Many of you know how much I enjoyed teaching all the Christmas related crafts and lessons in December, but when all my bloggy buddies were posting about their Christmas Traditions around the world —and for some, the LACK of ability to even mention the word Christmas in their classrooms, I began to worry that I was not giving my students enough knowledge of other traditions. As I focused on Santa, reindeer, and all the FUN of a Merry Christmas I avoided my guilt by telling myself that each child in my classroom celebrated Christmas and no one spoke up and told me differently. So there. It was ok to teach them using the fun of the holidays to spark interest and keep their attention… Right? Right…UNTIL…..
So the Poem on the card that the students had to write was:
Mother’s Day and Gifts for Helpers
Teaching in November
Techy Santa!
Interactive Writing Lesson {Freebie}
I taught my kids a little bit about Hanukkah… we played dreidel and read a few books. From that moment on, until yesterday at 11:30 when they went home, my entire class was obsessed with saying "Happy Hanukkah" every time they gave another kid something. Let's say I needed a marker and asked a kid to go grab one for me. He'd come back, hand it to me, and say, "Happy Hanukkah!!!!!!!!!"
I teach in a Catholic school. I hope my kids' parents are down with other religious holidays….. haha!!
Marvelous Multiagers!
I love it! Too funny! I have a Jewish student and a student from India who celebrates Diwali, so we had to cover lots of bases.
Oh my gosh! That story made me giggle. Love your pics at the Riverwalk!
Lindsay
My Life as a Fifth Grade Teacher
Very Funny Story 🙂 Merry Christmas
Sue
theverybusykindergarten
I laughed out loud! Happy Holidays!
Jenn
Finally in First
That's funny!!!!! It's kind of like the time I told a girl she needed to ask her mom if she was African American. We were studying MLK, Jr and she asked me if she was. Um, not for me to say.
LOVE THE PICS OF YOUR BEAUTIFUL FAMILY!!!
A Teeny Tiny Teacher
This could only happen to you! Thanks for sharing this. We discuss Christmas, Hannukah, Kwanzaa, Ramadaan, and Diwali. Our school is very multi-cultural but a lot of families celebrate Christmas along with their own holiday.
Forty some years ago, my immigrant parents from India did the same thing. My late father pretended to be Santa as he left presents at the foot of my bed until we could afford a tree. Funny thing is, over the years, we got so into it that we decorated, cooked, gifted, sang, and celebrated Christmas more than a lot of my Christian friends did! We are in America so we should celebrate and honor our differences and similarities.
Have a wonderful HannuKwanzaRamaDiwaChristmas season!
Wow, A Jewish kid in you class…
Jk,
It's more like a prank. -_-
Oh Reagan:
It's past midnight, and only you could have me laughing and then muffling laughter because hubs is sleeping and then squeaking more laughter as I tried to finish reading the post and then the comments.
Heeheehee.
Still laughing!
You really ought to publish this.
Hey!
I think TBA was collecting funny stories.
This is a great one!!!!!
Marry Christmas, sweet and funny BlogFriend!
Kim
Finding JOY in 6th Grade
Oh good golly! I just played that all out in my head as I was reading it!!! Too funny! That's one for the memory book! At least your students are well rounded now with the second lesson;) hee hee! Too funny! Love your pics!! I did pics of the kids, torture for my 15 yr old I might add, but we need to do a family one. ( I just don't like the idea of being the fatty in the pic:(( ) oh well…..
4th Grade Frolics
O.M.G. Seriously laughing out loud right now at your post! Love the pics of your beautiful family! Merry Christmas!
Ms. McBee’s Kinderbugs
Although most of our school celebrates Christmas, as a 1st grade, we focus on family traditions (this is how I get in my theme-ish stuff). Our school isn't very diverse 🙁 We learned about Diwali, Las Posadas, Hanukkah, Christmas and Kwanza. I actually learned a lot about my families by keeping the focus on learning about others in order to be a good friend. Not that it didn't have a few crazy moments! I blogged about not reading about Diwali BEFORE teaching it 🙂
http://newadventuresinfirstgrade.blogspot.com/2011/12/pay-attention-to-book-before-you-read.html
Have a Merry Christmas!
Funny!!!!! Same thing happens to me each year. While we don't "celebrate" the holidays at my school {which I'm happy to report we plan on "revisiting" as a staff next year} we do make a simple holday gift. We do a calendar and have the kids either stand in front of a Hanukkah poster or a Christms poster and still others in front of colorful paper who celebrate Ramadan. {We've got a HUGE mix of culures in my school – it's awesome} Every single year I put a kid in front of the wrong paper because they tell me they are Jewish {rarely do my Jewish friends claim to be Christian but my Christian friends *really* wish they could celebrate Hanukkah}. What a hoot…
Your family is gorgeous! 🙂
Holly
Crisscross Applesauce in First Grade
I couldn't stop laughing by the end of your post!!!!!!!! This is why I only celebrate Thanksgiving & National Holidays in my classroom!!!
You did recover well from the mess though 🙂
Beautiful pictures of you & your family!
Happy Holidays!
❤ Mor Zrihen ❤
A Teacher's Treasure
ahhhh!!! hahahaha! That's so funny!! And I can totally envision myself looking back at that moment and cringing constantly…
And I do the Christmas around the world, because I have a lot of personal friends who are Jewish, I think I've only really had one Jewish student in my 9 years of teaching. And I love learning about the world (we've traveled A LOT), so I love to share that too….plus our students are title I students that really don't have a background in much – I mean we live 15 minutes from the beach and 99% of them have NEVER been there!!! say what?!?! So. that's a lot of why I teach it.
P.S. – I LOVE the christmas pix of the Riverwalk – we may need to take a trip one year over there 🙂
Jen Ross
The Teachers’ Cauldron
yay – your button is on my blog now 🙂 How was it NOT there before?! ha!
Jen Ross
The Teachers’ Cauldron
Too funny! I have a child who's Arabic and not allowed to participate in Music class or do any singing of any kind. He's been drawing me pictures of Santa Claus and writing books about Christmas for 2 weeks now! I'm so confused…?!
Dianne
Hopelessly Devoted to Teaching
Oh my goodness that made me giggle!
Also, you have a beautiful family 🙂
Journey of a Substitute Teacher
I really enjoyed your story. At our school, we used to have about 4 weeks to do Christmas Around the World, so we would study Mexico (b/c a lot of our families are Hispanic and we're fairly close to the border), Germany (New Braunfels and the Wurst Fest just down the road), Hanukkah (to be well-rounded. I'm Catholic and didn't know much about Hanukkah before I started teaching. My kids always love to play the Dreidel game, and we even decorated our door with Dreidels this year), and then we would pick another country. One year we did Christmas in Australia (Santa on a surfboard), and another year we did a Cajun Christmas. But now (for some reason, but I'm not sure what) we only have 3 weeks, so we only do the first three. It seems so rushed too. Where did all of that time go?
I also loved the River Walk pics! I am a fellow San Antonian, and your newest follower! I would love for you to visit my blog and take a Christmas tour of my house. I'm a little crazy when it comes to decorating for Christmas, so I figured I'd share my craziness and hopefully spread some Christmas cheer. 🙂
Happy Holidays,
Patti
aseriesof3rdgradeevents.blogspot.com
That is to funny, if he had been my son I would have wrung his cute little neck. lol Your pictures are so sweet.
Merry Hanukkah and Happy Christmas!
OH MY WORD!!! that was hilarious!!! too funny!!! and it shows how much you care for your kiddos to switch it up like that!!! still LOL though 🙂