El Tió de Nadal 2.0

Hola my dear friends!

TODAY, the 8th of December, families in Cataluña are putting out their tió… it starts as just a bitty baby and then it grows throughout the Christmas season as the children give it food and water each day.

This year when I taught about el tió, I used the slides and story I posted on my blog last year, (you can still find them for free here) but as I explained the process of what the families do with el tió, I used props from my classroom to act it out in the middle of the floor. It helped with comprehension because the tradition is SO different and foreign to them that actually seeing me act it out helped a lot. I filmed one class, but you can’t actually see the objects because of the camera placement! Oops! Now I know!

I taught this lesson on Thursday because Friday was their FIESTA! (videos of fiestas on YouTube) On Monday the kiddos will come in and find THIS little guy! I stole the hat from one of Isla’s Christmas bears… but you can find ones like these in the cat/dog section of Walmart. 🙂

I am broke (like many of y’all) and so I pulled a super sneaky teacher move and went to Home Depot this weekend and asked the sweet man cutting the ends of the tree trunks off if I could steal any “stumps” that were not written on by families buying the trees. He gave me a whole bag full for free!!!

So no, it isn’t a whole tió but the kids will never know! Put a rolled up towel behind it, and cover it with a “manta” and LOOK how perfect it looks!!!?!??!

The best part is, he gave me multiple sizes so I can start with a small one and then upgrade a couple of times from now until break.

If you don’t have plans for Monday it might be a great idea to teach about el tió and introduce your very own one for class… I plan to have it “poop” over break, leaving each student a little “treat”… ¡Qué asco! ¡Qué delicioso! wait… what!??!!

I hope your weekend is restful, happy and full of poop logs… Seriously though… how cool is this tradition?!?!?

Until next time,

HAPPY TEACHING!

Love,

La Maestra Loca and baby loc@ to be!