GRINCH DAY!

Today was GRINCH DAY! And believe it or not it was a fun-filled day of learning. For the past several years, I've really felt like a 'grinch' because I quit doing Polar Express Day which I miss terribly. When I moved to my new school, the kindergarten started doing a really fancy one! It was hard to compete. Then our second grade does it too. I really felt like the kiddos were getting enough Polar Express. So I've searched for years trying to come up with something else. And BINGO! I found Deanna Jump's mini-unit on Mr. Grinch. You can check it out at TpT HERE. She teaches kindergarten so I had to bumped it up a bit.
My kids have been begging for a pajama day. So instead of dressing up in green, we did the whole pajama thing. That probably would have been enough because they were excited for that. We watched the cartoon version of the book and had caramel green apple suckers for a treat. Then we had a great discussion on Dr. Seuss' purpose for writing the story. [My district doesn't like a lot of fluff. So I had to tie everything into the curriculum of course.] After the movie and discussion we sang the cute little song from Deanna Jump's unit about Mr. Grinch.

Here's some pictures from today.

Next, we described the character MR. GRINCH on the sheet below. Click on the picture to grab a FREE copy.

After we had listed all the words that described him on the paper, we circled the bad things he STOPPED doing with red and the good things he STARTED doing with green.
Next, we played a math game with the GRINCH game board I frantically made last night. I needed something fast and easy. We used addition and subtraction flashcards with it but you could use spelling or vocabulary words too. Each player starts with 3 chips. The object of the game is to 'give back' your chips by landing on a heart, Max, or Cindy Lou. If you land on the Grinch, you have to take another chip. The winner is the person who gets rid of all his chips first. They had lots of fun playing the game and practiced math facts too. You can download a FREE copy of the game board by clicking on the picture.

Last, we made the cute little Grinch face from Deanna Jump's unit. On the mouth the firsties wrote and drew how they would get the Grinch to grin. They had some great ideas.
I was very pleased with how the day went and glad I finally found a fun, learning, Christmas activity to take the place of Polar Express. I'll be on the look out for ideas to add, so if any one has any PLEASE send them my way.
Oh, and just a reminder- My GIVE AWAY ENDS TOMORROW NIGHT (WEDNESDAY) AT MIDNIGHT UTAH TIME. So if you aren't already a follower and commented you need to do so HERE.
You can enter a second time by linking my give away on your blog and commenting that you did so. Here's all the information again.

I'm excited to see who WINS!

I hope you have found something you can use!
Only 3 more day for me and then Christmas Break here I come. WaHoo!