Christmas, Christmas All Around

This years seems to flying by and Christmas is approaching so fast.  Christmas at school is one of my favorite times.  It's great to see the excitement of a child, as they see the lights on the Christmas tree, sing a Christmas song or when they make a Christmas craft.  So many of kids are experiencing things for the very first time, and I as a kindergarten teacher get share it with them.  We have been so busy and I know the next 9 school days will be world wind, but lots of memories will be made for some 5 and 6 year olds.
Take a look at some of the Christmas learning and fun we have been having.

 In the last week of November we studied Winter Celebrations around the world.  We had lots of fun and make a winter celebration book with pictures, crafts and information.  The kids loved it, and I including them learned a lot.  We learned about Christmas in Sweden, Holland and Mexico.  We also learned about Kwanzaa and Hannukah.  On last day we talked about the nativity.  That was the first time in 22 years I was able to tell the story of Jesus birth.  It felt very strange but great.  

 This little Santa has been welcoming my K-Crew kids for years.  He usually spends the Christmas season in the hall for all to see, but this year he came in to visit us in our room.  He sits in the room and watches all the boys and girls.  He gets lots of love and hugs.

We wrote about Santa. We labeled the things that Santa has and then went back and described Santa using color words.  The kids used the map to complete their writing each day.

I have not made this Santa in several years, but thought it was time give it another try.  The kids loved making him.  Some of them wanted wear him on their heads like a hat.  My husband then helped me and my short self out and put up all 22 Santas.  Wow! That's a lot of Santas.

I always love our gingerbread week.  I decided this year to make a different gingerbread and he turned out very cute. But.....with 22 kids he takes up two boards.  We used a regular sized paper plate.  Next year we will be using smaller ones.  :-)

Here are some of the big cuties up close.

Here is our gingerbread thinking map.  He turned out cute. The kids loved him.  We labeled him and then they practiced labeling their own gingerbread.  We also used the thinking map to write about our gingerbread man or girl all week. 

 I always love reading all of the gingerbread stories.  They are great to use to talk about the different parts of a story.  Each day I made a thinking map of the story that we read, and then they completed their own independently.

Here is some of my modeled writing.  Yes....I do know how to spell, but I let the kids tell me how to spell the words.  Our rule is...if it is up in the room we have to spell it correctly.  

 Merry Christmas

Lisa

K-Crew Kids Rock

Hide Turkey Hide

It's always so much fun have our K-Crew disguise their turkey's with their families each year.  We always get some of the cutest projects.  I think some of these turkeys are safe from being eaten since they are disguised so well.  :-)  Take a look at their great work.

Lisa

K-Crew Kids Rock

Veterans' Day

We had a great time learning about how we celebrate the lives of Veterans. We learned how veterans are men and women that are serving now or have served in the past.  We then made a thinking map of the things we know about an American Soldier or Veteran.  Take a look at our Veteran/Soldier thinking map, and our great craft that I got from Teachers Pay Teachers (Deanna Jump).

Veterans/Soldier Thinking Map

Lisa

K-Crew Kids Rock

American Symbols

In unit 2 of Language Arts we studied about American Symbols.  Our students always enjoy learning about symbols.  They love it, because they can pick up the skills so quickly.  It is very easy for them.  Look at at some of the great work we did.

Here is our board with all of our great work.  

The Statue of Liberty tree map and craft.  I noticed when  I uploaded the pictures that a word fell off of my  tree map.  Hmmm.

Statue of Liberty Craft.  The fireworks are made by thinning paint so that it is the constancy that can easily be blown around with a straw.  Use a dropper to drop the liquid on the paper and then have the students blow through a straw to spread the fireworks out.  

The American Flag tree map

American flag made my painting their hand and pressing down on the paper.  The stars are fingerprints.

The Bald Eagle Tree Map.  

The Bald Eagle 

Lisa

K-Crew Kids Rock

It's Pumpkin Carving Time

It is always exciting when it comes to the time of the year, that we can carve a pumpkin.  It is surprising how many kids have never carved a pumpkin or had a chance to  touch the inside of a pumpkin.  There were lots of laughs, giggles, ooooh, and much more.  Fun was had by all.

Since it was very near to the presidential election.....we had an election to see what kind of face our pumpkin would have.  

Here is the results of our election.  They did a great job counting the tally marks.  

Beginning the carving of the pumpkin.

After they each had a chance to come and stick their hands in the  pumpkin and pull out the seeds, I cleaned the rest of the pumpkin out.  As you see....Mrs. Ring can be very silly.  :-)

Here we are carving the face.  They were very excited.

The finished jack -o-lantern.

Very pretty.

Lisa

K-Crew Kids Rock