Christmas Cheer

Seeing as how it’s almost New Years, I figured I should get crackin’ and post my entry about Christmas. It truly is the busiest time of the year (aside from report cards).

We really enjoyed our time with our Elf on the Shelf, Jackie. I made sure I took pictures of all her funny hiding spots and I ended up putting them into a collage and giving each student a copy. Now they can look back and think about their beloved elf whenever they miss her.

 Can you believe she went onto my phone and took a selfie?!

 I guess elves have a hard time on Mondays too.

 It turns out Jackie is good friends with Twinkle (an elf that belongs to a girl in my class) and they had a sleepover at her house!

Jackie’s last day was spent relaxing in a marshmallow snow bank

Jackie left after school on the last day before the break. The kids were devastated, but maybe they’ll see her again next year…

I didn’t get around to making any ornaments this year but it was because I was so busy with our Christmas project. As you might remember, last year my Grade One class learned about the Goshen School in Uganda. The kids wrote letters to students at this school and raised money to help them have a nice Christmas. The project was so meaningful and taught so much about empathy that I knew I had to do something like this again.

I didn’t want to do the exact same thing though.  After Remembrance Day, my class was really interested in learning about the war. This got me thinking about current soldiers who are away from home, involved in the war overseas. With some help from the Canadian government website, and suggestions on teacher groups on Facebook, I was able to figure out a plan.

Each student wrote a letter addressed to Any Canadian Soldier. They each wrote a very thoughtful letter introducing themselves, asking questions to their recipients, and letting them know that even though they are far away from home over the holidays, many people are thinking about them and feeling grateful for all that they do.

I wish I had pictures of some of their letters. Sadly, I didn’t take any. I then took all these enveloped letters, put them into a larger envelope (to save on 26 stamps) and mailed them all off at once to a base in Belleville. From there, our letters will be sent to the soldiers. Maybe we’ll have some mail once we get back!

To go along with this theme, we sang So This Is Christmas by John Lennon in the holiday concert. My hope is that after discussing the meaning of these song lyrics and talking about those who aren’t with their families at Christmas time, I have taught my students that material gifts are not the most important things to have at Christmas time. I also hope they have gained empathy for those with different situations.

When we weren’t engaged in our Christmas project, we were having some good old fashioned fun with Christmas books and elves. I repeated a fun craft I did last year with my Grade Ones and had my Threes and Fours Elf Themselves! Click HERE for the link.

I leave you now with some of the books I read to them over the last few weeks. These are great Christmas stories to add to your holiday collection.

I hope everyone had a wonderful holiday, and has a Happy 2015!