Christmas in the Classroom

I may not have much control over how my host family celebrates Chrismas, but I definitely had control over the Christmas spirit in my classroom. So I got everyone on board. What started as a very small lesson, one day, Christmas class turned in to much more. The first thing I needed to do was get the room looking festive. My students teaching classroom last year went all out. It was so decked out from top to bottom. He had so many decorations and lights it was a bit ridiculous, but I loved every second of it. Compared to that, my classroom still looked a bit sad. I don't care though. The kids loved it anyway. We strung up lights and put a small tree in the corner, decorated with little ornaments and lights. I even made a star out of paper to go on top, though it was way too big for the tree. Oh well.

We all know about those paper chains that kids make during the holidays. Well, my co-teacher and I decided to make a chain with each of the classes. Each student would decorate one chain link, and write their dream on it (5th grade was their career aspirations, 4th was what they wanted for Christmas). It was my co-teacher's brilliant idea to create paper Christmas trees to wrap them around, so I made star toppers with each class on it, and it became that every class had their own tree in the back of the room. I think it was actually really amazing.

Our Christmas treat lasted a few days because each class got to watch Rise of the Guardians (that means I had to watch it 7 times, but it was worth it). And on the last day before Christmas that I had with the students, I handed out Christmas cards and a small candy cane for each student. Well actually, I hid them around the room and made each student hunt for their card. I made one for each student with a small message and hand-drawn picture with their name on it. I hope they really liked them. It seemed like they did.

We also sang. In our class, to help the students learn English, we always learn a new song every chapter. For our final chapter, we learned several Christmas songs. Both classes learned "We Wish You A Merry Christmas" and "Feliz Navidad" as well as 5th-grade learning "Santa Clause is Coming To Town" (one of my favorites). It was so cute singing these songs before class every day.

For my afterschool, I did some similar things, but because my last lesson with the boys was the week of Christmas, it was also our end of the year party. So I played card games (they love War), watched Home Alone and had a snack party for the last few days of our time together. And for Christmas, I gave them each a deck of cards so they can annoy teach their families the game.

It was nice getting to celebrate Christmas with the other English teachers. It made Christmas feel more like it was an event than just another day. I am happy that I had them with me this year.

Don't forget to read my post on Christmas with a Korean Family to hear all about how I spent my Christmas with my host family!