Teacher Mama: The Trees of the Dancing Goats Holiday Ornaments

The Trees of the Dancing Goats Holiday Ornaments

Boy Mama Teacher Mama The Trees of the Dancing Goats (featured)

This book, The Trees of the Dancing Goats, (Patricia Polacco) is not only one of my favorite holiday books, but one of my favorite books of all times! You cannot really go wrong with any of Polacco’s books, but this one is a gem. I read it to my boys every year between Hanukkah and Christmas since both holidays are celebrated in our home. And, today, I read it to my first graders.

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The Trees of the Dancing Goats by Patricia Polacco

Hanukkah is Trisha’s favorite time of year. Her mother is home for the holidays, her grandma (Babushka) makes potato latkes and her grandpa (grampa) carves animals out of wood to give to Trisha and her brother.  During the preparations for Hanukkah, Trisha visits her neighbors only to find them in bed with scarlet fever instead of decorating their home for Christmas.  Trisha’s family, who had not come down with the fever,  decided they wanted to help their neighbors during their time of need.  They decided to cut down some trees from their farm and deliver them along with some homemade food to all the families who lay bedridden.  The family wonders what to use to decorate the trees and they all agree that the carved animals from grampa are the perfect answer.

Holiday Ornaments

Before our reading,  I sketched out the animals shapes from the book on white paper and copied them onto card stock. We then read the book as a class and discussed the story.

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I gave each student the blank animals I had copied onto card stock and asked them to decorate them like the ones in the story.  First they used pencil and then went over the pencil with Sharpie.

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Boy Mama Teacher Mama The Trees of the Dancing Goats

They then used markers to color the animals.

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After they were done coloring, we put a  piece of colored paper on the back. Cut them out and had the kids sign and date the back.

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I laminated them for durability.

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Finally, we added a ribbon so the ornaments could be hung in the window or on a Christmas tree.

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When sending these ornaments home, we put them in ziplock bags and added a short summary of the book for recipients to read.

Boy Mama Teacher Mama  The Trees of the Dancing Goats

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3 thoughts on “Teacher Mama: The Trees of the Dancing Goats Holiday Ornaments

  1. I googled dancing goat ornaments and came to your site. How great! Our son’s girlfriend’s mother is coming from Paris for Christmas on the 23rd. . She is going to make us Christmas dinner. Since she will have so little time to prepare, we are going to deliver a Christmas tree to the townhouse where she will stay that belongs to a friend. We are Jewish, she is Christian. So a gift of the book will be so fun — and whenever I read it, I cry! I’m going to use your pattern, and even though all of us are adults, the youngest is 21, it will be an activity to decorate dancing goats for the tree!!

    Thank you for this idea! Char Silberg

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