Feliz Navidad!

Today we began a unit that teaches geography using Holidays celebrated this time of year around the world!  The first stop was Mexico!  We read both The Legend of the Poinsettia and Night of Las Posadas  by Tomi dePaola.  A Mexican Christmas is very religious, but the poinsettia is a Mexican weed that was thought to be beautiful and brought to the U.S. by an Ambassador in the early 1800s and the plant has been incorporated into the American Christmas tradition.  This afternoon your child made a poinsettia ornament.  (That was their idea!  I had planned for the project to be wall art, but they wanted them to be ornaments!)  Because they had learned several Spanish words while reading the Mexican legend, they knew that Christmas is "Navidad" in Spanish.  So, of course we listened to "Feliz Navidad' while working!  Here are your busy little singers!