Hey there. Thanks for joining us today. In today's

episode, we're sharing three ways to be the fun teacher in

December without losing control of your class, and sharing a

teacher approved tip for adding some seasonal surprise and

delight to your class.

We start our episodes with a morning message, just

like we used to do at morning meeting in our classrooms. This

week's morning message is, what do you like to do for teammate

gifts? Emily, do you have any good ideas?

Well, I don't feel like I have anything revolutionary,

but I think those cinnamon brooms from Trader Joe's would

be fun because they could use them at school if the scent

wasn't too strong, or just enjoy them at home.

Yeah, those have such a perfect seasonal smell.

What about you Heidi? Any good ideas?

Well, I kind of hate to admit it, but I tended to forget

about team gifts, so what I came up with usually wasn't very

meaningful. My apologies to my former co workers.

One year though, I bought a bunch of those little like tiny

plastic teeth necklaces for kids who lost teeth at school, and I

made and cut out like 100 little tags that said I lost a tooth

today that could be strung on the necklace. And I was so proud

of myself, because I thought it was just the perfect, useful

gift for second grade teachers.

But it turns out that the necklaces were complete junk,

and they totally fell apart when the kids wore them like the

strings would break the little plastic tooth part would

wouldn't stay shut. Then we had lost teeth all over the school

in the playground. Yeah, extra apologies to those co workers.

Oh, sad. I do think it's a really good idea. If they

had worked that would have been probably like an awesome gift

for your teammates.

For a while, I used to try and like, use packing tape

to really seal them shut. And I was like, this is not worth it.

No, oh, geez. Well, we do have some answers from our

community. Anna said that she likes to do homemade cookies

from her epic baking day, where she makes 10 different kinds of

cookies. That is epic. Michelle said we always go out to dinner

together instead of giving each other gifts. I love that.

I love that too because you don't get enough time

together as a team to just like, be together where you're not

busy.

Yeah, plus you could be like, let's do that in January,

when we're less busy and need something to look forward to.

And probably none of us need any more stuff, if we're

being honest. So dinner out's a win.

True story. Jennifer said, caramel popcorn. Donna

said, flare pens and a notepad. Katie said, I give cookies and a

lottery ticket.

But do you have to split it with Katie if you win?

Yeah, that should cut. Yeah. Strings attached with that

gift. We'd love to hear your ideas for your teammate gifts

over in our teacher approved Facebook group.

As we slide into the holiday season, all of the fun

seasonal activities you could do with your class are probably

coming at you from every direction, calling your name.

And I think it can be tempting to feel one of two

extremes about this. Either you want to go hardcore, all in on

all of the fun stuff because it's so cute and it's only one

time a year, or you don't want to do any of it because you

don't want to mess up your routines and classroom

management, the kids are going to be hard enough to be hard

enough to deal with.

But we are here to tell you that it doesn't have to be

either extreme. There is a way to invite more fun, whether it

be seasonal or not, into your classroom without losing control

of your class.

The key is to treat holiday fun like a spice when

you're cooking. A little makes all the difference in how your

dish tastes, but using too much and you will ruin everything

that you make.

So we have three ideas for how to weave a little

holiday magic into your teaching for the next few weeks without

derailing your classroom management goals or getting

behind in your curriculum.

The first and easiest way to be the fun teacher during the

holidays is by adding in seasonal themes to your regular

lessons and routines.

I love doing this in December, especially because it

increases the novelty just a bit without totally derailing your

normal routines. A little bit of novelty really can go a long

way.

I feel like my classroom thrived on our educational

routines like morning meeting and vocabulary and fluency

practice and all of that. So I used to look for ways to add in

the holiday magic to what we were already doing.

So in morning meeting, for example, I would add a seasonal

twist to our morning messages, not every day, but some days. So

one day I might ask, would you rather question, like, would you

rather string a mile of popcorn garland or wrap 100 presents?

Oh, I don't know Emily?

For sure a mile of popcorn garland. I hate, you

know, I hate wrapping presents. Wrapping 100 presents would just

do me in.

But I think I'd go presents. I know I can wrap

fast.

Okay well we'd be a good team if we ever had to

complete both of these challenges.

And on Fridays for a morning message, I like to use

jokes. So I could use a holiday joke, like, who delivers holiday

gifts to dogs?

Oh, and it's Santa Paws, if you were wondering. We

have seasonal morning messages available for first through

fourth grade if you want an easy way to add in some holiday fun

into your morning meetings without having to think of it

all yourself. So we'll link to that in the show notes.

Our morning messages include a couple 100 non

seasonal thinking questions so you can get everyone's brains

turning in the morning. But we also have a set of 60 seasonal

questions for each grade level, and that gives you plenty of

options to choose from.

You can also add holiday magic to your morning

meetings by doing a holiday greeting like a snowball fight.

You can use something soft, like a stuffed snowball, if you have

one. I actually did, used to have a set of stuff snowballs

that I use. It was really random how I ended up with them, too,

but I had this funny set of stuff snowballs, and they were

perfect for morning meeting games.

But you could also just use a balled up pair of socks.

And then students can toss the snowball to someone in the

circle and tell them good morning and say their name. And

you can also make your morning meeting game seasonal by doing

something like Simon Says, but make it Santa says.

Oh, that sounds like fun. But morning meeting isn't the

only place to add holiday themes without derailing your class

routines. One daily learning routine that is perfect to make

seasonal is a Vocabulary Routine. Now we call our

vocabulary teaching method the jargon journal.

Each week we would read a book to the class and choose four

tier two vocabulary words from the book, and then for the rest

of the week, students would work on one of those words each day

to build a deeper understanding of its meaning and use. Making

this type of routine seasonal is just easy peasy. All you have to

do is choose a holiday book. Many favorite holiday read aloud

books have wonderful, rich vocabulary, and that is just

perfect for this method.

And we have created grab and go units for you to use

for holiday vocabulary lessons using books like The Polar

Express, Santa Bruce, Pick a Pine Tree, The Night Before

Christmas and more. So we will link to our Christmas jargon

journal units in the show notes. So Heidi, where else can we add

Christmas into our lessons?

Well, I love to make our fluency practice holiday themed.

Our fluency in a flash, daily digital mini lessons are perfect

for this. The everyday lessons are non seasonal, but we do have

seasonal lessons that you can mix in for a fun surprise. It's

kind of hard to describe what this is on the podcast, but it's

an interactive and engaging routine, and we will link to our

fluency in a flash mini lessons in the show notes as well.

I'm still blown away every time I open up one of

those to either do with my own kids or I've helped do them in

their classes. The activities are just so well done and so fun

for the kids. So each day has a meaningful activity that

promotes the development of important fluency skills, but I

promise that your kids will be having so much fun they will

never even realize that it's educational.

Now, of course, you can also make your story problems

about presents, or play a math game with Gingerbread Man, or

learn about snowflakes and science and so many other fun

ideas this time of year, but please know that you don't have

to add a seasonal twist to everything you do in class just

because it's a holiday.

Yeah, if every single activity and worksheet they see

in December has a reindeer on it, it's just not going to have

the same impact on novelty and engagement as one reindeer

themed writing activity would have. So look for big impact,

low effort ways to make your lesson a little more fun, and

remember that, like with seasoning, a little can go a

long way.

The second way to be a fun teacher during the holidays

is by planning a holiday twist to your classroom management

plan.

We have shared several times here on the podcast that we are

normally not big fans of classroom reward systems. They

can be overused, and they tend to lose their effectiveness

quickly, which is why we would never suggest using a reward

system year round. But it turns out that reward systems can be

incredibly effective short term. So the holidays are the perfect

time to bust one of those out.

Plus it's a wise idea to enter a chaotic time in the

classroom like December with a game plan for keeping your

classroom management under control. Being the fun teacher

is not so fun when you have to spend a lot of extra time and

energy dealing with student behavior issues.

Yeah, I used to be so embarrassed that I needed a

reward system in December to save my sanity, because I had

read all the books and they said that I should be able to manage

my students without one. But the reality is that a reward system

is just a tool.

Using one doesn't make you a good teacher or a bad teacher,

and sometimes we need different tools to solve different

problems. In this case, a reward system is a tool that can

counter the high excitement and the mixed up routines that come

with the holiday ramp up season.

You can have your holiday reward system ready to

go the first day back after Thanksgiving, or you can have it

prepared and ready for whatever day you find you really need it.

Either way, you'll be very glad you planned ahead.

Once they have earned all the letters with their good

behavior, the class gets their reward like making graham

cracker gingerbread houses. Oh, no, no, scratch that. Sounds

like a nightmare. Maybe you could do the ones where you like

hot glue it to a milk carton. Maybe, I don't know, something

less sticky.

Something less sticky, something that would be fun for

you too. Don't pick a reward for the kids that's going to be fun

for them and miserable for you. Oh, absolutely.

Or you could go for a small group reward system. This

is great for having your rows or tables competing for a reward.

You could have a little seasonal board game on the board where

each team's piece is moving across the board when their

behavior is good, then the team that gets to the end first gets

the reward.

Or you could even make it so that each team eventually

gets the reward whenever they get to the end of the board.

Oh yeah, I love that. And you'd be surprised how

motivated students can be for the simplest rewards. You could

have something like getting to use Christmas themed pens during

a writing activity, and the kids would be totally psyched for

that.

And they do have really cute Christmas themed pens this

time of year, especially like fun scented ones. Yes.

Another option for a reward system is to do an individual

system. If your class is particularly competitive in a

way that might cause contention, rewarding students individually

may be the way to go. You can hand out cute caught you being

good cards, and then the students can save up their cards

until they have enough for a set reward, or their cards could be

entries into a drawing for a prize.

No matter what reward system you decide to try, the

most important step is to begin with a discussion. You want to

talk about what choices constitute good behavior, and

what following directions looks like, sounds like, feels like,

yes, it seems like common sense. Yes, kids should probably

already know what behavior is right and wrong.

Now it's probably no surprise that we do have a

But you can't assume that they do, and it's hard to hit an

resource that can help you with your holiday classroom

invisible target. So your reward system will be extra effective

if you take the time to discuss the expectations before you begin.

management as well. Our holiday behavior helps bundle has six

different reward systems that you can choose from to be a fun

teacher while also keeping your students in line.

There are reward systems for the whole class,

groups and individuals. So you can choose the system or

combination of systems that works best for you. Just be sure

not to have too much going on at once with your reward systems,

or it can kind of turn into a big headache for the teacher.

Yeah, that's the real downside of reward systems, is

having to manage it. Yep, and we talk all about seasonal behavior

management in episodes 37 and 104 so make sure to check those

out if you want more of our tips and tricks.

We also have our December teacher survival kit

that can guide you through how to plan your seasonal reward

system. That's my favorite part of this survival kit.

There are pages in there to help you prep for December

and the start of January. But there's also a page of guiding

questions to help you dial into exactly what you need your

reward system to do for you. So there is a link to the December

teacher survival kit, you guessed it, in the show notes.

Definitely check out the show notes on this one.

The third and final suggestion for being the fun teacher in

December is to sprinkle in some just for fun magic. Of course,

we need to maximize our time at school, and we don't want to

waste a whole month doing fun and forgetting the learning, but

most teachers will be able to find a little time to add in a

few short activities that are just for the pure enjoyment of

it.

There are some legitimate reasons to do this

too. Doing some just for fun activities, build your classroom

community and class identity. Your students will look back

fondly on those happy times together.

And plus, it makes teaching fun for you. I'm not

going to beat around the bush. Teaching is hard. Some days it's

hard to remember why you entered this profession at all, but

incorporating some short holiday activities that are just for the

joy of it can help your job become more enjoyable.

That should not be underestimated, because a

teacher who enjoys teaching will be more equipped to engage their

students, teach with more energy and help their students soar.

And more than that, enjoying teaching is good for your mental

health, and that is true self care, right there.

A great way to sprinkle in this, just for fun holiday

magic is with brain breaks. I tended to not use brain breaks

every day. I kind of saved them for just when we needed them,

but in December, I probably needed them every single day.

Because, let's be honest, students need a break every day,

especially in December.

You can use brain breaks to laugh, get out

wiggles, warm students up for thinking, or get more grounded.

And we have printable brain breaks that are perfect for

this. You can choose the type of brain break you need in the

moment and just read it off the card. You don't have to fuss

with your projector or try and get a video to load or anything

like that.

These can really be so helpful, especially at a time of

year when focus is short and you need more breaks. Just in our

December brain break pack, we have 60 brain breaks in three

different categories. So if you need to boost that focus, choose

one of the refocus activities, like the calming cocoa mindful

movement activity.

So you get the kids settled, and then you tell them, pretend

you're standing at the stove stirring a big pot of hot

chocolate. The liquid is hot and bubbly. Use a large spoon to

slowly stir. Now stir with the other hand, feel the warm steam

on your face, take in a big, deep breath and spoon some into

your mug. Now sprinkle some marshmallows on top and take a

big drink, yum.

I feel calmer already. We also have refresh brain

breaks to help get everyone back on track and recharge brain

breaks to help get the wiggles out. These can be a huge

lifesaver. So we'll link to our Christmas brain breaks in the

show notes if you want to take a look.

Another way we love to add in fun is with festive

breaks. These are short seasonal activities that you can pull out

whenever you want without requiring any prep. They're

print and go activities like holiday Tic Tac Toe, roll and

draw a gingerbread house and so many more. Having these copied

and ready to just grab at a moment's notice will be a huge

relief when you need them.

All you have to do is decide which activities you want

to do and decide how you want students to choose the

activities. Then when it's time for some festive fun, have a

student pick one of the picture cards, turn it over and see what

activity to do. So it's easy peasy, and also a sneaky way to

get in a little pocket of prep if you listen to last week's

episode.

So definitely check the show notes for a link to our

Christmas festive breaks and find the link to Episode 169

where we talk all about the pockets of prep.

It's easier than you think to be the fun teacher in

December without losing control of your class or getting behind

in your curriculum. The ways to be the fun teacher are make your

learning seasonal, add a holiday twist to your reward system, and

sprinkle in some just for fun holiday activities.

We would love to hear how you plan for fun in December.

Come fill us in on all of the details in our teacher approved

Facebook group.

Now let's talk about this week's teacher approved

tip. Each week we leave you with a small, actionable tip that you

can apply in your classroom today. This week's teacher

approved tip is, get those lucky ducks. What is this all about

Well as we mentioned, sprinkling seasonal fun into

Heidi?

your class is a great way to make things festive without

having to lose complete control. One way to add a little festive

surprise and delay is to choose a lucky duck for the day.

We have talked about this idea before, but I saw the cute

Christmas duckies at Target, and I just wanted to make sure

everyone had a good reminder if they wanted to do this. So if

there are enough school days between now and winter break

that you could spotlight each of your students on one day, you

may want to give this a try.

All you need is a duck and then a few fun ideas. So each

morning, the deck arrives on a new student's desk, and that

student is the lucky duck of the day. Maybe they get to have a

holiday decoration on their desk, or they get to use a fancy

pen for their work that day. You could add as many fun privileges

as you can manage. And with all the fun seasonal stuff out

there, you could really go wild with this one.

Oh yeah, I'm thinking of, like, all the different

Christmasy things that they could get to do on their lucky

duck day. Or, like, maybe they could wear a Santa hat. Like, it

could be so fun.

That's so cute. And if you don't have enough school

days to do one a day, you could get two cute ducks from Target

and do two kids a day.

That's true, Lucky ducks, plural. I've seen some

teachers online who do a lucky duck of the day all year, and

there's nothing wrong with that, if it works for you. But if you

don't need this as part of your regular classroom management,

adding a special activity like this once or twice a year makes

school feel magical. The rarity of the experience makes it feel

like such a treat, which is why surprise and delight is so

powerful.

To wrap up the show, we're sharing what we're giving

extra credit to this week. Emily, what gets your extra

credit?

I'm giving extra credit to holiday rom com books. So

last year, you and I put together a list of our favorite

holiday rom com books to share, and I wanted to do this as my

extra credit again, just so I could share that link again, so

I'll link it in the show notes. Remember, show notes are gonna

be crazy this week. You gotta check them out.

I'm just getting into my holiday rom com reading this

year, so I don't have a new one to recommend yet, but I did just

download Christmas With a Crank by Courtney Walsh, and it's free

on Kindle Unlimited. I've read another one of her, so I think I

will like it. I've got high hopes for it anyway. So if I

like it, I will add it to the list.

Well, that has been on my TV read list, so now I can just

wait for you to tell me if it's worthwhile.

I'll be the guinea pig. What's your extra credit Heidi?

Well my extra credit is also going to a book this week.

I just finished the audiobook of Miranda Hearts I Haven't Been

Entirely Honest With You, and it was so good.

I know Miranda from her sitcom on the BBC, which was also

called Miranda. Oh, it was so good. I loved it. And she played

Chummy on Call the Midwife, which maybe more people know,

and I loved her on both of those. But then she just kind of

disappeared for a long time. And I thought, well, maybe she's

doing more behind the scenes stuff. I, you know, just didn't

hear from her.

And sadly, it turns out that she was basically house bound

because of a chronic illness, and that is kind of the topic of

the book. But it's more than just a memoir of her illness,

though it's it's more like a deep discussion about how to be

a human in spite of the horrors that keep persisting in all of

their forms.

So in the book, she shares 10 key lessons. She calls them her

treasures that she learned and how they helped her heal, not

just physically, but also mentally and spiritually and in

all facets of her life. This is one of the few books that I have

finished, and then wanted to restart right away. I listened

to the audiobook because Miranda is so fun, but I think I need to

get the print version now, because there were just so many

aha moments that I want to be able to reference. So I will put

a link to that with everything else in the show notes.

Show gotes gonna be popping this week.

That is it for today's episode. Try our three ways to

be the fun teacher in December without losing control of your

class. And don't forget our teacher approved tip for adding

some seasonal surprise and delight to your class.