Christmas in my classroom...

I'm not a teacher who believes in decorating her classroom for any holiday.

I don't hang things on the wall or from the ceiling to commemorate the upcoming celebration.

My room looks the same on Christmas as is does on Halloween or March 10th.

It doesn't really change.

I learned my lesson my first year of teaching. I would change the decorations for everything. But I quickly found out that these kids are 6 years old and aren't afraid to act their age. They can't handle the upcoming holiday as it is, let alone dangling it in their faces for an extra 8 hours a day. I will, however, give into decorating the outside of my classroom door and hall. I'm boring and not fun, I know.

This year, I made a "wreath" for my classroom door with the help of my students.

It's just made from die cut trees out of paper, a paper Santa and Mrs. Claus, and a bow.

My whole first grade team all decided to make these soldiers again this year. We hung them outside in the hallway. It's really cute to have a hallway full of toy soldiers.

Each year, I spend a few days a week teaching the kids about the customs and traditions of Christmas we have here in the United States that are not really ours - hint, hint to the moms that are looking for an activity to do at home with their children. Today we talked about Germany. We learned that the tradition of gingerbread came from there. One activity we did today was tasting. I had baggies of gingerbread cookies for each student. They were able to eat the cookies while they listened to me read them Gingerbread Baby by Jan Brett.

We also learned that the Christmas tree idea came out of Germany as well. I had each of my student make their own Christmas tree out of colored paper with no pattern. The one below is one I made a few years ago as a sample for the students.

Here are a few of my favorites that my students created this afternoon.