The season of Advent has begun and we are very busy getting ready for Christmas in our classroom!  Advent is the time of year when we prepare for the coming of Jesus at Christmas time. The Advent wreath is a symbol of the Christmas season. The Advent wreath’s circular shape symbolizes eternal life and God’s never-ending love, while the evergreens represent continuous life. The four candles represent the weeks of Advent, with their progressive lighting symbolizing the growing anticipation of Christ’s arrival. The colors of the candles also have specific meanings: three are traditionally purple (penitential), one is pink (joy), and a central white candle, if included, symbolizes the birth of Jesus.   We light a candle on the Advent wreath for each of the four Sundays leading up to Christmas. We reflect on the gifts the Christmas season brings us with each candle we light.  This week, we light the first candle on our advent wreath, the candle of ‘hope’ and we reflect on the ‘hope’ the season gifts to us.

Along with the Advent wreath, we will discuss the different ways we prepare for Christmas and enjoy a number of special Christmas traditions like decorating our classroom Christmas tree, baking and decorating gingerbread cookies, making holiday crafts, and even enjoying a special visit from St. Nicholas.  Our friend, Elfie the elf on a shelf, has made the long journey from the North Pole to our classroom just in time for the start of Advent.  He has come to help us get ready for Christmas, but be warned…he often causes more trouble than he does help!

One of my favorite holiday traditions is baking gingerbread cookies and making gingerbread houses.  This week we will read a series of books and retellings of the classic tale of the gingerbread man.  This will include a special author study of the famous children’s book author, Jan Brett, and her Gingerbread Baby series.  We will also count, create patterns, write our own stories, create memorable ornament crafts and of course get to enjoy a special holiday snack all using those yummy gingerbread treats.

This week we will also introduce letter Jj.  J is for Jesus!  We will learn about the birth of Jesus and we will begin practicing for our living nativity show in the chapel this week. Our ABCs of Faith is J is for Jesus, Jerusalem, Joseph and Joy.