Grinch Day in Grade 4 and 5

Every year, my students and I have a Grinch Day during the last week before Christmas holidays.  It's a day that we all look forward to.  We dress up in green and lots of kids come dressed up as either the Grinch or as a character from Whoville.  I love seeing how creative they can be!  Last year, the costumes were so amazing that our picture was even in the paper! I wish I had more pictures to share with you, but I get so caught up in the festivities that I forget to take the camera out!  

We start off the day by reading How the Grinch Stole Christmas.  Since I teach in a French school, this is part of our English Language Arts block.  We discuss the story and make comparisons between the book, the animated movie and the Jim Carrey movie.  I also take the time to tell the kids about Dr. Seuss.

We listen to the song and sing along and I then teach my lesson on similes and metaphors.  The Grinch theme song is absolutely perfect for that!  There are so many great comparisons and examples of imagery.  We find all the comparisons in the lyrics, then the kids illustrate their favourite one.  My 4s and 5s really enjoyed this activity.

That usually brings us to snack and recess time.  This year, I baked Grinch Crinkle cookies.  My son thought they were too sweet, but my students loved them.  Unless they were just being polite and said that not to hurt my feelings...I have that kind of amazing group of kids this year. A student also brought Grinch Kabobs!  How cute are those?!

After recess, we had our French Language Arts class.  We came up with a list of Grinchy Adjectives in French and found all the antonyms for them.  The kids then wrote a descriptive paragraph about the Grinch using those adjectives.  For Math class, we played a fun game of Grinch Multiplication Scoot that I made for my own use.  Unfortunately, I can't share the cards I made because of copyright laws, but here's another version I made so you can see what it looks like.  

Because this was during the week before the break, there were a lot of disruptions during the day.  After gym class, I thought it would be fun to make Christmas ornaments and decorations in a grinchy theme while watching the animated version of How the Grinch Stole Christmas.  

It was a great day!  I look forward to Grinch Day every year and when I announce it to the class, there's always a big cheer.  Next year, I plan on having a theme for every day of the last week before break.  I also intend on planning some stations and centres for those days.  Hopefully, I can find the time during the next 365 days to create those!

Do you do themed days in your class?  Do you have any suggestions, advice, ideas to share with me?