Before school let out, we were so busy. I have decided to tackle everything in one blog post because I do not know when my next free moment will be. As you might experience, after Christmas is spent getting together with friends that were traveling during the holiday or are visiting from out of town. Each night this week seems to be filled with a dinner.
We work on two major projects during the holiday season. First, in Language Arts, we focus on the story of the Gingerbread Man. We read various versions and do different activities. One of the activities that I love is a gingerbread man glyph. The students answer questions about themselves and create a gingerbread man to match how they answered. For example, the gingerbread vest color corresponds to their student's favorite season. The students learn about each other and have fun doing it.
We do many other activities including sequencing, character analysis, problem and solution, etc. We also write a paragraph on "how to catch the gingerbread man".
From the beginning of December to the break, we take a trip around the world in social studies. We learn about continents and countries, traveling to different places to see how they celebrate the holiday season. The students receive a passport and suitcase for the journeys. Each country is found on a map and colored. Each students gets a sticker for visiting each country, and they color the countries flag to place on the outside of their suitcase.
Many backpackers do something similar. When they travel to different countries they buy patches to sow onto their large backpack. Before I became a teacher, I backpacked across South America with a friend who is now a teacher in England. I saw many backpacks adorned with patches from all over the world. It is incredible how traveling changes a person. Maybe I will write about my travels in a different blog entry, but traveling is one of my passions and definitely a hobby of my husband and mine.
We visited Mexico, France, Germany, Israel, and the United States of America. We started in Mexico and learned about Las Posadas. Then, we went to France and learned about Pere Noel and Le Creche. After that, we went to Germany and learned about Christmas trees and St. Nicholas Day. When we traveled to Israel we learned about Hanukkah. Finally, in the USA we discussed Kwanzaa. Each country and holiday came with an article and comprehension sheet. We also did a craft to represent something that we learned.
This poinsettia represented "Las Posadas" when people decorate their homes with this beautiful flower. Legend has it that a girl wanted to bring a gift to the baby Jesus and only had weeds, but an angel changed them into a red poinsettia. The poinsettia was a new flower and considered a Christmas flower from the beginning.
The students drew these with guidance. They turned out beautiful. I followed these instructions found at Art Projects for Kids.
We incorporated math into the creation of a Christmas tree to represent Germany.
I cut different length strips and had students line them up from longest to shortest. Then, they were allowed to decorate them with ornaments. The last step was to add falling snow to the night sky.
Germany is credited for starting the Christmas tree tradition that we have today. Although, evergreens were used for centuries before that, dating back to before the Egyptian Dynasties. Egyptians worshiped Ra the sun god. During the winter when the days were shorter, the sun god was said to be sick, but when the winter solstice arrived, it marked the time when the sun god would get better. Many people used evergreens to remind them of the time when all the green plants would grow again after the winter solstice. German's decorated trees in their homes and outside. It is also widely believed that Martin Luther, the reformer who started the Lutheran religion, was the first to put candles on a Christmas tree. Today, we use lights instead of candles. My family is Lutheran, so as a child, I grew up with the story of Martin Luther. It made me excited to be both German and Lutheran. It also made me love Christmas trees because they represented a part of my heritage during the Christmas season.
It is my hope, that during this unit, every student learns something about their culture and a friends culture. I want them to understand that culture is important. We are all American, but there is another part to who we are. I learned to embrace my German heritage, taking the bad with the good. I want my students to want to explore their heritage and love where they come from.
