It's beginning to look a lot like....

Last week was our first full week where we were doing all sorts of fun "christmasy" things! We had started out the week before doing sweet Mrs. Cooley's Christmas Around the World mini-book. This book was adorable and it was great to do something were I knew my students were gaining an appreciation for other cultures. We did one page a day and reviewed the other countries.

 We finished up our study on Thursday and then had a Christmas Around the World feast on Friday! It was so fun. We made place mats for our feast for each country we "visited".

We ate tacos, yule logs (swiss cake rolls), cakes, gingerbread, and honey buns. Before the feast we also opened Christmas crackers! These are a tradition in Britain that my family does so I brought some for them. They loved it! Here is what our feast looked like:

In other "christmasy" things:
We did the best gift of all courtesy of Cara Carroll! The tree is made out of all of their handprints!

We also read "If You Take a Mouse to the Movies" by Laura Numeroff. We were reviewing last week so this book was perfect for sequence of events. We filled out a plot chart, from the teacher wife's amazing reading comprehension packet. Then using these pictures I think from Sarah Cooley they had to put the events in order.

Also, as a treat I gave them some popcorn just like the mouse!

 We also did some gingerbread stuff! We taste tested it, and wow all of my kids loved gingerbread!

 And we did a fun glyph!

Whew! 8 days left!

The Holiday Season has Begun!

So, we gave ourselves a break before we jumped into holiday decorating after all the gobble gobble! We started to make our costumes for Thursday today, and boy are they going to look adorable! I am so impressed, all of my readers have their lines memorized! I hope to see all my parents on Thursday! :)

I decorated the classroom with some festive holidays around the world symbols. We have a menorah for Hanukkah, a kinara for Kwanzaa, and a tree for Christmas. We have been discussing all about these holidays, and how it is important to know about different cultural celebrations.

Today, we discussed all about their favorite Christmas topic...GIFTS! Instead of talking about toys, games, and bikes we talked about the things we sometimes forget about during the holidays. I gave them the sentence "The best gift of all is.." I was so happy to hear of all the things they are thankful for and think is the best gift. We then wrapped them up in a bow and this is what they looked like:

It was so sweet to see what they hold dear! Thank to Mrs. Carroll at The First Grade Parade for your inspiration!

After we put them all together, we made a beautiful Christmas tree out of our handprints! 

Stay tuned...there is more to come! 

-Ms. Thomas :)