Christmas Traditions

Merry Christmas!  This year I asked students to share their Holiday Traditions with the class, and I used these ideas to plan lessons for the last 7 days before break.

I started off by decorating the wall near our door with a fireplace and their kids' stockings.  I saw something similar on LuvMyKinders IG page.  Our cafeteria worker made the stocking for the kids.  I was planning to use them as wrapping paper for the kids' gifts, but ended up letting them fill them for one another.  The kids made the logs and the fire for the fireplace.

I used binder clips to clip the stockings to a light string that was hung along the chalkboard tray.  Above this wall is our word wall.

I asked parents to help their child fill out a paper about their holiday traditions.  After a week and talking to the kids about why we needed these back, I had all but one back.  I sat with that child to help her try to fill one out the best we could.

Students then used their papers to help them create this "gift" sharing some of their traditions.  I saw this on Pinterest and was inspired.  My kiddos chose 4 things from their paper to share on their "present".  The presents were shared with the class then hung on the board near the fireplace (above).  They certainly helped our room feel more like home around the holidays.

I used Simply Kinder's Holidays Around the World pack to help teach students about holidays in different parts of the world.  We did a country or 2 a day over a week and a half.

Many students had a tradition of decorating cookies.  This is a tradition in my family as well, and we decorated cookies for the local police and fire departments as well as the county Sheriff (a student's dad is a deputy).  Thanks Mrs. Lee's Kindergarten for the awesome hat idea!

I created a playlist for the month of December using the kids' favorite Christmas songs.  This played throughout many different classroom activities.  We also learned 4 songs and went caroling to our preschool classrooms on the day before break.

How do you incorporate students' backgrounds and experiences in your classroom?  This was such a fun and easy way to learn about my students and their families.