FeedWhat Do I Do Over Holiday Break??!!!!
December 22, 2011 in Elementary Educators, Helping Girls and Women Around the World, High School Teachers, Middle School Teachers, Preschool to 1st grade teachers, Writing Skills Tags: Book Giveaway Contest, holiday ideas, Thank you notes
photo by joshme17 www.flickr.com
If you and your kids start feeling like this poor, bored dog by the middle of next week, never fear–I’ve got some ideas for you! 
In the meantime, don’t forget to go to Monday’s post and leave a comment about your favorite old toy for a chance to win Wise Bear William by Arthur Wooten, illustrations by Bud Santora. It is a beautiful and touching picture book for the whole family.
So, what do I do over Christmas break?
1. Do a reading challenge–who in your family can read either the most pages or for the most minutes during the break? Don’t have a family of readers? (LIKE ME–believe it or not!) Then challenge them to read one book over the break–you can even taunt them–”I bet you can’t even read that one book over break.” (winks)
2. Make your home library into a library. Kids LOVE to pretend to be at the store or at a restaurant or even in their own kitchen or work room–look at their toys–mini kitchens/mini workbenches. So, why not create a library at your house? Get some index cards for children to check out books. Get some labels for them to label books. Separate books into non-fiction and fiction. Put them in alphabetical order by author’s last name–you get the picture. Then play library for an afternoon. (You can even have story time.)
3. Write thank you notes. I know this doesn’t sound exciting, but your children probably got gifts from relatives or friends that weren’t right there when the gifts were opened. Thank you notes are a must. How about doing it on the computer for more fun? Try this website for ideas on where to write thank you notes online.
4. On next Thursday, I am hosting another AWESOME! WOW! Women On Writing blog tour with journaling guru Mari L. McCarthy. She is going to talk about how journaling can help you reach your goals for 2012, and she is giving away some cool prizes. So mark the calendar and stop by!
I wish everyone a Happy Hanukkah or a Merry Christmas! Thank you for supporting my blog throughout the year. I love sharing books, authors, and teaching/writing ideas with you.
December 22nd, 2011 at 10:48 am
We give our boys a couple of days off, then have them write a page a day about anything – even how boring it is to write! They moan the first couple of days, and then get into it by the end of break.
December 22nd, 2011 at 1:56 pm
Rachel, I love it!
We make Logan write in a journal in the summer–he doesn’t seemed thrilled about it except for the days that he gets to draw a picture with it. But during Christmas break, we always do the thank you note exercise. We’ve done it by hand–making our own cards the last few years, but this year, I am going to ask him if he wants to do them on computer or by hand. If he chooses computer, we’ll have to print at Grandma’s as ours is currently down–well, we need a new one. Ahh, it never ends. Anyway, thanks for sharing and I’m glad to see I’m not the only “mean” parent. BTW, we always read during break too. 
Hopefully, this year we can pick a book instead of having to do a “school” one. LOL
January 8th, 2012 at 3:03 pm
My kids love pretending to have a library at their house. They love to “beep” the books! Having storytime is a great idea. I will remember that the next time they do it. Usually we just sort and check out books.
We are still working on our thank you notes
January 8th, 2012 at 9:16 pm
Eric,
But we got them out! 
We just mailed ours a couple days ago. We wrote them and then they sat, not in an envelope for days.