This week is Saint Nicholas Day. When we haven't been celebrating that, we have been studying snow.
The feast day of Saint Nicholas falls on December 6th. In much of the world, Saint Nicholas is responsible for delivering gifts. Saint Nicholas was a bishop of Myra, in Turkey, during the fourth-century. He was well known as a generous being who loved children. One story tells us how he threw gold coins in the window of a poor girl so that she might get married. Today those coins have become small presents left in stockings and shoes. Saint Nicholas might be seen riding a donkey or a white horse. He may also be accompanied by someone who punishes naughty children while he gives gifts to the good children. Often, he recognizes that children are both good and bad, so leaves both good and bad presents like sweets or small toys and potatoes or coal.
Because of her favorite Amazon special, If You Give a Mouse a Christmas Cookie, Genevieve decided to make snowflake cookies to leave out with some carrots and hot cocoa Monday night. We made sugar cookies and she decorated them with blue and white sugar. So we opened our stockings Tuesday evening. They both got pajamas, musical instruments like a slide whistle and tambourine, snow globe-like bouncy balls and matching games. He also got a light up ball and she got slippers, which she loves.
We've been reading about snow this week, which tied in perfectly with storytime this week. Mr. Dan read a book in which a young child celebrates the snow one flake at a time. He read Frosty the Snowman, set to the familiar song and Sneezy the Snowman which tells of a snowman who keeps trying to warm up. Froggy Gets Dressed is a humorous book in which Froggy decides he doesn't want to sleep through the winter and tries to get dressed for the snow. Sadly, he keeps forgetting things like his snow pants, sweater, or his long underwear. He also read Dream Snow, which we read last week. She loves the button to make the music play. We read The Snowflake Sisters, which follows two snowflakes on a magical ride with Santa and through New York City for the new year. Michelangelo's Surprise tells the true story of Michelangelo creating snow sculptures for the Medici family from the point of view of a young page. Toys Meet Snow tells of three toys that go out to explore the snow: one full of questions, one poetic, and one scientific. The Snowy Day is the classic book by Ezra Jack Keats following Peter's adventures in the snow. She keeps correcting the book though because of the Amazon special. Snowflakes Fall is illustrated by Steven Kellogg and is about the uniqueness of snowflakes and children, written respectfully in light of the tragic school shootings our country has faced. The Hat and The Mitten are both by Jan Brett and involve animals experiences with winter clothing.
To celebrate snow, we made snow globes with friends. We used stickers to decorate an insert, but you could color the paper or use your own photo inside to create a background. They don't seem to leak, but the plastic can break and leave a wet, glittery mess. The glitter will take some time to disconnect from the base as well. Our friends also decorated some of the ornaments we've been decorating. We made paper snowflakes, cutting into the folds we made. Instead of simply folding paper in half though, we fold once in half and then bring the sides together to create a wide v. Then this is again folded to create snowflakes with six-sided symmetry like snowflakes actually have. We mixed a little glue with shaving cream and used this mixture and some cotton balls to create snow pictures. Finally, we played with some Insta-snow as well, adding water and watching what happened.
We read some holiday books this week as well. Hanukkah Mice tells of a mouse family watching a little girl get different items for a dollhouse on each night of Hanukkah. Seven Spools of Thread was written specifically for Kwanzaa, and tells the story of seven brothers that are always fighting and a tale of how the traditional Ashanti cloth, known as Kente cloth, originated. We read two of her favorite character books- Pete the Cat Saves Christmas and Merry Christmas Daniel Tiger. We read another Tomie dePaola book, this one telling The Legend of the Poinsettia. We've been slowly working our way through a longer Christmas story of an orphan girl and a doll, The Story of Holly and Ivy.
There was a fun Christmas puppet show at the library this week which she enjoyed. This has inspired many puppet shows this week. She's been decorating for Christmas and coloring a large Christmas picture. We also read another book, off-topic, but one we've enjoyed called The Three Questions which was inspired by the story of the same name by Leo Tolstoy.
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