.  Eat and enjoy!

Warning:  This can get pretty messy!  Here's the proof:
post signature
0

Christmas & Aaarrghh! Pirate Measurement {Giveaway}

Only 3 more days! (But who's counting...)  This week I'll be working on theme, story structure, and character traits using some of my favorite holiday books.  These include Silver Packages by Cynthia Rylant, Merry UnChristmas  by Mike Reiss, Olive, the Other Reindeer by J.Otto Siebold, and Mooseltoe by Margie Palaini just to name a few.  


We are also going to be reviewing main idea in one of our centers using this awesome freebie from Tracy at Creekside Teacher Tales.  We have Polar Express Day each year at my school too, so we'll be reading that and watching the movie with some hot cocoa wearing our pj's.

Every year, I also like to give my kiddos a book as a Christmas gift.  I usually stock up through the year on the Scholastic $1 books and let them pick out the book they want.  This year, I'm doing things a little differently because Scholastic had one of my FAVORITE read aloud books for $1 in October, The BFG by Roald Dahl.  


I bought enough for all of my students and they will each get one.  We just started reading this in class and I know they will love all being able to read along while I read aloud.

Okay, so now onto my newest product! 

Aaarrgghh!  Measurement:  A Pirate Measurement Adventure

http://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Aaarrgghh-Measurement-A-Pirate-Measurement-Adventure-1022473

This file features 5 measurement activities that would be an excellent supplement to your curriculum!  You can find it here on TpT.

Pirate Ship Measurement: Laminate and cut out the 10 pirate ships.  Tape around the room for students to find.  Students will estimate the height of each pirate ship and record their estimate.  Then they will measure how tall each pirate ship is and record their measurement.

Buccaneer Inches: This is a great fun activity or center!  Cut out and laminate (for durability) each pirate picture.  Students will measure the height of each picture and record their measurement on the recording sheet.  There is also a questioning worksheet on comparing the lengths of the pictures included.  

Inches, Feet, or Yards?: Cut out the different objects (12) and sort them according to what unit you would use to measure them.

Heave Ho!  Pirates on the Move: Measure each line from one pirate to another using centimeters.  Record each measurement on your recording sheet.

Centimeters or Meters?: Cut out the different objects (12) and sort them according to what unit you would use to measure them.

http://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Aaarrgghh-Measurement-A-Pirate-Measurement-Adventure-1022473

 So, now you have a chance to win the pack for yourself!  Just enter using the Rafflecopter below!  I also have a second contest going on on my Facebook page, so go like my page and enter there for another chance to win!.

  Giveaway ends on 12/18 at 11:59 p.m.
0

Get ready for the TpT CYBER sale- Monday & Tuesday!

Just in time for the big TpT sale, I've posted a few new products for the holidays!  My store will be 20% off and TpT is giving another 10% off if you use the code CYBER.


My first newly posted product is my Wintry Holiday Math Centers.
I'll be starting some of these this week in my classroom!

http://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Wintry-Holiday-Math-Centers-Common-Core-Aligned-1002592

These are very similar to my Thanksgiving Math Centers.  It includes 6 Holiday and Winter themed Math Centers:

Snowflake Line Up (2.NBT.A.4)
Ordering Numbers with 2 & 3 digit options
Evergreen Tens & Hundreds (2.NB.T.B.8)
+/- 10 or 100
Elfilicious Place Value (2.NB.T.A.1 & 3)
Showing numbers in word form, expanded form, and models
Cupcakes Tens Go Fish (2.OA.B.2)
Combinations of 10
Double It Up Graphing (2.OA.B.2)
Doubles facts
Gingerbread Addition & Subtraction (2.NBT.B.5)
One, Two, or Three-Digit Addition & Subtraction

Also included in this Math Centers Pack are Wintry Holiday Themed Number Cards that are used with 5 of the 6 centers. The great thing about using the number cards is that your students can visit these centers multiple times and each time they will work with different numbers!

I've also posted Whooo's Ready for the Holidays?  This is 4 Literacy Centers or activities.


This file has 4 different Literacy activities that could be used as centers, small group activities and even as whole class activities.  It includes:
Ornament Compound Word Match Up (L.2.4.d)
Make Me Plural
Holiday ABC Order
Santa’s Prefix Sort (L.2.4.b)

You can get them both together as a Holiday Center Bundle here for a little savings!

Also, be sure to download my Christmas Addition & Subtraction Story Problem Cards FREEBIE while you're visiting my store!  Please leave me some feedback if you enjoy the product. :)

http://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Christmas-Addition-Subtraction-Story-Problem-Cards-FREEBIE-964940

Have fun shopping!

                
0

Winter & Holiday Products Pinterest Party!

Here's how it works:
 Each Pinterest Party has a theme.  This party's theme is Winter!
So, get YOUR product pinned on Pinterest by leaving your link below to your favorite Winter or Holiday Product (you can leave your pinterest link or your TpT link)!  This is just in time for TpT's Cyber Monday (& Tuesday) Sale!

Then, pin a few other projects in turn!
 This is just like any other linky party with the added BONUS that you get your link-up automatically pinned by me and others!
I'm even looking to feature some of my favorites on the blog!

You can help spread the word by pinning the button, sharing the party on your Facebook page, or featuring it with your product on your blog.  Just right click and "save as" or copy the image and put it in your post.

Don't forget to come back and check out the linky regularly for new fun ideas!

So, to sum it up:
1.  Add your link.
2.  Pin the product before you (and more if you like)!
3.  Share about the party. 

If you see something you love- grab it during TpT's Cyber Monday Sale!
Thanks so much!  Have fun!
The linky will remain open until 12/15!
2
Back to Top