The Polar Express

    

     The Polar Express was our last activity before the winter break.  We read the book by Chris Van Allsburg.  We sequenced the events in the book, and we discussed setting and characters.

     Like the boy in the story, we wrote about what our wish would be if we were chosen to receive the first gift of Christmas. 

     We used shapes to construct the Polar Express train.

     We had a full day of Polar Express activities on our last day.  Everyone was invited to wear their pajamas and slippers to school, and all the school gathered together in the gym to watch the movie.

     Our December Family Project was to make a train car from a box big enough to sit in comfortably and see over the top.  Any materials could be used to decorate the train.  Our families were very creative, and we had beautiful train cars.

     While the students were away at Art class, the room was transformed into the Polar Express.  The chairs and tables were all pushed aside, and the cars were all put together to make a long train.  After Art, the students were taken to a different classroom.  We were listening to a story when the conductor, Mr. Garcia, showed up to punch our tickets and take us to the train.  The conductor led us back to our room, and the students entered to find the Polar Express waiting for them to board.

     While "riding" on the Polar Express, the students were served cookies and hot chocolate.  Each child was given a bell tied onto a red ribbon to wear around their neck.  The bell was a reminder to always believe and a reminder of our special day.

 

 

Holidays Around the World

      We continued our Holidays Around the World unit.  Using our Promethean Board and Google Earth, we flew from Colorado to the country of Germany.  This technology was exciting to the students.  What a great way to build interest in globes, maps, countries and technologies. 

     We learned that the Christmas tree tradition probably started in Germany.  Gingerbread is also a German tradition, and we included a unit on gingerbread men.

 

      This is our interactive writing about Germany.  Below is our tannenbaum hats.

     Another day we flew to Mexico to learn about their holiday traditions and Los Posadas.  After finding Mexico on our world map, we colored a map of the country and the Mexican flag in our holiday suitcase.  We also made pinatas from white paper lunch sacks.

     We read the book, The Legend of the Poinsettia by Tommie dePaolo.  The book tells the legend from Mexico about the beautiful poinsettia.

     I shared a live poinsettia with the students.  And we created our own flowers with construction paper.

Our interactive chart for Mexico

      Our trip to other countries ended in Israel where we learned about Hanukkah.  We were fortunate to have our parent, Mrs. Hinton come to our class and tell us about the 8 day Jewish holiday.  She shared with us her family's menorah.

      Many of these ideas are from the Kinder by Kim website.