Wow! December 7th was a month ago!
But I couldn't let these memories go by and not share them with everyone.
The students did such a wonderful job at the Christmas Choir Concert.
I wish I could have gotten more pictures but this is all I could get from where I was sitting :(
Ms. Kim had the students playing fun reindeer games waiting on intermission so we could line up.
I was in charge of these silly boys once we lined up.
They did awesome!
The boys taking their bows.
Coming out for their final song, Give God Me This Christmas.
A standing O!
We had Christmas Around the World where the students traveled to the classrooms and learned about traditions in other countries. They learned about France, Germany, Antarctica, and USA. They made passports and took them room to room and had them stamped by the teachers.
In my room, we learned all about Christmas in France! In France, Christmas is called Noel which means "the good news." On Christmas Eve, children leave their shoes by the fireplace to be filled with gifts from Pere Noel. In the morning they also find that sweets, fruit, nuts and small toys have been hung on the tree. The students left their shoes by their cubbies at naptime that week to see if Pere Noel left sweets while they were napping…and he did!!! Nearly every French home at Christmastime displays a Nativity scene, which serves as the focus for the Christmas celebration. We looked at pictures of nativity scenes for those who were not familiar. The Christmas tree has never been particularly popular in France, and though the use of the Yule log has faded, the French make a traditional Yule log-shaped cake called the buche de Nol, which means "Christmas Log." In southern France, some people burn a log in their homes from Christmas Eve until New Year's Day. This stems from an ancient tradition in which farmers would use part of the log to ensure good luck for the next year's harvest. Once dinner is over and the family have retired to bed, they leave a fire burning and food and drink on the table in case the Virgin Mary calls in. Children leave their shoes or wooden clogs called sabots in the hearth for the Christ Child or Pere Noel to fill. In the north of France, children are given gifts on December 6, which is St. Nicholas' Day, instead of Christmas Day. The adults give each other’s presents on New Year's Day.
Here, the students are making yule log ornaments.
This is a picture of Pere Noel and the picture below him is of the students leaving their shoes out in hopes that he would leave them candy in their shoes if they napped at Quiet Time just like he did in France. :)
These are the wreaths the students made after learning about Germany.
We had an awesome Christmas party with some yummy treats!!!
The students have decorated our door to look like a Gingerbread House in preparation for Gingerbread Day!
We traveled to the Nursing Home for our annual performance.
We sang several carols and then the girls did their dance routines.
The students made special handmade candles for their families. They drew scenes on white tissue paper and I used wax paper to melt the scene onto a white candle with a hair dryer. A super cute and inexpensive idea that will always mean the world to a mother when she pulls it out of the decoration box each year. :)
Here is the link with directions. The only thing I would add would be a glove...it gets hot! This craft doesn't have to be used just for Christmas. It can be used for Mother's Day, Father's Day, birthdays, ANY day!
We had an awesome time on Gingerbread Day!
We started the day off with Ms. Kim reading us The Gingerbread Man.
Then we walked over to Lyon Hall where they had snack waiting on us AND a special visitor!
Then we walked down the hall to see Ms. Annie where she read us a story and gave us a gingerbread baby to put on our houses that we were headed back to the school to make!
We washed our hands and got right to work when we got back to school!
They did great! Such little architects!
We made salt dough ornaments for our family trees!
We also wrote cards to Safyre.
If you have not heard Safyre's story yet, I did not share all of the details with the students; only that she was in a house fire that caused her a lot of pain, she lost all of the members of her immediate family, and her favorite wish this Christmas was to receive lots of Christmas cards. I told them that her story sat in my heart since reading it and that I knew that we could write cards to her, I could mail the cards for them, and we could help make her wish come true. I checked over the holiday on Safyre's FB page and on December 17th she had received at least 430,000 cards and 10,000 packages!!!
Here is her story:
In May 2013, someone set fire to the upstairs stairwell that led to Safyre's apartment, killing her father, David Terry, and her three siblings, who were all under the age of three, the TODAY show reports.
But Safyre's father held her in his arms, protecting the young girl from breathing in the hot air – a heroic act that ultimately saved her life.
Now, Safrye, who lost her left foot and right hand and had to undergo more than 50 surgeries to graft skin over her burns, lives with her aunt, Liz Dolder, after her mother signed over custodial rights to the state of New York.
The family also created a YouCaring fundraising page to help with her medical expenses, and since her Christmas wish went viral, more than $174,000 has been donated.
We got to see Mr. Leondre, who has been out after having surgery. We had a Christmas Party for the work studies and swapped Secret Santa gifts. :)
Friday, was a super busy day!
We started off the day with our Pancake Breakfast.
We had snowman pancakes this year!
Then a super special, secret, jolly visitor came!
Santa!
Then we dashed off to Tuscaloosa for the day!
Our first stop was Mellow Mushroom for lunch!
Then we walked across the street to CHOM for a special Gingerbread Focused Field Trip!
Ms. Kelly read us Gingerbread Friends.
And then we got busy making gingerbread muffins!
Each student got to help in the process!
While the muffins were baking, the students decorated a gingerbread baby!
Then, they got to taste the muffins they made!
To end our perfect field trip, Ms. Kelly read us Gingerbread Baby.
We looked at the awesome village on the way out that had been recently donated to CHOM.
Until next time!
Ammar is moving back to his home country and his mom brought a cake Friday afternoon.
We went around the table telling Ammar what we will miss most about him and why he has always been a good friend to us. He and his family will be missed dearly. Goodbyes are hard.
2015 was a wonderful year at the Campus School
and we are all looking forward to what 2016 has in store.
We love your children and are very thankful you have blessed us with knowing them
and growing with them.
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