Feliz Navidad!

My first graders made these poinsettias by tracing their hands on construction paper 12 times (4 on green and 8 on red). Then we glued the hands to a paper dessert plate and glued pom-poms in the middle. (Adapted from a project idea found here - God bless the internet!)



I liked them so much that I put them up on my bulletin board. It's the first thing you see when you walk in my room. The phrase in the middle says "Flower of the Holy Night" in Spanish.

And of course this is entirely educational :) It was part of a social studies lesson about Christmas traditions around the world. Before we made them, we read "The Legend of the Poinsettia" by Tomie dePaola, which is a retelling of a Mexican folktale.

It's educational, cultural, creative... and it took them forever to do it, which gave me time to do some oral assessments! Can't beat that!