Merry Christmas

Our week was full of gingerbread!

Our learning this week revolved around the many versions of the story of the Gingerbread Man that can be found today.  As we read a story, the students learned to compare and contrast (recognize the similarities and differences) between the stories.  Here is the board that shows the different stories' titles, the characters, the refrain (song) sung by the ginger character, and how the story ended. More about this later!

One day this week, we made glyphs. Think of a glyph as a pictograph.  Information is found through the way that the picture is put together.

Here's the information sheet that the students followed to create a Gingerbread Glyph of themselves.

Thanks to Denise Boehm for sharing this idea!

Here is how you read a glyph....I know this is a girl because she has pink eyes, and she is 8 years old because she has a yellow nose, and is born in March because her tie is green....each part corresponds to the main glyph sheet.

We put 'ourselves' out in the hallway to see if the others could figure out which gingerbread represented each child in our classroom.

Is this your son,

or daughter?

How about this one?

The lessons are still very much directed by me, but the students are being given more and more choice in how the work is completed.  Here is an example.  After reading 5 different gingerbread story versions, we talked about what information could be found in the beginning, middle and end of the story.  Each child had a copy of the sheet seen above to refer to.

Each student could then choose which story they wanted to create their beginning, middle and end sentences about.  They know that there is a 'no excuse' criteria that all work must be in complete sentences and are rising to that challenge.

Sentences were written and pasted onto the three gingerbread people,

cut out,

and then displayed.

Here's some examples:

"Beginning: The little old man and woman baked a gingerbread man."

"Middle: The gingerbread man ran from a horse, a cow and some children."

"End: The fox ate the gingerbread man in one gulp."

Think back to September, and look at this improvement.  Are you impressed because I am??!!

They are holding themselves to a high standard and are so proud of their accomplishments!

Today, little gingerbread man visited every child.

They used some fine motor skills to add some little candies to the little guy using icing and toothpicks.

We used these cookies to explore (really a review from Grade One) the five senses, but each flap on this booklet allowed the students to choose words from a list.

I didn't take photos but the students recorded the parts of the gingerbread cooky that they ate first, second, third and fourth and we then created a graph to show which part (arm, leg or head) was eaten first in the class.  The students then had to write a sentence of an observation they noticed using the data found on the graph.  Again, their sentences were quite good!

Another review activity was related to patterns.  The students named the patterns using alphabet letters, circled the core and then used colours to distinguish the pattern in another way.

I told the students that this gingerbread man didn't want to wait for the fox to take him across the river.  Instead he planned to swim.  The students then made a hypothesis (a prediction in science) about what would happen to the gingerbread man and why. The students are really starting to use better vocabulary so we heard words such as sink, pieces, soggy and heavy in their answers.

Here's the the gingerbread man after he tried to swim across the river!

This led to an investigation.  How could the gingerbread man get across the river without the fox and without turning into a soggy mess?

The students decided that they could build a raft (using straws and masking tape),

or a boat (using plasticine)

or a bridge (using marshmallows and toothpicks)

to help him over.  They planned on their own and then had to work with a partner or two, learning to talk about their ideas but also hear what others' thoughts might be.

We tested out the different projects.  Not all were successful but I took a few pictures of some that seemed to be working.  Again, such happiness because of their hard work breeding success.

A successful raft with a flag no less!

One very sturdy bridge design, and

another raft that kept the gingerbread man dry.

Not all the boat designs worked.  Some sank before the gingerbread stepped foot on the structure, but it allowed the question to be asked "What would you do differently if you could make your boat again?"  

This bridge was great because it was long enough to go right over to the other sides but the spaces caused concern that the gingerbread man could fall into the river because they were so large.

Here's an amazing design, just not long enough to span the river so the gingerbread man never set foot on it.  He's one smart cooky!

We'll have a few more activities revolving around this successful learning unit next week.  Stay tuned!

Feast of St. Nicholas

It seems that just before St. Nicholas visited the houses in the Netherland on the eve of his feast day, December 6th, he took a little detour and left a few goodies in the children's shoes...

lip balm, a candy cane and a small orange.

The children heard the story of St. Nicholas and learned the link to our own beloved 

Santa Claus.

With great listening skills and paying attention to detail, each student created a detailed representation of our beloved Saint.

Sock Baby Jesus

Thanks to Lacy Rabideau for sharing her Catholic crafty talents with the world, and with our classroom.  I wonder if she knows how far her influence goes in this world?

Step one:  Fill a new child's white sock with 'fibrefill" stuffing.

It should look like this.

Step two:  Use an elastic to keep the stuffing in, just below the ribbed part of the sock that would go up the leg.  Pull that ribbed section down over the stuffed part of the sock, then fold it back up so that it resembles a little cap on the head of the baby.

Step three:  Use another elastic to create the head and body by putting it on the filled sock, about 1/3 head and 2/3 body.

Step four: Tie a white ribbon over this elastic to hide it.

Step five:  Use a sharpie pen or a thin felt pen to create the sleeping eyes, little nose and mouth of the baby Jesus.

Step six: Swaddle baby Jesus in a cozy blanket made from a triangle of fleece.

Step seven:  Fold down the edges of the cut off bottom of a paper lunch bag.

Step eight:  Cut the upper portion of the paper bag into strips which will be the hay that the baby Jesus will lie on top of in the manger.

 I told the children that for every piece of 'hay' that they added to the manger, they had to make a promise to Jesus, that they would keep in the season of Advent.  It warmed my heart to bursting to hear them say, quietly, as they filled the manger:
"I promise to eat everything on my plate." "I promise to let my little sister come into my bedroom."  "I promise to be nicer to my friend and let them chose the games we will play at recess."  "I promise to go to bed without arguing."  There were a LOT of promises made and I know they were made with sincere hearts.

The final result was this darling baby Jesus laying in the manger on a bed of promises.  The students took them home with instructions to lay the baby under the Christmas tree, because HE is the reason for this season that we wait for.

They were so very proud of their efforts and I know it will be something that they will gladly pack up  with the tree ornaments and bring out year after year!  Thanks again Lacy for this adorable connection to our Catholic-ness.