My Classroom in December

Here are the rest of the ornaments we made as we traveled "around the world" learning about different Christmas traditions.

Sweden:

We learned about St. Lucia's Day and read about other Christmas traditions (including watching Donald Duck on T.V. for some reason).

I didn't read this book to my class but it looks like a cute option.

St. Lucia Wreath ornament.

Star Boy Hat

Making the ornaments.

The Philippines:

We have a huge Filipino population at our school so my students were thrilled to travel to the Philippines to learn more about and share their traditions. I found lots of information about the Parol, or Star Lantern, hung up around the holidays to symbolize the Star of Bethlehem.

One type of Parol. Aren't they beautiful?

My simplified version.

We used 2 construction paper stars, cut out patterns in the middle for Christmas lights to shine through, and glued some tissue paper in the middle and in the corners.

Italy:
Our last visit was to Italy. We learned about the Legend of Old Befana (which enthralled my students). I love the La Befana legend. I mean, come on! A Christmas witch that rides on a broom and drops presents down your chimney!  We also learned about other Christmas traditions in Italy including decorations and food eaten.

Our little Old Befana broom ornaments made with popsicle sticks.

Pulling in All Together:

So, I decided it would be a good idea to have the students make these paper trees to hang their ornaments. Bad idea. These were soooooo hard for the kids to make (live and learn). The kids found it very hard to cut out the trees bringing some close to tears. Once they did manage to cut out the trees and glue them they kept falling over! The ones below turned out okay, but I'm going to skip this whole thing next year. I'll think of another way to display the ornaments.

So, that's the end of our Christmas Traditions Around the World! I know I'm posting waaaay late, but hopefully you teachers out there will get some ideas for next year. Parents, I hope you also got some ideas to use with your family this year (or next year...).

It feels great to be on break and I hope to catch up a little bit on posting. I'm finally feeling better and am thrilled to see family and friends for the holiday.

Until next time :)