[Classroom] Christmas Countdown is ON!

I absolutely love the second quarter of teaching. There are so many holidays, which means a lot of days off! But it also means a lot of fun teaching opportunities for our sweet little kiddos. We have been having so much fun in my classroom these days! We just started a new Holidays Around the World Unit which features holiday traditions in Hawaii, Japan,
Philippines, Vietnam, Australia and Madagascar. We have done the typical Christmas Around the World units with Italy, France, Germany, Sweden, etc, but I really wanted something new this year, so I have worked my okole {butt} off to create a whole new unit. Make sure you check back soon for the details and to purchase on Teachers Pay Teachers! Hope to have it posted up this weekend : )

Anyways.. at the end of every school year, I do the balloon pop countdown for the last twenty days. This year, I decided to do a Winter Break countdown, because we have three weeks off this year, and we are all SO excited about that!

So here is how it works.. I made a construction paper triangle christmas tree on a bulletin board. I cut out some small circles from wrapping paper for the ornaments for the tree. Next, I took small plastic to-go cups (see below) and cut up some red and green ribbon for confetti. 

I wrote little notes for each day of what special activity we will do. I placed one in each cup, matched to the countdown worksheet I created. Then I wrapped the little cups, stuck the correct number (I hope!) on the outside, and stuck them to the bulletin board with some blue painter's tape. 

Each day as we near Winter Break, we will take down one "present" and I will let the students take turns opening each little gift. That will set us up for what special holiday activity we will be doing, or tell the students what country/place we will be "flying" to, to learn about their holiday traditions.

I posted a few pictures below, and will add more as the students begin to explore opening up their daily countdown presents. Now if only I could convince my co-worker to post her AMAZING Christmas Countdown packet she made to correspond with our countdown to Winter Break! 

Aloha and Mele Kalikimaka!
-Krista