Los Posadas and Gingerbread Men

Wow! What a busy day! While learning about Los Posadas this week we discovered that before each party the people of the neighborhood or family all get together and walk from house to house looking for shelter, they are denied at each house until they come to the last at which point they are invited in and the celebration begins. I wanted the students to experience what it would be like to live in Mexico and celebrate Los Posadas so we reenacted a procession of our own. The last door we knocked on was our own and after being invited in the students "celebrated" by drawing their own pinata, filling it with things of their choice and then writing and later sharing what their pinata was and what it was filled with. As a culmunation to our week of Gingerbread Men activities we decorated or own gingerbread men with a large assortment of candies. At the very end of the day we spent some time recognizing and counting coins. Below is what the students want to remember about the day:

We learned how to use a butter knife when decorating our gingerbread men. (Wodajo)
We learned a song about Hannukah in music. (Murphy)
We learned what it was like to be Mary and Joseph when we went on a procession looking for shelter. (Jane)
David lost his tooth in the middle of our morning meeting!(Paisley)
Mattie finally returned the tooth journal and shared her story about her lost tooth. (Caroline)
We brainstormed our spelling words for next week. (Adam)
We learned that if we put our gingerbread men in our bookbag it will break. (George)
We designed our own pinatas and wrote about them. (Xander)

*giggle moment*

Zach put so many red hot candies on his gingerbread man that the kids started calling him "Red Hot" man.

When David used his arm to wipe his mouth he accidently wiped out his tooth and found it resting on his arm.