Class Christmas Tree 2014

Right after the Thanksgiving unit was done, I started to think about the Christmas lessons and activities that the classes will have this year.

I decided to make it simple , with less hassle or stress as much as possible.  Less muscle pain and less pocket drain  is my Christmas Unit aim for 2014. 

I thank the Lord for guiding me and leading me to many websites for this.

I started planning for the classroom decorations first. Should I put up a tree for them?  Christmas is definitely not Christmas to the kids without a tree. I wanted something made by the kids themselves or something recycled.  Definitely, buying a plastic tree is out of the question.  

Thankfully I found the site that showed photos of Kids Handprints Christmas Tree.  So I got the kids buzzing happily in pairs last week while tracing their hands on green cartolinas.

 

and this was how their handprints Christmas tree looked like.....

These are the handprints of all the Kids Classes.  Well, I added mine to the pile...for the trunk or base of the Christmas tree! 

The star on top of the tree is a recycled snowflake ornament made of felt.  The paper strips for the garland were sold in packets at the local 100yen store.   

I printed out a coloring page for kids that has a big picture of a gift on it.  While coloring this picture, I remembered a well-loved Christmas storybook that I had decades ago that had strips or flaps on a page .  You open that flap and you can see a small picture or drawing of a thing that is in the story.

And that's how I got the idea of making a flap to this picture.  They "open"  the gift and they see what' s  inside...the most precious gift everyone will ever have! 

Poinsettia Varieties

You know, it's nearing Christmas here when you see all those poinsettias in almost all of the flower shops.

Poinsettias are green most of the time, except during winter time when the petals start  to turn red .  The common variety is the deep red ones.  These are what we often see in gardens, windows or table tops around Christmas time.

One lovely day in November, I took a long stroll down south towards Route 2 and headed for the COOP Livin.  This is one of my favorite shops in that area because of their affordable yet lovely household items.  I often buy my pillowcases from this store.

The entrance to this store is my favorite spot - where they display the plants and garden things.  This was what greeted me there that day.

I went closer to get a better look at these beautiful varieties of poinsettias .  It was a feast for my eyes as I didn't know before that some of these plants come in pink and pale yellow!

I wonder what they did to these plants to make a "design" on these blooms! 

Of all the varieties displayed there , this is my favorite.  It has layers of petals in different shades of pink.  I've never seen this lovely variety before. 

I think  my Mama and Lolo  who had the green thumbs in the family would have been very elated to see these kinds of poinsettias.  

But then, I believe all the beauty they're seeing now in Heaven is incomparable to all the magnificent flowers in the whole world!!! 

Happy Thanksgiving 2014

If there's one Western holiday that most Japanese are not familiar with , it's Thanksgiving.

I get blank stares from my students whenever  I mention that one of my favorite holidays is Thanksgiving.  They say, "What's that?!  How is that celebrated?"

Well, blame it perhaps on the Americans here in Japan who didn't quite share this one holiday with the Japanese.  That's why I am so glad that the American missionaries who came to the Philippines hundreds of years ago introduced this holiday to the Filipinos.  No, we didn't have turkeys and all the trappings, nor did we go home for that Thanksgiving dinner in the Philippines.  It's not really an official holiday in my country but most Christians picked it up and tweaked it a bit to become the Thanksgiving Sunday at churches .  Oh, how I miss those special service and the potluck lunch afterwards!

Back to my Thanksgiving celebration here... I decided to do one Culture Lesson with all my classes during Thanksgiving week.  The aim is to let  them know that there is such a holiday in the USA and Canada, to let them know when and how it is celebrated and of course, why it is celebrated.  So after the usual vocabs unlocking and tracing the history of the holiday (by PowerPoint), the students did the activities like word searches, puzzles, games, art crafts, etc.  I asked them what would they thank God for this year.  Some of them drew what they're most thankful for this year and posted these on the wall.

The fun time was capped with a simple snack - pumpkin pies, baked by Maya Hayashi.  Most kids do not like pumpkin, but surprisingly some of them asked for seconds because we gave them just tiny slices this time. Because we decided to bake just enough for all the classes , sadly,  seconds could not be given.

Best of all, I would say, is the Thanksgiving Prayer that we (chaplains and I) decided we would do  before they had the pumpkin pie snack.  For most of them, that was their first time to hear this kind of prayer, their first time to be prayed for or prayed over.   Of course, the prayer by the class chaplain was in Japanese so the students could understand every word of it.  It was such a heartwarming moment to see them, especially the younger ones , express their thanks to God with closed eyes, clasped hands and grateful faces. 

I'm looking forward to another Thanksgiving fun with the classes again next year, God willing !