{"id":683,"date":"2013-12-01T19:57:21","date_gmt":"2013-12-02T01:57:21","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.kristendembroski.com\/?p=683"},"modified":"2013-12-28T09:46:41","modified_gmt":"2013-12-28T15:46:41","slug":"its-beginning-to-look-a-lot-like","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.kristendembroski.com\/?p=683","title":{"rendered":"It’s Beginning to Look a Lot Like…"},"content":{"rendered":"

It’s December – YAY! I am officially ready to hear Christmas music and get in the holiday spirit. Bring on the red Starbuck’s cups, tinsel, and all the other Holly Jolly.<\/p>\n

So we have 3 full weeks until Winter Break – a long haul for the students, especially since we are working on our Argument Unit<\/a> and there is a lot of work yet to do. I used a countdown clipboard last year, and this seemed to help. I would refer to it whenever students seemed to have zoned out – “Guys, we still have X days left.” They understood the visual reminder that we aren’t there yet<\/em><\/span>. It’s not time to check out, people!<\/p>\n

\"Christmas<\/a><\/p>\n

It is a very simple project to create this Countdown Clipboard. The backing is just wrapping paper that I cut to fit, then laminated. I did this so I could change out the backing to match any other time of year (ex: Countdown to Summer). The numbers are index cards, also laminated.<\/p>\n

I like to put a student in charge of changing the numbers. In 8th grade, this is a fun project for students – they often fight over who gets to make the switch each morning.<\/p>\n

As long as we’re talking about getting into the holiday spirit, why not show you a picture of my tree? Yes, we do own a bigger tree, but we felt it was best to put up the little tree this year since we are still house-training our new dog, Ruffy. From a dog’s perspective, I imagine it’s pretty confusing to have a tree indoors that you aren’t allowed to pee on, amiright? Both my husband and I are allergic to pine, so we’ve always had a synthetic tree. One of my favorite holiday stories involves 2 special, identical ornaments on our tree. We both received the same ornament the year we were born, and we’ve been hanging on to them ever since. I put them side-by-side on the tree and love seeing that we were meant for each other from the start. We also have a pickle hiding in our tree – a Scandinavian tradition (you’ll never spot it in this photo!).<\/p>\n

\"Christmas<\/a><\/p>\n

Have you begin getting ready for the holiday season?<\/p>\n

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