It's just about the end of 2012.

It's time for one little word.

A word to sum up hopes and goals for the coming days, months and year

One word that sums up who you want to be or how you want to live.

I am choosing a word that I embrace, aspire to, and hope to live up to.

source:  Help in Time of Need
Joy is far deeper than happiness.

Happiness is dependent on external circumstances.

Joy comes from a deep contentment that comes from within.

Contentment born of the knowledge of a life lived with purpose.

A life lived with arms open wide.

A life open to exuberant out-loud joy and quiet, reflective joy.

A life open to experiencing and deeply feeling
exhilarating happiness and fundamental grief 
without being lost in either.

A life lived with love.



Beethoven set joy to music.
The musicians of San Sabadell, Spain bring it to life.
Enjoy.


What is your one word?




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I am a sucker for a good Christmas book.

Warm and cosy feelings.  

Sometimes nostalgic.

Always hopeful.  

One of my favourite read-and-enjoy-at-school Christmas books is Snowmen at Christmas, written by Caralyn Beuhner and illustrated by Mark Beuhner.  


After all the children are tucked into their beds, the snow men, women, children and occasional dog leave the front lawns where they were created, to congregate in the town square.  Here they celebrate Christmas, as only snowfolk know how to do - including enjoying a visit from a snowman Kris Kringle.  

The text is just too much fun to read aloud.

And the illustrations are magic. 

Check out Elli's book share project for school. 

                                                      

I don't like doing snowman art for Christmas - I like to save it for January.

But there are some super cute snowmen craft projects out there.

melted snowman ornament: Dollar Store Crafts

melted snowman in search of winter: Craft Elf

glue snowmen: Crafts for All Seasons


Deep Space Sparkle has a Snowman at Night art project that Patti did with grade one kidlets. As with all her projects, her snowman paintings are amazing. 

Matt Gomez from My Hullabaloo was inspired by Deep Space Sparkle to make snowmen art with his kindergarten class.


Melted snowmen look pretty yummy.
chocolatey melting snowmen cookie: Better Homes and Gardens

marshmallow melting snowman cookie:  Truly Custom Cookery

Find more great books for Christmas - and link up - with Chrissy at First Grade Found Me.  

may your snowmen never melt before their time





Winter solstice.

The last day of school before Christmas.

The remnants of an earlier in the week snowfall on the ground.  Balmy, cloudy but not rainy weather.

Fifty kids and a sprinkling of wonderful parents.

A perfect time for a walk.


We saw

tall trees 
(that's how we make them here)

 nurse logs

soft, thick moss

mushrooms

 a few "no fires" signs

We got to a meadow, and fulfilled our "take care of living creatures" mission.  We fed the birds.  

Each child had a small bag filled with birdseed to scatter on the snow for the birds.  The kidlets took their bird feeding responsibility very seriously, carefully placing or scattering the seed on the ground.


While we were walking one of my wee lads asked me why we were going for a walk in the woods.  


My answer was that walking in the woods is good for our bodies, our brains and our souls.

Definitely good for the soul.

I think that sharing the walk together was the best Christmas gift we could have given each other.

One more day before the holidays.

Looking forwards to breathing out ...

We've been having reindeer fun this week.

A friend of mine told me about this quick little reindeer clip.


We've been checking out the reindeer cam.

And we changed it up from our traditional handprint reindeer art.


I saw some cute reindeer made with wrapping paper antlers from Becky at Dots-n-Spots and  kindergarten-ified it to suit us.

Different wrapping paper antlers and different colour noses - and we have "multi-cultural" reindeer.


Tomorrow we will make reindeer food, and then send all the little elves home to put out milk and cookies for Santa and food for the reindeer.

What if Rudolph's nose was not red?

What if it was green, or yellow or blue?

While red nosed reindeer are traditional, we are an inclusive class.  We don't have any issues with green nosed reindeer, purple nosed reindeer, or blue nosed reindeer.  We figure there is enough room pulling Santa's sleigh for all the reindeer.

So we made a book about it.

It was really just an excuse to put on antlers for a photo shoot,  and and then put glitter on our portraits' noses.

Check out our class book.



Click on the page below to get your copy of a non-discriminatory  reindeer class book.




There's an emergent reader that ponders Santa's reaction to a rainbow assortment of reindeer noses.

(I cannot find the origin of this book.  I would love to give credit where it is due.)

Click on the image to download a copy.


I put together a big book for the class a few years ago.  The noses attach to the reindeer faces with magnets.


Little Giraffes  also has a big book version.

And Marcia's Lesson Links has a great black and white printable student version.



happy 4 days of school left before Christmas holidays







One of my favourite Christmas traditions is putting up the Nativity scenes.

And my favourite Nativity is one that has been part of every Christmas that I can remember.


My Mum made it back in the days that our Christmas tree had gold painted egg carton decorations.  They went with the hand-me-downs from a family who decided to celebrate Christmas without trimmings and trappings.


Wooden spools, a shoe box and some scraps of material and shiny paper.

And lots of love.


I remember the material scraps - a summer romper that my brother wore, an apron made for my father, an apron I remember my mum wearing, material from reupholstering a chair, leftovers from making a lamp shade. Baby Jesus' swaddling clothes were (well washed) cloth diapers.

All put carefully sewn and glued with love.

And passed down to me when I had wee feet padding about the house.

Those padding feet have grown bigger than mine and have gone away to university.

But on a break between exams, the pink feet came home for a quick visit.

As tradition dictates, she set up the Nativity.


This Nativity, that has been part of my kids' Christmas tradition as long as they can remember.

I suppose that when there are new little feet padding around, I will pass it on.

To start a new tradition. And continue an old one.

I hope that it will go to it's new home with the same love that it came to mine.

Thanks Mum.  I love you.



My heart is very heavy tonight.

Sharing deep sadness with the children, families and educators of Newtown Connecticut.

Today honouring the birth-day of the International Day of the Child seems especially poignant.

On December 14, 1954 the UN General Assembly recommended that there should be an International Children's Day. Susanna Hill is dedicating this week's Perfect Picture Book Friday to children's rights.

In 1989 the United Nations passed the Universal Declaration of the Rights of the Child.

Sharee Fitch, a lovely Canadian poet, was asked by UNICEF to write a book that would promote discussion about rights and responsibilities.  She  "funnified" the serious subject of the rights of children to an education, adequate food, shelter and health care, safety, fair treatment, protection from war, with her trademark rollicking verse.


written by Sheree Fitch

illustrated by Darcia Labrosse

published by Doubleday Canada, 1998

poetry

suitable for ages 8 -adult

themes  children's rightss

opening lines
If I were you
And you were me
For just a day 
Or maybe two
Then maybe you
And maybe me
Would see the me
That you were too.

synopsis
Sharee Fitch and Darcia Labrosse raise global awareness of the rights of children in this delightful collection of poems interpreting 15 of the 54 articles of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child.      
source: Quill and Quire 

winner of the Silver Birch Award and Atlantic Hackmatack Award


I like this book because ... 

This book is like a diving board: it looks like the regular thing (a cheery book of verse) until it is read to a group of kids and then some wonderful leaping begins. The goofiness of the poems and the lightness of the art will put young readers at ease and inspire discussion.     source: Quill and Quire 

The light hearted verse is well matched with the free-spirited illustrations, neither of which take away from the seriousness of the subject matter.  The fun is there to be enjoyed, as well as the subject matter to be discussed.  I find that the fun serves as a reminder of the innocence that is supposed to be part of every childhood.

resources ...

Unicef outlines the UN Convention for the Rights of the Child.

Read the rights of the child in plain language.

Unicef's Top 10 Childrens' Rights Cartoons

A Children's Rights Activity Guide published by the Government of Canada.

Sheree Fitch is a performance poet; her work is meant to be read aloud.  She is amazing to experience presenting her writing.



About Sheree FItch, her blog, and her page about If You Could Wear My Sneakers.

I'd like to leave you with Sheree Fitch's blog thoughts for today ...
click on the image


keep your children close to your heart,
give them extra hugs daily,
and make sure that they know that they are deeply loved



We made gingerbread men.

Flour, sugar, eggs, cinnamon, ginger -- all that good stuff.

Stirring by hand.

Each kid taking a turn, or two, or three, or .....



The dough was all mixed and ready for rolling. (We had a wonderful student from the high school come to help us roll and bake).  The cookies were all decorated and sitting on the table.

We did not want them to go the way of so many cookies that we have read about.  No running out the door with a pack of kids yelling at them to come back for this k class.

We are into escape prevention.  

Those gingerbread boys/girls/babies/cowboys are not going to get away from us.

We have a plan.

Gingerbread Man Escape Prevention.

(This has been in my gingerbread file for years and I was not able to track down who first created it.  If you know, I would love to give credit where it is due.)

Read about it in the pocket chart.  


Check out the big book version.
(my apologies for the photo quality - my camera had a little adventure and is now having a spa vacation at the camera shop and I am using my ipad)


Just to be sure, we made our own books to take home.  You never know when you might need a manual to prevent gingerbread escapees.


We made sure that no gingerbread men escaped. (Check out the full cheeks!)


All that was left were a few crumbs.



Tomorrow the kids will vote for their favourite gingerbread story.  I wonder what it will be...




No visions of sugar plum fairies in our heads here.

We are into patterns.

Christmas patterns.

Christmas eraser patterns



candy cane patterns


elf patterns


take home family decorate-an-ornament project patterns


and creations that I have nothing to do with



a little seasonal math for December




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