Christmas


Merry Christmas! We had a lovely time visiting family and celebrating the birth of Jesus. The week before Christmas we read the story Ordinary Baby, Extraordinary Gift, by Gloria Gaither. This book came with a cd to listen to the story and the song that goes along with it. I wanted to spend a week learning about Christmas, with the story of Jesus as the main emphasis, and I really enjoyed this story. Ordinary Baby, Extraordinary Gift

Vocabulary opportunities abound in Mrs. Gaither's story and song, but I did not print out a vocab list this week. We discussed some of the words that the children did not understand. We started with the title words ordinary and extraordinary.
Our hymn of the week was Hark the Herald Angels Sing and we continued to read from the book of Luke in addition to our advent verses each morning.
In History/Geography we learned about the Pennsylvania Dutch Christmas traditions as well as Christmas traditions from Colonial Williamsburg. We also learned about Martin Luther, the theologian. He has been attributed with decorating the first indoor Christmas tree. The Christmas tree tradition came to America from Germany.
We did not have a science focus this week. I feel that I don't always have to dictate science lessons, they just happen around here.
Spanish lessons consisted of reading the first stanza of El Astro De Belen (The Star of Bethlehem) by J.N. de los Santos every day and singing Feliz Navidad each morning.
We enjoyed Latin Club this week, acting out the Christmas story in Latin and celebrating Jesus birthday a friend and Auntie Ash's birthday as well.
We finished some homemade Christmas gifts and enjoyed preparing for our Christmas celebrations with family.

Other stories we enjoyed this week:
Alpha Zoo Christmas, by Susan Harrison
A Williamsburg Christmas, by Donna C. Sheppard
Pennsylvania Dutch Christmases, Gerry Kershner
Christmas is... by Gail Gibbons
Christmas, Barbara Cooney
Noche Buena, Nicolas Kanellos (we read the poem from this book)
Winter Story, Jill Barklem
How Santa Lost His Job, Stephen Krensky
The SnowGlobe Family, Jane O'Connor

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