Christmas Break!

Today was the last day of school until the new year.  The kiddos are out for Christmas Break until the 3rd of January.  I think we all are excited about some much needed R&R!

This week in first grade most of the teachers planned fun filled craft days for the students.  A lot of our families do not have many ornaments to decorate their Christmas tree with, so it's nice for the students to be able to make some decorations to use at their home over the holiday.  Crafting with a room full of riled up first graders is not an easy task... needless to say, I am exhausted from all of the festivities.  However, the kiddos created some really cute stuff that I would like to share... so it was worth it :)

The first ornament we made was integrated with a cultural read aloud about the origin of the poinsettia.  I read Tomie de Paola's The Legend of the Poinsettia, which explains how the flower came to be in a Mexican Christmas story.  It was a lovely story and the students really enjoyed learning more about the traditional Christmas symbol.  We created a poinsettia ornament using a coffee filter, red paint, glitter, clothespins, and pipe cleaners.  I think they turned out really beautifully!

Poinsettia Craft 

Last week we read Jan Brett's Gingerbread Baby and Gingerbread Friends in class and compared it to the original Gingerbread Man story.  I promised the kiddos we would get to decorate our own gingerbread babies in class.  As a treat, I brought in gingerbread cookies, icing, and lots of candies.... the students had a blast decorating and eating their gingerbread babies.

A student carefully arranging an assortment of candy on her gingerbread babies. I provided icing, peppermints, chocolate chips, strawberry lace, mini sweet-tarts, and M&Ms.  MMM! 

Gingerbread Cookie Recipe

Here are a few more crafts the students created with the help of an adult... mainly because a hot glue gun was needed to complete the product.

A wreath ornament made with mini muffin tins and a small paper plate.   

Peppermint Ornament Craft
**I altered the methods slightly--- I used hot glue instead of icing and I used beads/sequins/rhinestones instead of red hots (because I could not find any)

Ice Cream Cone Craft
I modified this one as well... just to make it more kid friendly. 

Snowman Popsicle Stick 

As a gift to my students, I made baggies of homemade Hot Cocoa Mix and Homemade Marshmallows.  It took a little bit of prep work, but the kids thought it was so neat that I made my own marshmallows. My assistant and I also created mice ornaments made out of Hershey Kisses to give to the students.  I thought they were very sweet looking.  

Mice Ornaments

I think it is safe to say that I am a bit crafted out at this point.  The kids had a good time and I think they are proud of the neat-o ornaments they created.  I hope that everyone has a peaceful and relaxing Christmas vacation and a wonderful New Year!

Love,
Mrs. Cook