Gingerbread Men

     It is Gingerbread Man week in our class.  We will be reading many different versions of the story.   We will compare how the stories are alike and different by looking at the story elements - characters, setting, problem and ending.  Yesterday we started with the book by Karen Schmidt.

     After reading the story, we sequenced, drew and labeled the characters on our own papers.

     Today our book was, The Gingerbread Boy by Paul Galdone.  We then compared it with the story from yesterday.  The students were quick to point out that the characters and ending were different from the Schmidt version of the story. 

     We started writing our own books about the gingerbread man.  Students are using the frame, "I can run from a _____".  They are responsible for writing all the words and illustrating the pictures. 

Holidays Around the World

We started our unit, Holidays Around the World, in our own country. The activity pages for this unit were stapled into a file folder. A cardboard handle was added to the top so the file looks like a small suitcase. The students drew red stripes on the handle to make it look like a candy cane.

We began the unit by discussing the traditions our own families honor. It was decided that most of our families put up a Christmas tree, hang our stockings, exchange gifts and have a visit from Santa.

In our "suitcase" we found the United States on a world map and colored it in. On the next page was a map of the United States where we found our state of Colorado and colored it.

We looked at our U.S. flag and talked about how it looked. The students were excited to notice that our flag has a pattern on it. (Since our math unit on patterns, we have been finding patterns every where!)

Today we began talking about the holiday traditions and customs of Germany. On the Promethean board, I used Google Earth to show the children where we were in Colorado. Then we flew across the ocean and landed in Germany. What a great tool to visualize traveling around the world!

Our class learned that the Christmas tree  originated in Germany and is called the tannenbaum. Families gather together and enjoy baking together. One of the favorite cookies to make is gingerbread. Therefore, this week our class will be participating in many gingerbread men and Christmas tree activities.

In our suitcase of activity pages, we found Germany on our world map. Our word this week is compare.  So we compared our country to Germany and noticed that Germany is smaller than the United States. To color in the Germany flag, we had to research on the internet what colors to use because no one knew.

I am surprised and excited about how interested the students are in their maps and flags. One little guy chose to finish coloring his flag instead of going to recess. Now that is something!

In math, we started our new unit on measuring. We traced our shoe and cut out the shoe print. The students then measured how many unifex cubes long their print was. They had to record their answer.  We then exchanged shoe prints, and we measured someone else's print.  Using our word compare again, we compared our prints to see which one was longer, smaller or just the same.

Reindeer & Count Down Chain

      We started off the holiday season by studying about reindeer.  We learned many interesting facts about real reindeer.  On the first page of our book, we cut apart and put back together the sentence, "Reindeer are mammals."  Mammal was a new word for us, so we had to research and find out what the word meant.

      On the second page of our book, the students chose their favorite fact about a reindeer and wrote it, being very careful to sound out each word.  On the last page, we used different shapes to draw reindeer.

 

     Together we labeled the parts of a reindeer.

      

      The students were then given their own paper where they could label the reindeer.

      To make a reindeer, we traced our foot for the face and traced out hands to make the antlers.  We glued these pieces onto a stuffed paper bag and added accordion legs.  These are the cutest reindeer!

       After the students created this cute paper bag reindeer, they wrote a fiction story about their special magic reindeer.

      On the first day of the month, we made a classic Kindergarten holiday tradition - a red and green paper chain.  Twenty-four links are on our chain so we can count down the days until Santa arrives.  The students were very excited and proud of their long, pattern, count down chains.  They all worked very hard to complete all the links.