Las Posadas

Let us in!  Let us in!

The Tradition
Las Posadas (Spanish for “the inns”) is an Advent celebration revolving around the concept of
hospitality. In Mexico and some parts of Central America, Colombia, Venezuela, and Ecuador, it
is traditional to hold Posadas during the nine days before Christmas, beginning December 16 and
ending December 24. The Posadas symbolize Mary and Joseph’s long, frustrating search for a
place to stay where Jesus could be born. The tradition re-enacts--with a twist, and a happy
ending--the story told in Luke 2:1-7. We learn from the Posadas that by welcoming the poor and
the needy, we are welcoming Jesus in our midst. (See Matthew 25:40).

Typically, different families in a neighborhood will take turns scheduling a night for the Posada
to be held at their home, starting on the 16th of December and finishing on the 24th. Every home
has a nativity scene, and the family hosting the Posada act as the innkeepers. The neighborhood
children and adults are the pilgrims (“Peregrinos”), who go house to house, singing a traditional
song about Mary and Joseph searching for lodging. At one house after the other, they are turned
away (also in song), until the weary travelers reach the designated site for the party, where Mary
and Joseph are finally recognized and allowed to enter.

Source:  

Episcopal Diocese of North Carolina

http://www.tens.org/download_file/view/221/ 

Adapting the Posada to a School Setting
With Señora Cecy we adapted the Advent celebration into a one-time procession which started at our classroom and concluded in the gym. The whole school was invited to participate.  Kindergarten dressed as characters from the Nativity Story and went from classroom to classroom asking for lodging, but were continuously turned away!  Finally we went to the gym where Pre-K, First, and Second recognized us as the Mary and Joseph and welcomed us with open arms.  We celebrated with a piñata and treats.  This is the first year that we have celebrated Las Posadas and we had fun.  It also helped the children remember the Christmas Story and empathize with Mary and Joseph seeking lodging.  We were dragging by the time someone finally let us in!  If you are interested in learning more about the Las Posadas celebration, you will find the link we used  here.  We echo-read in English the dialogue back and forth between the characters.

Lilie-shepherd, Addison-Angel, Alivia-Mary, Roan-Joseph, Kayla-Innkeeper,
Harrison-Shepherd, Drew, Adalyn, and Thomas-Royalty.
(We pulled sticks.  It's the only fair way!)

Christmas Program

I cannot tell you how proud I am of the Kindergarten class and their performance last night!  We had a difficult song and they worked very hard to learn the whole song.  The performance was the icing on the cake.  They all looked VERY CUTE, too!

The Hour of Code Extended

Lilie and Kayla in the Tipi working with the Kodable App

After we had a couple of days to experiment with Kodable, we tried using paper and pencil to write our own code.  One student drew the maze and an empty box for each step through the maze.  They also drew coins to be collected along the path.  The second student put each step in the boxes (wrote the code) and counted how many coins they collected and wrote the number.  The first student then checked the second student's work.  They are becoming quite the budding computer programmers.  I am really enjoying seeing them challenged and excited when they get it right!

Adalyn and Harrison's Code

Kayla and Alivia's Code

As they complete more and more mazes on the app, the mazes get more and more intricate. The students have had to use repeating function symbols for some mazes.

The Hour of Code 2013

We are riding on the tail of Computer Science Education Week: Hour of the Code  and will be experimenting with computer programming code in Kindergarten.  We are using the app Kodable and guiding a fuzzball through mazes using a series of arrows and other directions.  Thinking ahead and recording every turn was really challenging for the students, but most didn't want to put it down!

Winter Wonderland!

Snow doesn't get any prettier than this, if you like that sort of thing.  We'll be sending this picture to our kindergarten pen pals at Woodbury Elementary in Irvine, California in their holiday greeting.  They are in Southern California and the closest they get to snow is looking up at the mountains!  I might have to explain about pajama day!

There's Dyson!

Gingerbread Houses

Needed: Help Making Gingerbread Houses

Grace with her masterpiece in 2011

We will be reading a variety of stories about gingerbread cookies this week.  We will be discussing the main ideas that each story shares and the details that makes each of them unique.  Each of us will draw a picture of our favorite version.  Will we be able to guess the stories the students illustrated by the details used?

On Friday before lunch, we will be making gingerbread houses from individual milk cartons and graham crackers.  We need a variety of small pieces of candy, cereal, marshmallows, etc. to decorate our houses.  If you are available to help from 11:00-12:00, we could use your help, too!  Please sign up on volunteer spot by using the link below or in the e-mail sent to your directly.

Daily Five

We Read

Word Work

Word Work - Write the Room

I Listen

I Write

Did Someone Say Ice Cream Party?

Enjoying the sweet rewards of our success!