Oh December

School in December is a wild ride.  In the middle of a lesson, a student will raise their hand and offer how many more days until Christmas.  They want to know what day is our party.  They want to know when Christmas break is.  They want to know how long Christmas break is.  Five of them have December birthdays which isn't helping anything.

I am also not helping anything.  I add to the chaos.  They are obsessed with the Christmas village.  We do the advent calendar (sometimes twice a day so we can give everyone a turn.) It's chaotic.

Yesterday for one of our advent calendar activities, we played Don't Eat Pete with mini m and ms.  One boy said, "But it's not fair.  Not everyone will get the same amount of m and ms."

I told him life wasn't fair.

A boy next to him nodded solemnly and said, "That's true."

(I'm a big proponent of you get what you get and you don't throw a fit.)

All the Christmas stuff is fun though.  I love reading them Christmas books and singing our song in very silly ways.  (We did underwater, whisper and opera yesterday.)  And I love those kids.  They delight me every day.

Yesterday in math we had a word problem about a girl named Savannah.  I said, "Hey, I have a niece named Savannah."

One of my girls said, "Wait.  Is she a teen?"

I said, "Yes."

"I have a cousin named Savannah and she is a teen!"  Then she thought a moment and said, "Are we...related?!?"

She said, "My cousin Savannah loves to sing, does your niece?"

I said, "I don't know.  Maybe.  She is really good at basketball."

She said, "Different Savannah!"

One fun Christmas activity we do is Christmas Around the World.  I assign them a country and a lot of them are very bugged they don't get to pick.  (See:  you get what you get and you don't throw a fit).  They research how to say Merry Christmas in their country and draw the flag.  They locate it on the map and find out about three traditions.  They make a paper doll with traditional clothes from the country.  It is my favorite part since I love making paper dolls.  

I show them all how to lay the doll on top of the paper and trace the clothing.  I help whoever wants me to because I could make paper dolls all day.

Some of them choose dolls that are basically like gingerbread men, but I also bought some from my cousin Hannah that I let them use.  (Hannah has a shop where she sells them:  Lily and Thistle.  She is amazing.)

Here are the first four to be finished and I couldn't be more proud:

One of the boys said, "I thought I would hate this, but I don't."

My students have reading calendars every month.  If they read 30 minutes a night and bring the calendar back, they get a prize.  Yesterday I gave a student her prize for November.  I told her she did a great job reading.

She said, "I wouldn't even do it, but my mom makes me."

I said, "Your mom and I are on the same team!"

With resignation in her voice, another girl said, "My mom is on your team too!"

And I am glad.  It is December and I need all the teammates I can find.