We Need a Little Christmas

I like to calmly and gently ease out of the Christmas Season at school. I mean, technically, Christmas isn't over until Epiphany which is the second Sunday after Christmas.  Not to mention, at school, we get to deal with all the hype of Christmas, all the excitement and craziness; So it's nice to get a chance to enjoy the calm of Christmas when it has actually (and finally) come.  
I never take the Christmas tree up in our class until one of the children ask either why the tree is still up or if they can take their ornaments home now.  We just took the tree down Monday at school, which is more than I can say for my house. (As a side note we don't start reading Christmas books, unless they are requested, before Thanksgiving, or doing Christmas activities.  Of course Christmas songs, like all songs are never off limits). 
The other benefit of not rushing to tell them Christmas is over and taking down everything that remotely reminds them of Christmas is that I get left over flowers from my church, so there for ripping out my recording of sleigh ride and presenting them with Poinsettias to do with as they pleased yesterday morning was not even slightly out of place to them.  


The advantage of this project is that it requires no money, little preparation, little planning, oh, and the kids GO NUTS for it.  The downside is that it is incredibly messy.  Prepare for dirt everywhere. 

The first order of business for them was dumping everything out and/ or ripping off the stems.

A few of the girls gathered the flowers into blossoms and asked me to tape them together into "wedding flowers" (see below).

 

"Miss Elizabeth, why is this dirt stuck in here?"  "What do you think?"  "This stringy stuff."  "Do you know what it's called?" "No." "Let's ask your friends."  "Hey guys Miss Elizabeth doesn't know what this stringy stuff is."  "It's a weed!"  "They're the roots!" "Yeah roots!" "Look I got it out"

"Wedding flower dancing."  I wish I could show you this whole picture, their faces are priceless. 

 My favorite part of the three hours of digging, getting married, emptying pots and filling pots, and ripping roots and flowers, was this:  They put the flowers back in the dirt.  One clever child concluded "they won't stay standing up because we ripped the roots and they will die." Awesome! Maybe there is hope for them not destroying the classroom plants after all!