Operation Hot Cocoa Disaster- TOP SECRET MISSION

Christmas Around the World

  The last week before Christmas break, the entire first grade does a Top Secret Mission from the elves to help Santa collect information about 8 different countries and how they celebrate Christmas. The purpose of this is to teach our students about other countries and the Christmas customs and traditions that they have. The kids learn about the country and do an art project that goes along with their traditions. Our hopes is that the students will understand, have respect and have fun with other Christmas traditions and celebrations.

When we do Christmas Around the World, each of us 8 teachers pick one of the countries to teach and our classes switch to "fly" to each of the countries. The kids make a Top Secret suitcase and we give the students an airline ticket and passport to make the journey realistic. When the students arrive at each country, they get a stamp to put in their passports. We talk about how you need this to travel to other countries and what it is like to go through customs at the airport. 

Each of us teachers, takes a country and the project and adapts it as needed. I taught Holland to the first grade students. When I am teaching about Holland, I try to make it as realistic as possible. I take have Google Earth up on the Smartboard on Delano, MN and then we pretend to fly to Amsterdam. I put on an airplane take off noise so it sounds like we are flying! I was in Amsterdam when I was in college, so I share my pictures of when I was there. The kids love to see me in some of the pictures and talk about my trip. I hope this encourages them to want to travel there some day!

The biggest tradition in Holland is putting clogs out on St. Nicholas Eve and in the morning they receive gifts and candy in their shoes. After last year, I decided to have the kids put their shoes in the hallway. After we did that I continued to teach them about Holland and we did our clog project. While I was doing this, I had a coworker put treats in their shoes. The kids were so excited and thought Sinterklaas had come to our school! Seeing their excitement, showed me that getting treats and adding this to the lesson, was totally worth it! 

Another thing I added was passing around real wooden clogs from Holland. One of my new coworkers had some, so I borrowed them for the lesson. The kids loved to feel them, hold them, and try them on. Having these real clogs allowed the kids to understand what they were really like instead of just seeing pictures. 

After the secret mission was complete, I had many teachers telling me how much their students loved Holland and how they kept talking about what they had learned. I believe that the real clogs and the treats in their shoes enhanced the lesson this year and made a positive impact on the students and their learning. This proved to me that they understood and remembered the Christmas customs of Holland and I will continue to do the same thing next year when teaching about Holland!   

Morning Meeting

Each day we begin with our morning meeting. This is a very important time of our day where we get to greet one another, share something, do a fun activity and read the morning message. We also go over the job chart so everyone knows who is responsible for what. I also go over the schedule and what our day will look like so the students know in advance what we will be doing.

Morning meeting is important because this is the time where we make connections with one another. I get a chance to learn about each student and understand the whole child. During this time, I learn about the student's family, their interests, and what they do outside of school. I find a way to make connections with each student and use that to build a relationship with them.

With one of my previous students, I learned that he loved playing basketball. During morning meeting, I found out that his parents coach, just like I do. I also learned that his aunt played for the gophers and was one of my favorite players! Right away we made a connection and built our relationship by talking about basketball and sports. From that moment, this little boy started to talk to me and share about his life. We built a trust between us which made school and learning enjoyable for him. I had this student two years ago and he still comes by my room almost every day to say hi and tell me about this life. I have also gone to watch him play at one of his basketball tournaments. He was so happy that I came to watch that we took a picture and he wrote me a nice thank you note. This student has made a positive impact on me and I believe I have made a difference in his life too!