Reindeer, a freebie and a sale

My students had so much fun learning about reindeer last week! They love learning about animals, and the Santa connection was icing on the cake for them. First, we read about reindeer using a nonfiction reindeer reader from Christie's  (First Grade Fever) Rockin Reindeer Fun. Then we did this anchor chart together from the same pack.

 

Students filled out their own "can, have, are" charts from Gladys' Reindeer Magic unit. 

Next, students used these charts to write about reindeer. I got this page from Gladys' Reindeer pack. She also has vocabulary cards that we used. 

One of my students inspired me to do this next activity. She said, "It's a good thing reindeer are strong, because they need to pull Santa's sleigh with all those toys". So then I asked, "What are other reasons why reindeer are perfect for Santa?" They really impressed me! So we used our anchor chart to write this together during shared writing. The questions were: Why are reindeer the perfect match for Santa? Why did Santa choose reindeer to pull his sleigh? The kids came up with all of these ideas! I "held the pen" but they told me what to write and helped me spell some words. We had a lot of fun with this one. It was a great way for them to use their knowledge of reindeer and apply it to something else they are really interested in (Santa!).

Shared Writing

You could also have your students write their own:

click on the picture to download for free

Finally, we made these cute crafts from Lita Lita at Learning in Spain. They turned out so cute!

                          

It's not too late to check out my sale this weekend. I'm linking up with Casey from Second Grade Math Maniac and many others!