{If you’re new to This Mom Loves, welcome! I’m Kate, an Ontario kindergarten teacher as well as a blogger, freelance writer, podcast host, TV guest and mom of two!}
We’re all set to go in our class with our Book Advent Calendar!
We took 24 of our favourite Christmas stories, some religious and some secular, wrapped them up, and numbered the tags from 1 to 24.
(I found cute – and free – printable tags here.)
The books will be arranged randomly on our bookshelf, and each day a student will find the right number and we will read that book together as a class. (We’ll do two on Fridays and two on Mondays to keep up!)
If you want to try this at home or school and don’t have enough books, consider thrift stores, swapping with friends or fellow teachers (e.g., do 12 books each and switch after day 12) or even wrapping up library books! There’s no rule against that!
Many of our favourites are well-known (traditional nativity stories, Rudolph, etc.), but here a few titles you may not be familiar with:
Mortimer’s Christmas Manger by Karma Wilson, illustrated by Jane Chapman
I have loved this one ever since a school board consultant brought it to my class one day as part of a lesson – and left us a copy! (Thanks Kathleen Burnie!) In it, Mortimer the mouse is looking for his own cozy home, and keeps displacing some holiday figurines…until he figures out whose manger he is actually stealing! It’s one of my absolute favourites now.
The Night Before Christmas: A Brick Story by Clement C. Moore, illustrated by Amanda Brack
It’s the traditional poem, illustrated with detailed LEGO brick scenes and characters. The kids love to “read” this one to themselves and take in all of the LEGO-filled images.
Tonight You Are My Baby: Mary’s Christmas Gift by Jeannine Q. Norris, illustrated by Tim Ladwig
Told simply from Mary’s perspective, this is the December 24th pick (we’ll unwrap it early of course), as it’s my tradition to read this one to students immediately before they leave for the holidays. And cry.
What’s your favourite Christmas book?