Our visit to Israel

Today, we visited Israel in our Christmas Around the World. 

OH! Before I forget, I fixed my passport that I posted last night - 

This one isn't in color anymore because I "sent" it to myself from our copiers because I cut and pasted it by hand in the work room...lol. I don't want to delete the other link because I think it'll delete it from everyone who has "grabbed" it - correct if I'm wrong...

Click {HERE} to get the correct version - this is the one where you can copy it and turn it into a book. 

Ok, back to our trip to Israel. Yes, I know Hanukkah isn't Christmas, but I definitely made sure that they new that.  We read these two books...

Ok, I didn't read Latkes and Applesauce because we were running out of time, but it is such a cute story!  But I DID read the excerpt in the back of the book that explains how Hanukkah came to be....I was really proud of my kiddos, they really got into it - and they really know it (well, at least today - tomorrow may be another story! ha!).

Then we did our craftivity - our menorah...

My friend that I worked with a few years ago shared this idea with me...I think! HA! We shared so many ideas with each other that it's hard to keep it straight who's idea was whose...lol. That's the way it should be - right!!?
 

All you need is 8 Popsicle sticks, and one jumbo stick. LOTS of tin foil - ok...let me vent here. I was expecting it to take a lot longer than it did with my 3rd graders, but what I did NOT expect was that they couldn't wrap the tin foil around the Popsicle sticks!!! I was TOTALLY amazed!! How do these kids lack such skills?? Or am I having too high of expectations??? No, seriously. Tell me if I am. Anyway, you'll also need a plate for each kid.Cut the plate in half and use one half for the candle holder, and the other half you'll cut for the stand part...I just do it by hand, no tracers or anything. Then we do glitter for the flames.

Also, I wanted share our author for the month, well for both December and January since they're like half-months. Jan Brett has always been my author for this time of year because of all of her wonderful Christmas and winter-themed books. I'm really bummed because I won't be there in January to finish up my Jan Brett unit though...oh well.  

And our Elf on a Shelf was found this morning reading a book....

AND I was sitting in our Pod during lunch and looked over and saw THIS cute little reindeer hat!! Where was THIS last week during my reindeer week??? I am totally going to grab this tracer and share it with y'all - hopefully tomorrow. 

Me at almost 38 weeks pregnant modeling the Reindeer hat - ha!

Hope y'all had a happy Monday! I came home to do our pregnancy pictures/Christmas pictures - I'm so excited to see them!!

Happy Teaching!

Don't forget, I love hearing from you! ;)