[snowwhite]

Has anyone had a Polar Express Day in their classroom? If so what sorts of Activities do you do? Did it turn out well? I was thinking of doing this for the last day of school before Christmas break.

[Indiana Teacher]

I may do this as well. I did a search, and here is what I found:

http://www.houghtonmifflinbooks.com/...ducators.shtml

http://www.education-world.com/a_les...esson344.shtml

http://www.teachingheart.net/polar.html

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[Mr. K]

several posts here with great ideas!

[linda2671]

One of our teachers had her classroom in a trailer this year. She put the front end of a train engine on the end of the trailer and surrounded it with Christmas lights. There was one bright light in the middle for the engine's headlight. You could do that on the door to your classroom.

[Toni]

After morning message, we watched the streaming video of the book through BookPals Storytime Online. It's read by Lou Diamond Phillips. I previously found a link that gave me a writing page in the shape of the bell. We wrote about giving the first gift of Christmas.

Then we watched the very beginning of the movie. I stopped it as the boy was to get on the train, them we had lunch and recess.

When lunch was over, I told them they needed tickets. I gave them a ticket & punched it after they sat down. When the movie had hot chocolate, so did we. We ate Milky Way bars, since the middle is snowy-white nougat (like in the book.) At the end of the movie, I gave them each a bell on a red ribbon & their gift from me- a fleece scarf. I told them they would need to be warm in case the Polar Express came for them on Christmas Eve. A few took their ticket with them in case they needed it later!

This is the first year in a while that they all still believe in Santa. We really had a great day.


There are some great activities- mazes, crossword puzzles, coloring pages, etc. on the teacher resource guide through BookPals Storytime Online.

[Teach 5]

Click on the website below. Then go to the Teacher Resources link & scroll down to A Ride On The Polar Express. It has great photos & ideas for a class day.

http://hill.troy.k12.mi.us/staff/bnewingham/myweb3/

[3grteacher]

I think it's www.polarexpress.com

They have worksheets and classroom ideas to incorporate into the "day" of activites.

We are doing a compare and contrast (movie vs. book)

We also do the movie, with tickets. I set the chairs up in front of the TV to look like they are sitting on a train. When we get to the part with the Hot Chocolate, we pass out cups of hot cocoa to the kids.

We had a great time last year. One of the teachers had a train horn and blew it down the hall just as the movie got to the train rolling in.

We are also passing out bells tied with ribbon this year. I love the idea of giving the kids scarfs. That would be pretty easy to make, but I have 32 students. Not sure if I have time for this year. Maybe next year!

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[imacacher]

The Dollar Tree stores have awesome silver bells! They are meant to be ornaments and come in a package of 9 bells. They have a snowflake cut out on the bottom and star cut outs on the top and they are about 1 inch round. I bought three packages of those and two packages of elastic cord at Michaels and I am SOOOO happy with the bells my kiddos will get. <!--CHRISTMAS1-->

Last year, I bought the smaller bells in packages from Michaels, but they weren't very jingly.

[VA teacher]

I did the bells from Dollar Tree. They worked great. I put them in a little snack baggie with a note telling their parents we had watched the polar express in class and each child received their very own jingle bell. I hoped that they heard their bell ring for many years to come. Some of the other teachers liked it they "borrowed" my idea for their rooms.

[mshicks]

My second graders and I did this last year. We wore our pjs to school that day. We made bell necklaces and the students had to give me their ticket to board the train (our chairs lined up in rows). The students watched the movie and we drank hot chocolate. What a fun day!