Thursday News

In thinking about Thursday...

This morning in Spanish with Alicia, we traveled to an exciting spanish speaking country, Venezuela! Once there, we looked at a book about numbers just to see how many we could remember in spanish. Happily our Cardinals could name all the numbers Alicia showed them and say them back in spanish. Then, we went over our greetings and our welcome to Spanish songs before ending the class with the squeezing of the "moooooooouchas gracias" cow we always look forward to. Before leaving, one of the Cardinals had a request for our Spanish specialist: Kate,"Alicia I have a question. How do you say "goose" in Spanish?" So we left our time in Spanish with some obvious curiosity and a thirst for more!

Our week of family visitors continued today with Donny's mom, Wendy! She came in with some special items to talk to the class about a tradition their family follows in celebrating Advent. one of the items Wendy brought with her was an Advent Wreath, complete with the three purple and one pink candles that Donny's family lights as a part of their holiday celebration. The wreath she brought to show us is made out of pine needles because they don't die in winter which represents how Jesus' love doesn't end. Wendy shared with us that the word "advent" means to get ready or prepare, and this time of year, those who celebrate Christmas are preparing for Christmas day and the celebration of the birth of baby Jesus, and so each of the candles is lit on a sunday before Christmas to signify getting another week closer to Christmas day. In Donny's house, they light a new candle each Sunday, and then during dinner that week they light the candles that have already been lit. In addition, Wendy showed us a book that they read at home before dinner during Advent that includes a reading for each day that connects to the day in the Christian Advent calendar. The book also included a fun search and find picture that Wendy shared with the class and all the Cardinals had a chance to try. This advent tradition takes Donny's family all the way up to Christmas eve when, Donny shared with us, they leave out cookies for Santa along with a magic key so he can get into their house (which doesn't have a chimney) and carrots for the reindeer.

After sharing their Advent and Christmas eve traditions with the class, Donny and Wendy brought out another family tradition, special chocolate chip cookies that Donny's family made! The recipe has been passed down generations from Donny's great grandmother and the class enjoyed the delicious treat. With that sugar running through everyone, the class decided to have a quick Christmas song dance party before Wendy had to leave!