In social studies, we continued our Holidays Around the World project. We read portions of a nonfiction book, Holidays Around the World: Celebrate Christmas, with Carols, Presents, and Peace by Deborah Heiligman. We read about Christmas traditions in America and some ways other places welcome Santa and decorate. We talked about Christmas carols and Danny selected one to sing. We used a karaoke formatted video on You Tube and sang, We Wish You a Merry Christmas. Danny did a nice job! We discussed the meaning of the line, “Good tidings we bring to you and your kin.” We also talked about the meaning of peace. On the page of Danny’s book that we are making, where he assembled a Christmas tree yesterday, he added the following sentence: People decorate a Christmas tree with lights and ornaments. We then read, Arthur’s Perfect Christmas by Marc Brown. In this fiction story, Arthur’s vision of perfect Christmas starts to unravel as things don’t go quite as he expected. He envies how things still seem perfect for his friends. But in the end, he discovers a perfect Christmas can be experienced in different ways! We continued our reading of The Magic Tree House, Vacation Under the Volcano. In chapters 3 and 4, we read about Jack and Annie meeting the soothsayer who warned them to leave. She shares with them that the streams have dried up, the birds have left, the Earth has been shaking, and the cows have been making strange noises. These facts are all indicating that the end is near! The children explain their mission as secret librarians to retrieve a book. She directs them to the house of Brutus to find it. Along the way, they run into guards and gladiators. We can’t wait to read what happens next! After we read, we completed comprehension checks to reinforce understanding of this historical fiction piece. To wrap up our session, we reviewed the winter season with a Brain Pop Jr. learning video. We saw that people wear layers of clothes in winter and that it’s often dry and mild in Florida for the season. People enjoy sledding, ice skating, skiing, and snowboarding. We experience shorter days and fewer hours of sunlight. Finally, we saw how plants and animals survive winter by dormancy, hibernation, migration, or growing thick fur and more body fat.