Christmas Around The World

So, as seems to be my way, I bought Lory Evans' Christmas Around the World

 

which is FULL of wonderful ideas! But instead, I end up doing my own thing. (I think I just need the ideas to get started!) 

She has cute little suitcases that her class makes - I decided for my first year of doing this, not to do that. So we're just learning about a couple different countries and how the celebrate in December. 

Yesterday, I read Too Many Tamales by Gary Soto.

This is a fun book about a girl that is helping her mother make tamales, but then she tries on her mother's wedding ring and it gets lost! You can imagine what happens next.  My kids really enjoyed the story. And we have a large Hispanic population, including our school secretary. So I asked her to come in today and talk about how she and her family make tamales. 

Then we made mini pinatas. I was so sure my kids would think these were dorky beyond belief - but they didn't. I told my husband I thought it was the 4 Starbursts I gave them to put in their pinata. To make these, I gave them a brown lunch bag and had them decorated it. I did tell them that pinatas at Christmas time are traditionally made in a star shape, so some of them drew stars on theirs. Then they made a Starburst sandwich inside the bag - crumbled up newspaper, Starburst, crumbled up newspaper. We folded over the top, punched two holes in it and put some yarn through so it would hang.

I also showed a quick powerpoint I made. I included tamales and a few steps on how to make them, poinsettias, and Las Posadas.

Tomorrow we are going to learn about Israel. I'm planning on reading the book Lory suggests - Light the Lights. Then I found a recipe for edible dreidels using marshmallows, a pretzel stick and a chocolate kiss. That should be fun!

Hope your December is going festivally! Sara  

** Update - Link to mini pinata how-to HERE, although mine didn't go this fancy.
And edible Dreidel HERE.   We're going to use Kisses so they will fit the marshmallow a little better.