Cup of Cheer!

In the past few years I have started a holiday tradition in our room, the Cup of Cheer.

The holiday time is special time to reflect back on our year and remind ourselves of the many ways in which we do good things for each other. This time of year is the time that people spread good Cheer, no matter what religion you are.
 
So what we do is, I ask the students to bring mugs to school filled with little goodies to spread this good Cheer. During the mug exchange, we share our thoughts of appreciation about the year so far.  We will drink hot chocolate from our new mugs, and we’ll eat cookies and treats while enjoying a holiday movie.
On the day of the Mug Exchange, the students are allowed to wear their favorite fuzzy slippers and pajamas during our social time. 

The students were very excited about this activity, and they enjoyed looking at all the mugs coming in.

The big day arrived and the students anxiously kept asking me when we would do the mug exchange...

We sat down in a big circle and I talked about what the spirit of gift giving means. We shared out our thoughts about gift giving. A lot of them thought the same as I do, that it is better to give than to receive. They shared how they get excited to watch someone open their gifts.

We also talked about gifts of the heart, things that are given to someone that you may not be able to wrap, like respect and kindness.

We talked about the year and how it was going for everyone, their successes and their struggles.

And then we exchanged our mugs.

We played a little game to switch our mugs by reading a story. Every time the word right or left was in the story, we switched right or left. (Of course we used plastic cups for this portion, we didn't want anything to happen to our real mugs!) Then we used our class numbers to switch with our buddies.

​Then we enjoyed our little goodies and had some hot chocolate!

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Happy Holidays everyone, and may the spirit of goodness and kindness be with you all!