We had such a fun day pretending to be on the Polar Express. The kids came dressed in their pajamas and we started the day getting our tickets punched to board the train! We watched the story online and the kids loved feeling like they were actually on the train.
We enjoyed fun activities like making our own train and drinking hot chocolate.
We have been learning about the different Christmas traditions celebrated among people. We learned that Hanukkah means the festival of light and people that celebrate Hanukkah light a Menorah with a candle called the Shamash. We made a Menorah out of our hand prints and also made our own dreidels. The kids learned how to play with a dreidel and enjoyed playing with their tables.
The next celebration we learned about was Las Posadas. It is a nine day celebration full of parties, piñatas and food! We looked at pictures of what the people wear when they celebrate Las Posadas. They wear serapes and we were able to make our own serapes and go to different kindergarten rooms asking if they had room for us to enjoy a party! We ended up in our own room enjoying cookies and watching a story online called Too Many Tamales.
Here we are in our serapes!
This past week we learned all about the Gingerbread Man! We read many different versions of The Gingerbread Man and compared what was the same and what was different. The students also got to create their own ending to the story in a creative writing/drawing. I will upload a video of this soon!
The first activity we did focused on our five senses. The kids helped me fill in this gingerbreads fives senses and then they got to make their own!
Hear: Jingle Bells
See: Googly Eyes
Smell: Cotton ball with perfume on it
Taste: Peppermint
Touch: Tissue Paper
We read the book Gingerbread Friends by Jan Brett. In this version of The Gingerbread Man, the gingerbread man doesn’t get eaten but instead finds a gingerbread house with more gingerbread people! To illustrate this, we made our own gingerbread houses. We outlined the house with white crayon and then used construction paper to make the candy. They are all so unique!
Here they are hard at work!
We also did a gingerbread glyph. The students decorated their gingerbread man according to the glyph we followed. Then they got to paint and “sew” him up!
To finish our gingerbread man unit up, we measured how tall we were compared to the gingerbread man using peppermints. I have pictures but they are on my other computer—so hopefully I can post those soon! The kids loved seeing how many peppermints tall they were and it was a fun way to talk about the words shorter and taller. They had to do this worksheet and draw how many peppermints tall the gingerbread man was and how many peppermints tall they were. This is how it turned out:
And of course, we had to top it all off with a gingerbread man cookie. 
I can’t believe it is Thanksgiving break already! This year has been going so
fast! As I am reflecting on all that your student has accomplished so far, I am
amazed at their growth as readers, writers and people. They make each day
special and fun. I am so looking forward to spending time with my family and
friends over break, but will be excited for Monday morning to come back and see
my favorite 5 and 6 year olds again.
Parents, thank you for all that you do to support and encourage your child
outside of the classroom. I am so thankful for you and all that you do for me as
as well as your child. In my first year as a teacher, I could not ask for a better
group of parents and students. I am so blessed and thankful.
Enjoy your time with family, friends and LOTS OF FOOD!
See you next week! 
To finish off our Native American Unit we made masks and a class totem pole! For the masks, we looked at a lot of pictures of real Native American masks and how they were created symmetrically. We colored them the same on both sides and then of course added LOTS of glitter and feathers!
Now for the totem poles…..
The kids got into groups and they each had an animal they needed to create from construction paper onto their box. They had to look at a picture of the animal on a totem pole and re-create it onto their box! They did SUCH A NICE JOB! I am not sure I could have re-created the faces as well as they did.
Here we are hard at work
This is the beaver!
Next, we added detail to our animals by adding paint.
While we waited for our totem poles to dry, the kids planned a story and a dance to represent their animal or “family.” We talked about the symbolism in the totem pole and how each totem pole told a story about the family.
Here we are planning and practicing 
FINALLY….after a long day of creating and practicing, we had a celebration ceremony. Each “family” came up to contribute their piece of the totem pole and told us a story about their animal and showed us their dance.
Beavers
Whales
Eagles
Thunderbirds
Bears
And du-du-du-duuuu!!!!!!!! OUR CLASS TOTEM POLE!
Here is our Native American “scene” full of canoes, teepees, pueblos and buffalo hides.
This week and next we are talking about Native Americans. So far we have learned what kind of clothing the Native Americans wore and what the Native Americans lived in. Yesterday we made a Native American headdress with paper feathers and a vest. We put patterns, symbols and designs on our headdresses and vests. Today we got to wear them to our Thanksgiving feast in the lunchroom!
Making our patterns to put on our vests
Enjoying our awesome meal!
We also made our own Turkeys! They turned out so cute
These turkeys are currently hanging from our ceiling…They give the room a lot of Thanksgiving cheer!
Next week we will be talking about totem poles and taking an entire day to make our own totem poles.
Reminders: No School Wednesday, Thursday and Friday of next week for Thanksgiving vacation!
