Happy Holidays

I love to share Christmas traditions, but also enjoy sharing

how other celebrations are celebrated this time of year.

The first week in December I am sharing this story, since Chanukkah starts Dec 1st this year.

I also have dreidels on the table so the students can have fun playing a game from that celebration.

The second week of December we are sharing Christmas traditions.Students will have an opportunity to share their favorite tradition,and I will share one of my favorite..."The Night Before Christmas"

I found a video of this version so students will get to listen to (& watch)the story.

The third week of December I will share portions of the story below and show a video of a Saint Lucia Day celebration.

Family Fun!

We have the "Family Fun" magazine at school with great activities, recipes and crafts ideas, but there is also Family Fun online with more information and activities not found in the magazines. This is a great place to find fun things to do as a family, especially during the holidays. To check out their online site go to the Family Fun link under our online resources.

Thankful

We are watching a short 3 minute clip called the "Mayflower Deconstructed" this week from history.com. You can watch it by going to the Mayflower link under online resources. There are many other videos there about Thanksgiving, and about history.

We have so much to be thankful for ~ Happy Thanksgiving

A few Veterans in my family

Remember

Our Veterans!

Veterans Day

For Veterans Day, this week we are sharing a story about a veteran that lives right in our area dubbed "The Candy Bomber" while he served as an U.S. Air Force pilot during the Berlin Airlift in 1948/49. Keep an eye out for the book "Candy Bomber" based on his experience. We will be getting a copy of it in our media center very soon.

Synergize

The habit that we will be focusing on this week is Synergize, or working together as a group. This is a great time of the year to think of ourselves as part of a larger group (the larger group possibly being our school or your family.) As we approach the holiday season I hope you will take the opportunity to find a way that you might work together (or synergize) to do something for someone else. As a family, participate in a service project, collect items for those in need, shovel a neighbors walk; or as a class, work together with your classmates to do something special for someone else.

Culturegrams

Check out culturegrams if you have students preparing to do reports on countries around the world and how they celebrate. Lots of good information here. Go to the "UEN-Pioneer" library link to find out more. I gave students bookmarks with the username and password this week to access this site at home. Come to the library if you didn't get one.