~The Christmas Countdown ~

[vitamin-d]

I'm intending on doing two lessons for Christmas this year, but so far I only have the material for one.
Please feel free to use this thread to post any ideas/games/worksheets, etc!

Anyway, please find attached something I've been working on for the last couple of weeks 
I hope it's useful to you!

The Christmas Countdown - PPT game
The Christmas Stories - PPT (necessary information for the game)
The Christmas Stories listening task - Worksheet

[The Christmas Stories PPT & Listening Task are to be used together.
The PPT should just play once you open it.
Again, any problems with images/sounds/fonts, just let me know]

The Christmas Countdown Information

A few screens in, a gift will hyperlink you to a digital scoreboard.
To add gifts to a team, click on the reindeer. To remove gifts, click on the gifts.
I would suggest that teams cannot go below 0 in this game. 

To add a shield (invincible) click on the little shield. A second click on the blue shield will remove it.
To return to the main question board click on any number from 1-6.
There is also a hyperlink for question 25 when you are finished.
Question 25 should play automatically. The reindeer are hyperlinked.

Once you have chosen a question, a final click after the last clue will reveal a countdown timer.
Beneath this is a cracker - this is how you return to the main question board.

Everything else should be pretty straight forward!!!

Let me know what you think, and please, use this thread to collaborate some Christmas ideas.
As you can surely tell, I'm excited already!

Edit - The Christmas Stories (Fonts, sigh)

[beccaraella]

this is great stuff, thanks so much for posting!

[kaymac]

I haven't even opened the powerpoint but the description alone gets a round of applause from me. I was proud of myself the day I learned how to hyperlink. Well done!

[shhowse]

You knock my socks off with your amazing material! I can't even begin to calculate how many hours you must put into making these slides shows, but as a fellow high school teacher I say thank you so much for sharing your materials! I can't wait for next year to begin so I can use them!

[vitamin-d]

Glad you could use it! Let me know if you get any more ideas.
I still need to make another lesson somehow...

Anyone have any good ideas on how to get students to decorate the classroom?

[mulletor0012]

snowflake contest!

[andrea_smith]

thanks heaps for sharing for this. you rock my socks 

[Bittens5]

mrspancake.com has Christmas crafts students can make.  Decent variety and they are pretty cute.

[Koradian]

Amazing! A job well done! The students like nothing better than a little competition. I'm confident this is going to go over great with them.

Thanks again!

[vitamin-d]

lol, those doodads on mrspancake are great.
& snowflakes are a good idea too - but I don't know how to make one!
Anyone had any luck getting the students to make Christmas Cards / write letters to Santa before?

[honeymooners]

Here's some stuff I posted earlier for an advent lesson:

http://waygook.org/index.php/topic,2765.0.html

Hopefully some ideas you could use.

Charlie

[Joss]

I made a template they used to write a christmas letter to santa last year. (Can't seem to find it now). Really basic fill in the blanks. Writing the whole letter was too intimidating for my lower level kids.
We had a lesson on toys and typical christmas gifts, but some kids got really creative with their responses. It was fun.

[teacher_del]

Snowflakes:  http://www.firststepsnowflakes.com/

Just google "paper snowflakes" to get lots and lots and lots of instructional pages.  The most basic form, which I teach my kids, is to just fold a paper into quarters, then fold it in half on the diagonal, and then cut the uneven end so it's round.  Then hack holes in the sides and unfold. 

[sarahcanavese]

We have done, "What do you see during Christmas?" And most of the kids were pretty great at drawing Christmas trees and gifts and what not. They all enjoyed it, but it was for the lower level kids in Elementary school. So, I don't know how it would work with High School, but I always loved taking time to colour when I was in school!

[rpgraham]

This looks magnificent.  Thank you!

[vitamin-d]

What do you see during Christmas is a good idea. I want to give them an open lesson basically; lay out a few options for them to decorate the classroom with. They're not very creative without some direction. I know it's not very high school, but this will come just after their exams. I think they need the break. The last lesson of term I'll play The Christmas Countdown 

[shambles2.0]

Hey vitamin-d,

An idea for decorating the classroom that worked great for my high schoolers around Halloween time was to put them in groups and have them make posters.  I printed off something like 15 different Halloween cards with several pictures on each and let them choose from there, or make their own.  For example, a werewolf card with several different pictures that they could recreate or use for inspiration.  Their posters had to have a title and some kind of description, other than that they could do whatever they wanted.  A lot of the posters turned our REALLY great because they had references from the pictures I had printed.  Also, once they saw how much work some students put it they picked up their game because they wanted theirs to be good as well.

It's Thanksgiving and I haven't brought myself to take them down yet.  Will give in sometime today.

Also, you can have all of the students vote and have a prize for the best/most creative/ whatever poster.  Just an idea.

[RufusW]

Great powerpoint.... very rich!

Digital scoreboard: stolen

[vitamin-d]

Posters sound great Shambles, I may very well do that.
As for the digital scoreboard I've made another, more generic, version here:
http://waygook.org/index.php/topic,2824.msg13186/topicseen.html#new

Rufus, do feel free to adapt it and make it better 

[GreenFloyd]

The stories ppt is too hard for my middle school boys, but I'm definitely using your game as a review template the week before Christmas. Thanks for your awesome contrbutions, Dan Man. I really love your stuff.