Smooth sailing on our flight to Mexico today!

Our 12 Days of Christmas {Literature} unit is in full swing.  I knew the kids would enjoy it, but I had no idea just how much they would.  Each day the leader draws a name and that child gets to select a present to open.  Each book has a quality children’s Christmas book and all of the materials needed for an activity.  The first day we read Santa's Stuck which the students thought was hilarious.  We made books about the yummy treats we would leave for Santa, and we completed a Problem/Solution graphic organizer. 

 The second day we read Fancy Nancy’s Splendiferous Christmas and made Fancy Christmas trees with ornaments containing fancy words and their meaning. The unit is on sale at TPT for $5 (reg. $8.50) through the rest of December, so you can always stock up on it for next year or do some of the activities this year!

Then, today, we opened up The Legend of the Poinsettia which was perfect because we began our “Christmas Around the World” unit today with Christina Bainbridge’s amazing resources.  So, today we traveled to Mexico.  I lined up the chairs like airplane seats (keep in mind I only have 6 kiddos—private school and enrollment is down).  We wore Delta Airlines wings and ate real Delta snacks from the plane.  I put Christina’s Mexico power point on the board and we enjoyed it so much.  Then, I read the book and the kids made their own poinsettias.  I cut around them so they could be placed on our Christmas tree.  I decided (again, spur of the moment) that we would make a different ornament each day related to the country we’ve traveled to.  So I need to decide on an ornament for tomorrow’s trip to Brazil.  Christina has lots of free resources for this unit available on her website, and you can buy her Flippy Books and Power Points for each country at TPT!  Go to her blog to find out how {HERE}. 

 I also decided to take a picture of the kids each day “in” the country we visited.  So, we wore sombreros and posed in front of a Nativity with a poinsettia nearby.  These will go in their scrapbooks.  More on our travels tomorrow…

You can purchse my 12 Days of Christmas {Literature} unit to get the activities mentioned above plus much more!!  There are activities for 15 different books included in the unit!