Christmas Around the World - Week 1

Please excuse the picture quality on this post today.  Sometimes you just have one of those days, and yesterday was one of them!  After hunting down the camera that had been left under a pile of papers at school (imagine???), I discovered that the battery was in my other bag. . .  The bag that was hanging on the hook at home!  So with few other options, I had to pull out my old cell phone camera.  Most might not see this as a problem, but my cell phone is not like all the rest!  In fact, Verizon keeps sending me little notes and coupons telling me it is time to upgrade!  The phone is pushing 3 years old. . .  and in cell phone years that is ancient!  It does not have internet capabilities and its camera. . .  well it takes pictures!!  

However, putting all of that aside, I was able to document a few of the projects we have been up to this week.  We start our day at morning line.  We greet each other, share news and events, practice our sounds, read the good morning chart, practice sight words in a poem and now conclude the session by opening an envelope from the tree.  Each envelope contains a special craft or project that we will do that day in celebration of our study of Christmas around the world.

This week we started by making cranberry and popcorn garlands, Hanukkah menorahs from our hands, birdseed ornaments and white clay ornaments.  We will conclude the week with a trip to the Christmas tree farm on Friday.

We have made a map of the World, and the children have eagerly begun labeling it as we learn more and more about winter celebrations around the world.  So far we have located Israel and Russia as we read stories about Hanukkah, including Patricia Polacco's The Trees of the Dancing Goats.