We will be doing our Christmas stories and activities on Tuesday and Thursday this week. Tomorrow's book is The Legend of the Poinsettia by Tomie DePaola.
In Mexico, the poinsettia is called flor de la noche buena: flower of the Holy Night. At Christmastime, the flower blooms and flourishes, the quite exquisite stars lighting up the countryside. A Mexican legend tells how the poinsettia came to be, through a little girl's unselfish gift to the Christ Child. Tomie dePaola has embraced the legend using his own special feeling for Christmas. His glorious paintings capture not only the brilliant colors of Mexico and its art, but also the excitement of the children preparing for Christmas and the hope of Lucida, who comes to see what makes a gift truly beautiful.
We will be doing a couple activities. First, we will learn about the parts of a poinsettia, draw and label one, and inspect the leaves of a fresh one we have in our living room.
Then we will make a paper towel poinsettia to mail to my grandma. (Scoll to the bottom of this link to see the instructions.)
Thanks, Nicole! I am waiting for my copy to arrive through inter library loan! We read A Christmas Tapestry (Patricia Polacco) today and it was beautiful. Too many books, so little time.
ReplyDeleteI am going to get our poinsettia tomorrow, so we will do these activities when the book arrives!