Inside: Christmas activities in our Grade 1 classroom.
Last night our school had a Christmas Dance instead of a concert. I have to say I was happily surprised at how much fun it was!
One of our Kindergarten teachers was the DJ (an amazing one I might add) and he had the coolest lighting system ~ a very disco feel.
It was so much fun to see all the kids busting out their moves and to see the little girls in their sparkly party dresses:) And everyone was so well behaved!! I was super impressed.
Tomorrow the whole school is going to be treated with a pancake breakfast and a visit from Santa.
Afterwards we’re going to write a thank you letter. You can grab the template if you think it might be useful (link is below).
DOWNLOAD: POEM AND LETTER TEMPLATE
Here’s a peak at some of the stuff we’ve been up to lately.
We made some paper chain Xmas trees to help decorate our gym for the dance. I have to say, they looked really pretty hanging all around. We did them with our buddy class so there were just over 40 of them.
We had some fun using this December calendar from First Grade Wow (scroll to the bottom of her post for the calendar link). The best part was colouring in all the special days in December.
After reading our patterned Santa Claus and Ginger Boy books, the kids wrote their own patterned stories. You can grab the books and writing template here.
We’re doing Christmas Around the World. We started off with Canada where we brainstormed our Canadian Christmas traditions. The kids then completed a little sheet showing where Canada is on the world map and writing a sentence and drawing a picture about one of the ways their family celebrates Christmas.
They also decorated a suitcase pocket folder. We’ll be collecting “stamps” from the various countries we visit.
After Canada, we visited Mexico. The kids completed a similar sheet and then they made poinsettias.
Our next stop was Norway. We read the most beautiful book called The Christmas Wish and then headed outside to sprinkle around bird seed. We also attached a suet feeder to our classroom window.
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We did all of this because caring for the birds is part of the Norwegian Christmas custom. They make a sheath of wheat stalks tied together with ribbon (called a Julenek) to put out for the birds.
I’m not sure where we’re “headed to” next week, but I think we can fit in two more countries.
I love your little books that the kids made themselves! I hope you don't mind, but I may steal the idea for later in the year. We usually have a Sweetheart Dance for Valentine's Day. It is always very well attended and the kids come very dressed up. Our Christmas program is tomorrow, with all of the snow days we have had, I'm not sure how it is going to go. My firsties haven't had music for 2 weeks. I always enjoy your posts! :)Kelly I'm Not Your Grandpa, I'm Your Teacher
Love your ideas for around the world celebrations!
How about Idaho? Who cares if it's not a country? :)❀ TammyForever in First
I love that you are promoting thankfulness in your students with the thank you letter! Many children and adults could develop this skill a bit more. 🙂 The Santa Claus, Santa Claus books turned out wonderfully!LoriConversations in Literacy