December Happenings: All Things Christmas

ELA

In ELA we listened to Charles Dickens’ A Christmas Carol and spent time analyzing many literary elements, particularly the appearances and symbolism of each spirit. The unit culminated in a character project, in which the students wrote creative poems about a ghost of choice and then illustrated it using mixed materials. I am always impressed by the effort, creativity, and talent of our kids.  

Religion

In religion, we studied the Infancy Narratives. We began by making a Christmas ornament for our class tree, representing one of the people or elements in the Gospel stories. The ornaments this year, hands down, are the best the have ever decorated the class tree. After reading chapters one and two in the Gospels of Matthew and Luke, we watched video clips of each story.  We explored the importance of the angel interventions, the prophecies answered, and the heroism of both Mary and Joseph.  Tableau, one of our most beautiful school traditions, had even more meaning for the 7th grade students this year, now that they have a deeper understanding of the Christmas story.

Applying all these messages, we lived the meaning of Christmas with our visit to St. Edmond’s. Again, watching our kids interact with the St. Edmond’s kids was beautiful. They are compassionate, generous, and kind.

There’s nothing quite like the month of December at St. Katharine’s.  We are blessed.

Looking Ahead

We’ll begin the New Year with a Revolutionary War historical fiction unit and some grammar work: various phrases.