It's the Most Wonderful Time of the Year...

This post is going to be a HUGE jumble of everything I took pictures of during Christmastime! :)
All week long we learned how a few different countries celebrate Christmas. We learned that in Holland, they like to eat cookies in the shape of a letter. Because I am not much of a bread baker, I improvised and gave each student a cookie with the first letter of his/her name on it! It was a much needed treat.

 
Then we also learned about manger scenes and we learned that Christmas trees originated in Germany--so we finger painted some 3D Christmas trees!

 
We also made gingerbread houses which originated in Switzerland! SUPER fun... and sticky. :)

 

We made these cute handprint Santas and then completed a writing project after reading How the Grinch Stole Christmas! (Not my original idea!)

 

I don't know why these pictures are sideways.. but I wanted to show a close up!

To make the Grinch grin I would steal the last can of who hash. :)

To make the Grinch grin I would fix his shoes not too tight.

Someone was listening to the story! Love it!

 Last but not least... there was my absolute favorite part of the week (and I think it was the students' favorite part too!)... Polar Express Day! I set the classroom up before the students arrived (in their PJ's) and they were shocked at what they found!

The chairs were set up in rows, just like a train! :)

And there was hot chocolate and reindeer food ready for them to DEVOUR during the movie.

But first, before the movie we listened to the book on CD, which was narrarated by Liam Neeson (I probably just spelled that totally wrong)--the guy from the movie Taken!

My cute group of firsties PUMPED for Polar Express!

At the end of the day right before we left, I moved the Christmas tree to the front of the room and the students opened their gifts from me! :) We had a blast on our last day before Christmas break!