This year, I’m going to do something a little different than I usually do. I promise I’m a good teacher. I always invent new games and activities for my students. And I hand out plenty of surprises. This year, however, I want to make it a little more special. I’m planning on celebrating Halloween, Thanksgiving, and Christmas. I never celebrate Halloween or Thanksgiving. I just don’t. And I want to change. I want to constantly strive to be a better teacher for my students. I’m planning some surprises for my students this year and I’m very excited.
For Halloween, I’ve already bought spooky candy that I’m going to hand out during lessons. And I want to have them do a “candy cane challenge” to see who can learn the most songs. I think I’ll have them compete against my other students. There should also be a bonus challenge on who practices the most or who improved the most by Christmas. I want to get them excited about learning. I used to have a star challenge where they earn stars for practicing and they can redeem the stars for a gift. This year, I’m still brainstorming, but I want to do something similar. I was also thinking of having students try the challenge to learn a set of songs I picked. And they have to play them perfectly to earn a Christmas gift. I have so many ideas, and I want to implement them all.
I’m still brainstorming on what to do for Thanksgiving. I’m thinking on giving a worksheet packet and using that as a token to get candy. It’s really easy to reward kids because they like candy or they like toys.
I’m also hoping that this will make me excited for the holidays. I love this time of year and I’ve always wanted to share it with my students. I’m thinking of getting them Christmas books as their Christmas presents because they keep asking for them. And I want to make them piano ornaments! There are so many ideas!
Let me know what you think and what you do for your students during this time of year! 🌲 ❄️
Pocketfuloflearning 