Holiday Fun in Kindergarten

Since we have been investigating birds, we didn’t do a big holiday unit, but we still celebrated! Everyone in this group celebrates Christmas so we focused on our family traditions in our discussions and why our traduces are so special. I did set out some holiday themed experiences! 

In math we are continuing to think of math concepts we have learned and show them! I set out an invitation with a few examples to inspire them.

Here someone made an example of a circular pattern.



This circular pattern has other patterns within it!



Here someone showed an example of sorting.



This friend showed an example of counting and showing how many.



The next two friends showed examples of addition.





There were so many others but since I was testing for report cards I did not get as many pictures as I would have liked!

We made a Christmas tree as this was a tradition shared by all of us! I don’t have a class tree so we make our own!

They also made one with loose parts! 



I put out some spices for them to crush using mortars and pestals. 

This loved this and our room smelled amazing! They created a recipe showing how many of each spice they will use and then added the number of spices together! After they crushed it up, they would put it in a small bowl and take it around the room so that others could smell their spice recipe. Then they put it in a bag to take home. We did hang some in our hallway to make it smell good too!

I put out some dough and loose parts for them to create Christmas cookies...another tradition many did at home.

Their favorite though was the gingerbread man! We read about ten different versions of the story! A mysterious gingerbread man visited us but then ran away! We made posters both collaboratively in small groups and individually. 

We came up with some more ideas to catch him! They made gingerbread friends and taped them in the hallway to lure him leading up the stairs to our room! They said things like, “Come this way Gingy!” “Come up the stairs!” “Keep going!”



Then they made a trap and a gingerbread house in our room to catch him! They made candy canes and used those to make a trail leading to the house and trap.

They not only worked, but also caught another gingerbread friend! The kids were so excited!





I am amazed at how good their reading and writing skills are if what they are writing is truly meaningful for them! The more authentic and purposeful the writing experiences are, the better they write! 

We ended our week with hot chocolate and frosted Christmas trees! 

My gift to them was a scarf! They wore them all day long!



Their parent gift was a Christmas ornament containing a ribbon showing how tall their child was in kindergarten and a school picture. I know as a parent of grown children, I love looking at the ornaments they have made through the years. Especially ones that have pictures of their cute little faces, show tiny handprints (how could they have been so small), and how little they were. 





I hope you all had a very Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays!