Monday, December 20, 2010

Merry Christmas!

We had lots of fun getting ready for Christmas break, here in 1st grade.  We had some visitors come to our room the last few days.

Mr. Wallace came and read us his favorite Christmas story, The Night Before Christmas.

Santa and one of his elves came by our room and gave us all hats and scarves!

We had our Christmas party on Friday morning.  We had lots of yummy breakfast foods to snack on.  We saved our milk cartons from lunch and used them to make gingerbread houses!









Friday, December 17, 2010

Happy Hanukkah!

Our last country on our trip around the world was Israel.  We learned all about Hanukkah and the traditions they have.  Dominick and Darrius were very happy to have their chance to be tour guides.

Darrius
They say Happy Hanukkah. They light a candle called a Menorah. They play a dreydl. They serve lakes and applesauce.

Dominick
In Israel, they say Happy Hanukkah! They light candles for 8 days. It's called a menorah.  Kids play with a top thats called a dreydl.  The Star of David is important. In Israel, they eat latkes and applesauce.

We made our own menorahs and then tasted latkes at our Christmas party the next day!

Night Tree

Today we worked on making predictions from books.  We learned that sometimes our predictions might change when we get further into a book.  We used the book Night Tree by Eve Bunting.

First we made predictions just by looking at the cover.

Vicente: I think it's about a tree in the night.
Kate: I think it is about a tree.
Nyssa: It's going to tell you about the night.
Kaitlynn:  The night tree is in the night.
Nadia: It's going to be about a Christmas tree.
Darrius: It's a Christmas tree outside.

Then we read all the way to page 13 and made another prediction.

Daniel: They are going to cut down the tree.
Mia: They will cut it down and take it home to decorate it.
Liam: They might get scared.
Dominick: The owl is going to get the people.
Ashley: It is a noise that they're going to hear.
Student: I think the owl is going to tell them a secret.

Next we read page 13 and found out what they were going to do to the tree.

Ethan: They are decorting the tree in the forest.
Javon: They are decorating the tree.
Andrew: The will decorate all the trees.
Catherine: They are going to decorate the tree.

Last, we finished the story and found out they were decorating the tree with food for all the animals in the forest!

Wednesday, December 15, 2010

Gud Jul! from Sweden

Our trip today was to Sweden.  Kaitlynn and Vicente acted as tour guides and taught us all about the Swedish traditions.

Kaitlynn
Little kids dress up like Santa Lucia.  In Sweden, they decorate the tree with candles.  In Sweden, wreaths and advent calendars help them know what the day is.  In Sweden, they eat fish and sweet rolls.

Vicente
In Sweden, they say Gud Jul! They have Santa Lucia. She gives them some food and the girls dress like her.  In Sweden, they put some candles on their Christmas trees.  In Sweden, they use a advent calendar and advent wreath. They eat fish and sweet rolls.

We made our own advent wreaths and then had some yummy sweet rolls!

Tuesday, December 14, 2010

Welcome to The Netherlands!

Our trip today was to The Netherlands.  We had 3 tour guides today.  Ashley, Javon, and Guide #3 had lots of fun learning about the country.

Ashley
Black Pete spanks the bad kids.  Sinterklaas gives the good kids presents.  They leave hay and carrots for the horse in their shoes.  They decorate with candy wreaths.

Javon
They eat candy that looks like fruit.  It is called marzipan.  They also eat a roll that has meat in it.  It is called Kerstkrans.  They use candy to decorate wreaths.

Guide #3
Sinterklaas gives presents to the kids.  Black Pete spanks to the kids.  Sinterklass doesn't have reindeer, he has a white horse.  The kids leave carrots and hay for the horse.

We made wreaths and drew candy all over them.  Then we munched on fruit snacks that represented marzipan.

German Christmas

This morning we learned about Christmas in Germany.  Liam and Nadia were excited to be our tour guides.


Liam
Christkind is tall. She wears white clothes with a golden crown.  Germany has the 1st Christmas trees.  In Germany they eat sausage and cookies that looks like Christmas trees, snowmen, and Gingerbread men.

Nadia
There is a girl named Christkind.  The kids put mail on the window for her.  Christmas trees are important in Germany. Boys dress as kings and they walk around with a star.  They eat sausage and Christmas cookies.

Since the first Christmas trees came from Germany, we made our own trees.  Then we snacked on cookies in Christmas shapes.

Monday, December 13, 2010

Italia for Christmas!

Guon Natale! We spent the day learning about Christmas in Italy.  Kate and Andrew took over as tour guides for the day.
Kate
La Befana gives them presents.  She is a witch.  Kids knock on the doors and sing songs.  On the shelves of the ceppo tree, they put things that are important to them.  At Christmas, they eat bread and spaghetti and lasagna.

Andrew
La Befana doesn't have a sled, but she has a rake.  Even when she doesn't look pretty, they still like her.  On Christmas, the kids knock on the door and then sing Merry Christmas.  They eat bread and spaghetti.

We made puppets of the witch, La Befana. Then we snacked on a loaf of Italian bread!

Thursday, December 9, 2010

Christmas in France

We spent the morning in France! Amy and Ethan acted as our tour guides and have lots to share with you.
Amy
In France, they say Joyeux Noel!  Pere Noel leaves presents.  They put the presents in their shoes, hanging under the fireplace.  They have Nativity scenes that have babies and moms and animals and angels in them.

Ethan
Pere Noel brings presents to kids and he leaves stuff on the trees.  They put presents in their shoes.  Their food is Buche de Nol.  It is kind of like a brownie.

When they were all finished making a door hanger for Pere Noel, they enjoyed eating Buche de Nol, or Christmas log.

Wednesday, December 8, 2010

Feliz Navidad!

Today we traveled to Mexico! Nyssa and Catherine are our tour guides for today.
Nyssa
In Mexico, they have poinsettias.  It is a flower shaped like a star.  It is red with yellow seeds.  They have pinatas.  When they pop it out, it has presents in there with all kinds of candy.

Catherine
In Mexico they eat tamales and drink hot chocolate.  They walk around in a parade for 9 nights. It's called posadas and they hold candles.  After the parade, they play the game whack the pinata.  In the pinata, there are fruit, presents and candy.

After making poinsettias, Nyssa and Catherine sipped on some hot chocolate.

Tuesday, December 7, 2010

Christmas Around the World

For the next 2 weeks, we will be studying Christmas all around the world. We have plane tickets to each of our destinations and Passports to record our travels.  In each country, we will be creating a craft and sampling traditional food.

We started out in the United States.  Daniel and Mia were our tour guides for the day.

Mia: Santa's sled has 8 reindeer.  They eat cranberry sauce.  They say Merry Christmas.  They send Christmas cards.  We sent cards that are pretty.

Daniel:  In the United States we eat ham and turkey.  Santa has 8 reindeer pulling his sleigh. 
Santa wears a red suit.

After learning about the different customs, Daniel and Mia enjoyed snacking on turkey and cranberry sauce.