Holidays Around the World and Holiday Hike

 

Holidays Around the World

This month we will be studying holidays around the world...learning traditions through books, poems, and projects. We will be learning about St. Nicholas Day (The Netherlands), Diwali (India), Hanukkah (Israel), China (Chinese New Year) and Mexico (Las Pasadas) as well as our own Christmas traditions. 

 

 

The kids really enjoyed sharing their holiday dolls with the class. I showed the kids my over-sized maps of the seven continents that we placed on the rug to map out where each doll was from.  During our share we talked about the difference between a continent, country, and city.  12 of our class dolls are from Europe, 3 from Asia, and 1 doll for North America.  Thank you for helping your child with this project.  We are looking forward to sharing our family traditions from this week's homework on Friday.  I find it so interesting how different or similar our family traditions can be when we share with one another.  I hope the kids enjoy learning from each other, too!

 

 

Holiday Hike:  

As we focus on family traditions and celebrate holidays this month, we will read the book, The Night Tree by Eve Bunting. As a follow-up to this story, the students will hike on the trails next to the playground and decorate trees for the animals. All family members are welcome to join us. Hot chocolate and muffins will be enjoyed by all after the hike. We will be going out at 11:00 on Friday, December 19th with a snow date on Monday, December 22nd at 11:00. This activity is in lieu of a holiday party. We hope you can join us!

 

We will be doing a book swap at the party. Please bring in a used book from your child's book shelf that your child is willing to part with that is wrapped like a holiday present. (please do not go out and buy a new book!)  When we arrive back from the holiday hike we will do our book swap.   I will read the kids the book How the Grinch Stole Christmas by Dr. Seuss.  Each time I read the word 'Grinch' in the story, the kids will pass the book along to the person sitting next to them.  When the story is complete, the students will unwrap their new book and have a new story to read over winter break! 

*I have plenty of books that I can contribute to the swap, so if your family does not have a book to wrap, please let me know! I still have boxes filled at my house of children's books that I have inherited, so please let me know if I can help!