Field trips, thanksgiving and Christmas. A little of everything. :)

Fire Safety Day 

With our field trip coming up we had a fire safety day. We read some great books about the job of a firefighter and we also made a list of all the places we might see a fire. 

In a house,  a fireplace, a campfire, a birthday candle, a forest, a rocket and a volcano. 

The kids got to make an art page with paint and coloring to show a place they might see a fire and I reminded them that we never play with fire.

The kids loved doing an obstacle course to practice what to do when there is a fire. They first had to crawl under a table to stay low to the ground, they walked on a balance beam like a firefighter might do, they used a hose to spray the fire out and then they practiced stop, drop and roll. Then started all over again. :)

Another thing we did that the kids loved was talked about what you need to make a fire. Heat, fuel and oxygen. I lit a candle in class. They were really excited about that. I asked them what they thought would happen if I covered the candle with a mason jar. A lot of them thought the fire would get bigger. But they loved watching it get smaller until it was put out because it didn't have any air. We did it again and this time sprayed water on the fire to put it out with no heat left. 

THANKSGIVING FEAST DAY

We talked all about the Native American Indians and the Pilgrims for a couple of days. They made Indian hats with real indian symbols. They loved drawing these. I also painted their faces to look like and indian. 

We made bead necklaces.

We made pilgrim puppets and had a feast of turkey, rolls, olives, carrots and apple slices.

 I made Pilgrim hats for a little treat at the end of our feast. :)

FIRE STATION

We loved going to the fire station and learning about all the hard work the firefighters do. They let us see their fire truck. It was yellow instead of red. At the end of the field trip we got to see the big engine with the ladder come in. They had been called out to a job when we first got there. 

CHRISTMAS AROUND THE WORLD

We were so lucky to have Skippy Dimbledot return to our class this year! 

He writes us letters everyday and we get to write back to him asking him all sorts of questions like: Do you like pears? Do you like to dance? How do you move? etc. 

Skippy likes to move around our class each night and if we are good he lets Ms. Julie check the stocking at the end of the day to see if he left us a prize. 

We learned lots of fun stuff last week with it being the first week of December. We made an advent calendar of Santa and got to take it home to put a cotton ball on Santa's beard each day. 

It was letter J day so we sang Jingle Bells and made letter J jinglers to ring while we sang.

We also talked about how Christmas is celebrated in different parts of the world. 

In Germany, they have an advent wreath with 4 candles on it. They light a candle each week until it is Christmas. The children also have chocolate advent calendars like we do in America. 

St. Nicholas comes by their house on December 6th. The kids get to leave a shoe or boot out. If they have been good he puts some candy or a small gift in the shoe. If not they get a stick. 

They don't put out their christmas trees until December 24th which is their Christmas day. They decorate the tree with chocolate and candy. They then go to church to celebrate the birth of Christ. When they get back from church they have to wait  and listen for a bell to ring. After the bell rings it means St. Nicholas has now left and they can go into their home and open their gifts. 

In Germany they love to decorate their homes with Gingerbread houses. So we made some of our own during class. 

Yum! This was a favorite. :) 

Christmas in Mexico is another place we talked about. We read about the Nativity because in Mexico they love to decorate with lots of Nativity sets. Their sets often include women with tortillas for baby Jesus. I really liked that. :) 

They make ornaments out of foil to hang on their tree. We made some ornaments out of foil and crete paper. 

We also colored a poinsettia and talked about all the different colors they come in. At the end of class I taught them the song Feliz Navidad. It was a little tricky for them but they really enjoyed the "Ay, ay, ay" in the middle. 

We are having so much fun and I just love seeing their happy faces.