Happy Holidays!

I'm going to share this week's adventure's through an array of pictures. I'll start with the boring. Even though it was the week before the holiday break, we did have some real work that we did. Here is the picture of our homework board for the week. The next activity I'd like to spotlight is one of my favorite activities of the season. Not because the art work turns out all that fancy, but because of the message that is conveyed with it. This goes hand in hand with the lesson I did based on Pearl Harbor in that it's purpose is to teach tolerance and acceptance. The more these children realize people are different and that's okay, the less hatred we'll have in the world.

In five of the different continents I have represented a different holiday. North America is Advent, South America is Christmas, Africa is Kwanzaa, Asia is Hanukkah, and Europe is St. Nicholas. Down in the Australian region I didn't necessarily represent a different holiday, but different customs. This season down is Australia falls during their Summer months so their customs are a lot different than our dreaming of a white Christmas. I also read them a New Zealand version of our Twelve Days of Christmas, thanks to one of my students last year for the gift whose family was from New Zealand, A Pukeko in a Ponga Tree.

The next couple of pictures are going to come from our final holiday activity, the "Gingerbread" house building. It was certainly a fun project that some of the students took a little more seriously than others. There were certainly a lot of them that turned out cute but pictured below are two of the better pictures my phone camera took throughout the activity.

A few serious things to note upon. I have grades online entirely up to date with what I have turned in. I have given the students missing assignments reports with the assignments attached to it. I have told them I am giving them until the second day back to get those turned in. After that, anything that was due before the break will no longer be accepted. the only reason I'm making it the second day is because I know there is going to be at least one student who forgets it at home, so I'm just making the adjustment for that now.

Finally, I want to thank you (both parents and students) for all of the fabulous gifts, and for those that didn't, don't feel bad. It was certainly not a necessity, but I'll tell you, if there's ever a time that I doubt that I'm making the difference I set out to make, this season really tells me otherwise. I with I could pay it back tenfold because these kids deserve it. I truly do care for and appreciate each and every one of them and I hope that I was able to convey that message to them without having some kind of gift to give them. Unfortunately, having bought a house earlier this year, I'm not in a place where I could afford that, but I do love each and every family that I'm working with this year and whatever it is you celebrate: Christmas, Hanukkah, Kwanzaa; or even don't celebrate, I hope you have a happy break filled with lots of family and lots of love because you all deserve it so very much!

"He who has not Christmas in his heart will never find it under a tree." ~Roy L. Smith