Panashe's Tradition

Panashe and his family have a very entertaining family tradition! Each Christmas Eve they have a sing/dance off between the boys and girls. Panashe, his mom, and his sister told us all about the tradition. They also get new Christmas jammies to wear on Christmas Eve while they sing. We had a wonderful time singing Jingle Bells in the classroom!

Mimi's Tradition

Mimi and her family celebrate Christmas and use the advent calendar. Her mom brought in their advent tree and Mimi showed us the activities they have done each day as they pull out the secret activity of the day. This day it was to visit Santa- yay! Other times they were to take a bubble bath, make a gingerbread house, decorate the Christmas tree, and buy a toy for another child in need. They also brought in another advent calendar for us to participate. Each child was able to pull an ornament from the daily pocket and hang it on the tree!

Joe's Tradition

Joe and his siblings make salt dough cookies every year with his grandma while his mom and dad shop for PRESENTS!!! His mom came in to help us make them too. We mixed the ingredients, kneaded the dough, rolled it out, and cut out shapes to make ornaments. What a fun tradition!

Willa's Tradition

Willa and her mom shared several of their traditions with the class. Every year they choose a service project to do as a family to help others in need. This year Willa and her brother chose to make blankets for other children in need. The next phase of their holiday was to make cookies! They made 5 different types of cookies this year to give to friends and family. Then they pick out new decorations and ornaments for their house. They collect nutcrackers that are set out on display. Each Christmas Eve they go to their family's house and wear funny Christmas hats! Willa also brought us her stocking to share with us!

Evelyn's Tradition

Evelyn and her mom joined us to talk about their tradition of making ornaments each year! Each holiday season they make new ornaments to hang on their tree together. They brought in ornaments for each of us to make and take home. We even added our pictures for a personal touch. Thanks Evelyn!

Evelyn colored this ornament of a reindeer and will add it to her tree. 

This is a baby picture of Evelyn that her mom framed and made into an ornament!

Evelyn and her mom had reindeer, Santa, and snowmen ornaments to choose.  

Sophia made a reindeer ornament. 

Sarah's Tradition

Sarah shared with the class that she and her family LOVE making winter cards and snowflakes. She also LOVES to make.....snow icecream!!!! Sarah brought in the special recipe for everyone to take home and make for themselves this winter! She brought in paper and stickers for everyone to create a snowflake winter card for each other. Thanks Sarah!

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Witt Family Tradition

Lucy's family celebrates St. Lucia day on December 13. The oldest daughter in the family dresses up as St. Lucia. If there are little brothers then they can dress up as St. Lucia's brothers. Lucy dresses up because she shares the name even though she has an older sister. In her family they call it St. Lucy day! They eat cinnamon rolls in the morning. 

We planted wheat grass because a long time ago, the people of Sweden prayed to St. Lucia because they needed food. A ship came with a bunch of wheat and they were able to make food! 

Family Traditions: Tyler

Tyler and his mom share a very unique and special tradition. When Tyler's mom was a child her dad would read her T'was the Night Before Christmas each Christmas Eve. Now that she is grown up, she has passed this on to share with Tyler. Tyler and his cousins Facetime with each other and his grandpa each Christmas Eve while his grandpa reads the book to them. They have a copy of the book too so they can follow along as he reads. His cousins live in Utah but they are still able to be together for this tradition on Christmas Eve. How special!!

Family Traditions: Reagan

Reagan and her mom came to share about many of their special traditions they do during Christmas. They spend the Christmas season doing special activities with friends and family. One of their favorite activities is to make Christmas cards for people using cut outs of previous Christmas cards they received the year before. Reagan put all of our names in a stocking and let each child pick a name. Then her mom passed out cards, markers, stickers, and envelopes and we all made a card for our secret friend!

Reagan and her mom collect nutcrackers. They get a new one every year!

 

They watch Christmas movies on TV throughout all of December. 

Last year they decorated their car with antlers and lost one! This year their car will be an elf!

When Reagan and her family go on vacation they buy an ornament for their tree. 

They make silly photo cards to send out each year. This was Reagan when she was little. 

Family Traditions: Cole

This week we began sharing our family traditions in our classroom! Cole and his mom were the first to share. Each year Cole and his brother decorate cookies with his mom. They have cookie cutters that his mom used when she was young! Cole even wants to start a tradition of making Star Wars cookies! When their cookies are baked and iced, they leave them out for Santa on a very special plate. Thanks for sharing Cole!

Main Idea/Holiday Traditions: Hanukkah

Throughout December we will celebrate the traditions we celebrate in our own community as well as learn about others around the world. We are also learning about finding the main idea of a topic when we read. Our kiddos are so smart that they can also take this main idea and write about it with supporting details. The best part of this is...wait wait.....we are learning how to "hook" our readers so they will want to read our writing!! How do we do this? We use "hooks" in our introductions. There are 4 types of hooks that your first graders are using. We use the acronym of BELT to remember.

B: Brain: ask a question
E: Eyes: describe what you see
L: Lips: a character is talking
T: Throat: a noise word 

These are catchy ways to "hook" a reader as soon as they begin reading to keep their interest! As we learned about the traditions of Israel and Hanukkah we determined the main idea and used a brain hook to get started. Look at the many different questions the students came up with below. 

Stay tuned to learn about other holidays around the world!