Kilgore's Kindergarten Communicator

For a Seuss fanatic like myself, of course my favorite Christmas book is The Grinch Who Stole Christmas! We dedicate a whole day to Grinchish activities! The iPad app read us the story, we watched the cartoon version and even made our own Grinches!! I love wearing my Grinch t-shirt and carrying my stuffed Grinch around with me all day.

This year, I had a student ask me something that I have never been asked before. "Why do you like the Grinch? He's mean!" I had to think a minute. Yes, he's mean in the beginning, but he has a change of heart and becomes a different Grinch. I like to think that we can all learn the lesson that he learned..."What if Christmas, he thought, doesn't come from a store. What if Christmas... perhaps... means a little bit more!”

On Friday, December 14th, we learned about Christmas in Mexico. We learned how to say Merry Christmas in Spanish and read The Legend of the Poinsettia by Tomie DePaola. The Legend says that a little girl wanted to give a gift to the baby Jesus but didn't have anything to give. She grabs a clump of green leaves by the church door and presents them to the baby Jesus in the manger. The leaves at the tip of the weeds magically turn a bright red and her gift becomes a beautiful offering.

To remind us of the story, we made our own poinsettia flowers and hung them from the ceiling of our classroom.

Feliz Navidad!

Yesterday, we flew to Ukraine (on Google Earth) and learned about their Christmas customs and celebrations. We learned about a local folk tale about a poor woman who could not afford to decorate her tree for Christmas. On Christmas Eve, a spider that lived in her tree spun a web around her tree. In the morning, the sun shone through the window and the web glistened, decorating her tree. To remember, the people of Ukraine hang a spider web ornament on the tree.

On Monday, we used Google Earth to fly to Germany and learn about the Christmas Tree.

Martin Luther was walking through the forest one Christmas Eve and as he gazed through the tops of the trees, the stars sparked through the branches. To recreate this, he cut down a tree and put it in his home and decorated it with candles.

We didn't use candles on our trees, but silver glitter looks great! Notice our paint "brushes"? They're cedar tree branches!

To kick off our Christmas Around the World unit, Sinter Klass from the Netherlands came to see us after he visited the Dutch children on December 5th! We put our shoes out for him and he came to bring us treats! Good thing his helper, Zwarte Piet, didn't leave us switches!

This has been a CrAzY but fun week here in Kindergarten!  On Monday, we read the book How The Grinch Stole Christmas, watched the cartoon movie version and then compared them.  We then got to make our own craft version of the Grinch. Our outside bulletin board is Grinchtastic!

Our iPads are in! Woo Hoo! Guess what I am doing during the break?! Yep! Getting them all set up for January!

On a side note, I will not be sending folders home again until after the holiday.

MERRY CHRISTMAS!
With Love,

Today, completed our Christmas Around the World unit and we flew to Poland and learned about Polish Christmas customs. On their Christmas dinner table, they lay down straw and cover it with a white sheet to symbolize the Christ Child's birth in a manger.  Like Germany, they also share the custom of putting a spider web ornament on the tree for good luck! We made Polish ornament chains and linked them together to decorate our door!

Next week we will learn about Hanukkah and celebrate Christmas American style!

Today we visited the Ukraine (thanks to Google Earth!) and learned about their custom of placing a spider web on the Christmas tree for good luck. The legend of the web tells of a poor woman who could not afford to decorate a tree for her children. In the morning, the tree's branches were covered with spider webs which turned to silver as soon as the sun rose. In keeping with the Ukrainian tradition, we made spider web ornaments to hang on our trees!

Friday, Poland...

Today we flew (using Google Earth) to the Netherlands ! The Dutch people are famous for bringing Sinter Klass to the world. His name is the origin of the name Santa Claus. On December 5th (today), Dutch children set out their wooden shoes and in the morning they find their surprises.

So, guess what we did? We set our shoes out by the "fire" to see if Sinter Klass would pay us a visit...

 Wednesday, Ukraine...
 

Yesterday we started our christmas Around the World unit. We began our adventure by "flying" to Germany using Google Earth. We learned that Germany is right next to England. We knew where England was because we flew there before Thanksgiving to see where the Pilgrims came from!

Germany is home to many of our Christmas traditions including Gingerbread, the carol "Oh Christmas Tree" and the Christmas tree itself. The legend of the Christmas tree tells us about one Christmas Eve when Martin Luther was walking through the forest.  He saw the stars shining through the trees and thought the sight was so beautiful that he cut down a tree and decorated it with candles.



On Friday, we are traveling to Mexico!