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The Polar
Express by
Chris
Van Allsburgh |
Have a Polar
Express Day in your class! The photos below depict some of the
activities I've done with my class and information regarding the
resources I used to make this an exciting day for the children. My
students loved wearing pajamas to school! |
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Get
the room ready by placing chairs in rows to simulate a train car. |
I
taped a silver bell to the bottom of each chair. After reading the
story to the children, I "accidentally" bumped into one of the
chairs to make the bell ring. After investigating, they each found
the bell under their seat. |
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I
handed these tickets (or boarding passes) to the children as they
entered the classroom. Before they boarded the train, I blew a train
whistle and called, "All Aboard". I used a Christmas tree hole punch
at the bottom of the ticket as I collected them and they boarded our
train. (I returned the tickets to them at the end of the day to keep
as a souvenir.) Thanks to Colleen for allowing us to download the
tickets from her site:
http://www.teachingheart.net/roundtrippolarexpressticket.doc
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And
we're off! I dim the lights and read the book to the children.
Watching the video (if you can find it) might be even more
effective. |
We
found the bells under our seats! |
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We had hot chocolate (with a candy cane
for stirring) and a donut to warm up after the cold ride to the
North Pole. |
The
teacher next door placed another bell in each child's locker while
we were "riding" The Polar Express. |
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I
also purchased jingle bell necklaces from Oriental Trading for a
souvenir. |
Mrs.
McGowan's site has a Winter Train Ride booklet on her side that she
uses as a response activity. You can view the pages her class made
and download the book at the end.
http://www.mrsmcgowan.com/winter/train_start.htm |
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We
sequenced these pictures from the book. I just made six boxes on a
train template and the children glued them down. The pictures are
from the Dec/Jan 2003-2004 issue of The Mailbox.
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This art project
was done in Ms. Hatherill's class. An outline of a train was traced
with pencil on the construction paper. It was colored in with chalk
and then the chalk was rubbed in one direction to look like the
train was speeding and the snow was blowing past. Finally,
snowflakes were made by dipping fingers and Q-tips in white tempera
paint. |
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