It is fun to look back upon projects we have done this year to watch the growth and progression of skills students have gained over time. With all the technological tools we use from day to day, nothing replaces giving kids construction paper, scissors, markers and glue... you can see it here in their eyes. Our book creation projects foster creativity and independence as kids are given a brief model and then guided to create by gathering the supplies and thinking about their own steps toward completion.
Thanksgiving provided us with a natural learning opportunity for studying holiday traditions, especially the history that forms holiday traditions and how such holidays are celebrated by different people in our present day time. In our room, a favorite activity this year was the making of a Thanksgiving book titled Turkey, Turkey What Do You See? based on the familiar text structure in Eric Carle's book, Brown Bear, Brown Bear What Do You See? Our book recounts the main historical events that define how Thanksgiving began. Each page in the book was a culminating activity to a history lesson explaining the actions of people who lived many years ago, but whose actions affect how we celebrate the holiday today
The December holiday season gave us the opportunity to learn about different traditions in December with a main focus on Christmas, Hanukkah, and Kwansaa. We compared and contrasted facts about each holiday as we gathered information about each through books and videos. This class immediately determined that the central theme they all shared was FAMILY, WINTER, HAPPINESS, GIVING, FUN, THANKS and LOVE! I was amazed! In a post to come soon I will show the Venn Diagram they created with these central ideas.
As all of the students in our class celebrate Christmas, each child made a Christmas holiday book similar in structure to the Thanksgiving book. The book gave them an opportunity to practice reading a repetitive text and look for sight words, too. Best of all they loved gluing!!
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