Monday, we learned about Hanukkah. Our class read The Count's Hanukkah Countdown which I had picked up at the book fair this year. Being a Sesame Street lover, I just couldn't resist! The kids loved the story. It taught about the history of the holiday as well as some of the celebrations people have. Then we researched the holiday on PebbleGo, too. We were happy that we had our background schema so we could understand PebbleGo more easily! After we were done, we created handprint menorahs. I found them on Dr. Jean's website. She is a fabulous resource for teachers! Then the students wrote down facts they had learned about Hanukkah.
We also learned about Kwanzaa this week. We researched the holiday on PebbleGo and learned quite a bit of good information! We used our new knowledge to write some sentences about the holiday, then we created a beautiful Kwanzaa quilt. Since the kids have already woven with Ms. Carney in art class, they had a pretty easy time. I was very impressed! Usually weaving is ridiculously difficult, but we powered through it and helped one another! I must say that I am extremely grateful to have a class full of helpers. They'd rather help each other finish projects than go to Free Daily 5. What a blessing!
We also learned about Christmas around the world, researching on PebbleGo once again! (It never gets old!!!) I told the students about how the tradition of wreaths started in England. We found England on a map and made connections to the Pilgrims and how that's where they came from! Very exciting. Then the students created wreath ornaments to take home and hang up on their trees, windows, or doors. These are absolutely beautiful!
Our class also traveled to Mexico to learn about how they celebrate Christmas there, too. We read The Legend of the Poinsettia and talked about Las Posadas. Then we created our own poinsettias by tracing our hands. We were very interested to learn that the red part of the plant is actually leaves!
Friday was all about Christmas in Germany. We read Cobweb Christmas and learned about the tradition of tinsel. This is a wonderful story about a little old woman who had a Christmas tree in her house. One Christmas Eve, Kriss Kringle lets the spiders back into her home to see her beautiful tree. When they're climbing around her tree, they leave cobwebs everywhere. Kriss Kringle turns the cobwebs into silver and gold tinsel. We learned that many German families even place spider ornaments on their trees! I also taught the kids about another German tradition of the pickle ornament. Parents hide one pickle ornament on their tree. Whichever child finds the ornament first will get an extra present from Kriss Kringle. We made our own pickle ornaments and are hoping Santa might leave us an extra gift! :)
We also made nutcrackers. I had seen this idea on Pinterest and loved it! Using toilet paper rolls and construction paper, we put together our nutcrackers after we read the story as a class. Since first grade won a popcorn party for bringing the most toys in for Toys for Tots (yay!) we also got to watch Carebears Nutcracker movie, too. We had a great Friday!
We were such busy bees this week! We also researched reindeer on PebbleGo and learned another name for them is caribou! We talked about adjectives and created Bubble Maps for candy canes after reading Gingerbread Mouse which is a very cute story about a little mouse who moves into a gingerbread house. We also created a couple class books and will be working on more next week, too!
I am very excited for next week. I can't wait for the holiday party and sing-along on Friday! :)
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