Reading Reindeer! Merry Christmas

Creating projects with my kids is one of the things I enjoy most about teaching. The kids get so excited to incorporate crafts and art as a way of displaying their learning. 

I wanted to do a holiday project with them this week so we created "Reading Reindeer". 

Don't they make a cute display?



The first thing the kids did was read a holiday themed book. I pulled out all of my holiday books that had a story- I tried to stay away from any that did not have an actual plot. For my struggling readers I used holiday books with characters they were familiar with... Froggy, Henry and Mudge, Arthur... for my readers that are more on grade level I pulled out several Patricia Polacco books, Cranberry Christmas, Berenstain Bears, Christmas in the Big Woods, etc. 

After reading the books, the kiddos completed a "book" review. The books the reindeer are holding are the kids' book reviews. On the outside of the book review they decorated a book cover. Most chose to also do a drawing of some sort on the back, too. 

After they finished this part, we made the reindeer. I am always so pleasantly surprised with how much personality each one has, even when using all the same parts. I have included the templates for you here if you would like to use this with your class...


Here are some of the reindeer that were created- see how adorable they are!



I also made the fireplace in about 20 minutes- it is just roll paper that I cut the outline of the fireplace on and then I cut out bricks and glued them down. I used orange tissue for the fire and brown paper for the mantel. Then I googled images of Santa and Mrs. Claus and cut out little photo frames so that it looks like there are photos on the mantel. 



Wishing everyone a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!



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