Teacher's tips

Level of education: Elementary School

Age: 06 to 09 years old

As the proposed theme involves people in an atmosphere of great fellowship and compassion, the teacher can use the online game “Christmas Tree” to awaken in children a Christmas spirit more focused on solidarity. Setting up a Christmas tree will be essential to contextualize the game and get the children in the mood. Each child can contribute by taking ornaments characteristic of the tree and place them on it with the help of their classmates and the teacher should intermediate this moment, helping the children to decorate the tree with creativity and meaning. It would be great for the children to write a Christmas message to hang on the tree and for each child to choose one to read and keep as a keepsake. Writing will be prioritized to address the true meaning of Christmas. Before placing the decorations on the tree, students must count how many ornaments were taken for this purpose and Math will come into play. The Mathematics teacher will be able to use the tree decorations in mathematical problems and addition, subtraction and subtraction calculations. [FIM-DICA]

Learner outcomes

Carry out an online game in which you can have fun and at the same time recognize the importance of Christmas symbols and raise awareness within this context of fraternization;

Systematize calculations when developing problems and accounts for the four operations;

Participate in solidarity campaigns to help needy families at Christmas and also on other occasions;

Interpret poems and read fables on the subject under study in order to be moved;

Encourage respect for beliefs, symbols, individual feelings and religiosity of each one;

Identify the symbols of Christmas in order to develop written and oral language;

Develop reasoning and creativity within a context of empathy, solidarity and fraternization.

Teachers' goals

Develop in children a sense of empathy and solidarity with the most deprived people and those who live in miserable conditions;

Introduce the online game instructions to the children so that they have a good performance and reinforce that the stars should be at the top of the tree;

Mount the Christmas tree to awaken children's interest in online games and also so that they can interact in a time of fraternization;

Show children poems for Christmas, in particular Cora Coralina's poem: “Poesia de Natal”;

Suggest to the children that they write Christmas poems to express their feelings and touch people's hearts;

Propose the resolution of mathematical problems and accounts that include Christmas decorations;

Tell Christmas stories to sensitize children and involve them in the Christmas atmosphere;

Encouraging children for a solidarity campaign involving students and the Educational Community in order to donate food, personal hygiene material, clothes, toys, in short, to provide a better Christmas to needy people;

Hold an arts workshop with paint or recyclable material to reproduce the Christmas tree;

Motivate children to go to nursing homes, shelters or even daycare centers to donate the material collected in the solidarity campaign and also encourage children to adopt an abandoned pet on Christmas Day.

Suggestions of approaches for the teacher

As the proposed theme involves people in an atmosphere of great fellowship and compassion, the teacher can use the online game “Christmas Tree” to awaken in children a Christmas spirit more focused on solidarity. Setting up a Christmas tree will be essential to contextualize the game and get the children in the mood. Each child can contribute by taking ornaments characteristic of the tree and place them on it with the help of their classmates and the teacher should intermediate this moment, helping the children to decorate the tree with creativity and meaning. It would be great for the children to write a Christmas message to hang on the tree and for each child to choose one to read and keep as a keepsake. Writing will be prioritized to address the true meaning of Christmas. Before placing the decorations on the tree, students must count how many ornaments were taken for this purpose and Math will come into play. The Mathematics teacher will be able to use the tree decorations in mathematical problems and addition, subtraction and subtraction calculations.

How about motivating children for a Solidarity Christmas? For this, it will be necessary to collect non-perishable food, hygiene and cleaning items, clothes in good condition and toys as well. Visiting a nursing home or shelter will be very meaningful for children to donate the collected material and experience another reality up close.

The Arts teacher can provide children with an “Arts Workshop” so that they can draw a Christmas tree and paint with paint, they can also use colored paper or even recyclable material for production.

More about the content

During classes aimed at the subject under study, students will be able to develop creativity without fear, without rules and without the dreaded evaluations. In this way, the child will be able to develop his self-expression and expand his socio-emotional skills. Christmas is a very favorable theme for teachers to motivate children towards solidarity actions. The Science teacher can encourage children to adopt an abandoned pet. From there, ask the children to donate food for puppies and kittens or other animals, such as birds, for example. It would be very good to propose to the children a research on the reindeer, an animal characteristic of the context of Natal. They are natural animals from regions with a cold climate, from the same place as Santa Claus and belong to the family of elk and deer. In the Christmas sense, reindeer gain a special symbology, because they represent strength, teamwork, union and friendship. These values ​​must be reinforced among children.

It would be great to involve the family in school activities as Christmas is a time of sharing. How about proposing activities that integrate family and school? Craft activities need support from parents, such as: drawings, collages, puppet composition and others.

Children will love researching the origin of Santa Claus. Decorating the school with Christmas symbols will be very motivating, emphasizing the Christmas tree, our protagonist in the online game. Students, teachers and employees can join this proposal and make the school more cheerful, colorful and with a special glow. It will certainly be a great opportunity to strengthen ties in the educational community and develop students' skills and competencies.

Christmas tales serve to instill principles and values ​​in the minds of children and adults. With that in mind, it would be very important to tell stories so that children can understand the true meaning of Christmas, such as the one we provide below, taken from the site “Messages with love”, an adaptation of a classic story.

A beautiful girl

A long, long time ago, in a big city, there lived a beautiful girl, very poor, who made her living selling matchboxes. She knew that if she got home without having managed to sell the matches, she would be severely punished by her father. For him, Christmas had no charm, he was only interested in the money that his daughter had to hand over every day. One night, Christmas Eve, the little saleswoman was wandering through the streets, with the snow falling in abundance, sinking her little feet in it. In her icy hands she carried the boxes of matches.

Inside the warm houses, families sang by fireplaces and Christmas trees laden with presents. The smell of hot roasts spread through the streets, deserted and cold. Nobody wanted to buy their matches.

Very tired, she sat down in a corner and remembered the beautiful fables that her sweet mother told her, while she rocked her in her warm arms. But that was before tuberculosis took her. The girl imagined herself meeting her mother's open arms, but she always seemed to be far away, impossible to reach.

The cold increased. With tears in her eyes, she looked at the boxes of matches. What if you only lit one to warm your hands? Maybe her father didn't notice. She took a match and lit it. A hot, luminous little flame soon flared up. To her, it felt like the heat of a large stove nearby. She took another match and lit that too. Before her came a table set with china and a delicious roast, stuffed with plums and apples, giving off a delicious smell. When she held out her hand, the flame disappeared.

Only the snow fell before her. She lit a third match. Now she seemed to be sitting by a huge Christmas tree, where thousands of colored balls and sparklers twinkled. Suddenly the flame flickered, the match went out and everything disappeared. The girl lit another match and remembered her grandmother, who had always treated her with tenderness, but the match went out and the image disappeared.

The cold increased. The girl no longer felt her feet and her hands were freezing. Then, with great difficulty, she lit all the matches that were left and, as if by magic, everything around her seemed to glow. She felt that she was separating herself from that icy body that was hers and approaching a saving light.

That's why he didn't see two energetic but loving arms run towards him. When she woke up, she was in a very warm bed. Everyone looked at her with a lot of love. Now she had a new family that had adopted her.