The Nutcracker

Our Nutcracker craft.
One student said, "I've never made anything this big before!" :)

This week we began reading "The Nutcracker" chapter book.  We practiced "close reading" as we took notes on post-its and recorded new words. "Prominent" was a favorite new word, as we saw what the nutcracker's "prominent eyes" looked like.  Ask your child to show you this!  A highlight was making a Nutcracker craft on Friday.  The craft was an excellent opportunity to follow multi-step directions and practice fine motor skills.  We also made Nutcracker puppets of the main characters, and we colored the background for Scene 1.  We will color Scene 2 this week and practice a puppet show, after we see the play on Tuesday.

The Nutcrackers displayed in the hall.

We continued our Lighting the Holidays Unit.  This week we learned how light is used in the celebrations of Hanukkah and Diwali.  Hanukkah lights 8 candles, one each night of the celebration, to remember the oil that kept burning in the menorah for the Maccabees during their war with the Syrian-Greeks.  We enjoyed learning how to play the dreidel game and enjoyed that time with our first grade friends in Mrs. Vittore's room!  We also learned about Diwali, which lights a candle for each night of their 7 night celebration to show the Seven Principles they strive to show:

1.  Unity
2.  Being Yourself
3.  Helping One Another
4.  Sharing
5.  Having a Goal
6.  Creating
7.  Believing

We partner researched in the computer lab on Pebble Go one of the five holidays we are learning about.  We will be recording information about our research and posting this on the blog, in early January.  This week we will learn how light is used in the holidays Las Posadas and Diwali.  Next week we will finish our research with how light is used in Christmas!

The big upcoming event is seeing "The Nutcracker" play on Tuesday.  I'll try to post some pictures from this first field trip!