Holidays Around the World

YIPPIE!! It's officially Christmas break! As much as I will miss my sweet little darlings, I will be soaking up the fact that there will not be 5:30 am wake up calls and I can stay up as late as I want :) Did I mention how happy I was??

None the less, this past week was full of excitement as we counted down the days of Christmas and cut a little bit more of Santa's beard off. (countdown to Christmas Day)

My students are now fully aware of the different ways the world celebrates Christmas. Unfortunately, these past two weeks have been incredibly busy and I did not take as many pictures as I wish I would have. I got most of my ideas from Hubbard's Cupboard, a great resource website for teachers.

First Day:

Africa

Kwanzaa- African-American celebration begins Dec. 26 continues for 6 days:

 I read a book called The 7 Days of Kwanzaa and talked about the colors of Kwanzaa, which are green, red and black. Then we made a kinara (candle holder with 7 candles to represent 7 principles: Faith, Unity, Self-determination, Cooperation, Sharing, Purpose, and Creativity) Every day we lit another candle.

Please don't judge my candle making skills ;)

 Second Day:

Holland

Lucky, I had an expert who was born in Holland, Omah (one of my students Grandparents) to come and share all about Christmas in Holland.

In Holland, children put out wooden shoes to await the arrival of St. Nicholas, who comes by ship on December 6. After leaving the ship, St. Nicholas rides a white hourse to children's homes. The children fill their wooden shoes with straw for St. Nicholas' horse. The horse eats the straw and St. Nicholas fills the shoes with treats for the children.

Before rest time, I had the students take off their shoes and when they woke up, there was a candy cane in their shoes :)

 Third Day:

Mexico

Los Posadas- Mexican celebration -9 days preceding La Navidad (Christmas Day).

For each of the nine nights before Christmas, families walk in groups going from door to door, reenacting the search made by Mary and Joseph for shelter in Bethlehem. After going to several houses, the groups arrive at the home where the evening's fiesta, or party, is to be held. Celebrations are usually held outdoors on patios, which are decorated for Christmas with lanterns and pots of poinsettias.

We had own own celebration and did the Mexican Hat Dance. We put a hat (didn't have a sombrero) in the middle of the room and danced around it. Then, I had a parent come in and teach us some Christmas words in Spanish. They did better that I did!

Fourth Day:

Ukraine
This legend is found in both in the Ukraine and in Germany. We read the story, Legend of the Christmas Spider.


To read the story visit this website http://www.reocities.com/Heartland/Valley/8004/christmasroundtheworld.html

We hung tinsel on our Christmas tree to represent to gold and silver web the Christ Child made.

 

Fifth Day: 

Sweden

On December 13 in Sweden, families celebrate St. Lucia's Day. Girls dress in white and wear candle wreaths around their heads. The girls serve breakfast, consisting of Lucia buns, to their parents. "Star boys," who also dress in white and wear pointed caps with stars on them, follow behind the St. Lucia girls.

We made our own Lucia Buns

Ingredients:

Refrigerator biscuit dough

2 teaspoons cinnamon

1 cup white sugar

butter or margarine

Unroll and arrange the biscuit dough according to the directions on the package. Help children mix the cinnamon and sugar together. Bake for 3 minutes less than the recommended directions for the package.

Take the biscuits out of the oven and place a pat of butter or margarine on the top of each biscuit. As the butter melts, ask the children to sprinkle the tops of the biscuits with the cinnamon-sugar topping. Return the biscuits to the oven for the remaining three minutes of baking time.

They were VERY yummy :)

Unfortunately, I got so distracted I forgot to take a picture :( You will just have to take my word for it!!

 So that's it! Our Christmas' Around the World! To my surprise, I learned probably just as much as they did. I am always so wrapped up in my own world, I forget what others are doing. So with that, I will leave you this final picture and wish you a VERY Merry Christmas from my Prek Classroom!

It's was Pajama Day if you are wondering why I'm wearing that :)

But I Like it Better in My Tummy!

I'm loving my new bulletin board. It's probably because my kids made it all. The Gingerbread men that we made last week became the border. The candy canes that we made (Thanks to Andrea VanB) were an art craft that we did this week that was SUPER easy.

 

Sorry about the flash. Without the flash though, it was blurry.

 

We painted the candy canes with actual candy canes. Make sure you use the big candy canes that are individually wrapped. They were suppose to stamp them with lines but hey, they are in Pre-k. They still turned out cute.

Unfortunately, when it was time to make the candy canes, I realized I had run out of red paint so we mixed a bunch of colors to get crimson. Word to the Wise, make sure to use red paint only!! When the candy canes dried they had a yellow tint to them. Haha

He's Making a List and Checking it Twice

Christmas time is officially here! My most favorite time of the whole year! I love listening to the Christmas music, decorating the Christmas tree and seeing all the houses lit up with white, green, and red. There is just such happiness and joy in the air. I love to see people being kind and generous to one another. The Christmas spirit is even pouring into my classroom. My kiddos love to sing Christmas music and countdown how many days till Christmas. We have been celebrating the holidays and getting into the Christmas cheer.

This past week at school our theme was The Gingerbread Man :)

Math:

I labeled each Gingerbread Man with a number 1-10 and had the students take turns putting them in order.

 

 After reading the book The Gingerbread Boy, we graphed how many times the characters in the story were mentioned. 

 

I called out a number, and they had to put that number of buttons on The Gingerbread Man

I had the students put The Gingerbread Men in order from smallest to largest and vice versa. Then we did the same thing with blocks.

  First the kids laid by The Gingerbread Man to see if they were taller or shorter. Next, they measured how many Gingerbread Men tall they were.

 

 

Language and Literacy:

We read the story The Gingerbread Man and then acted in out.

 

After making a batch of Gingerbread cookies, we realized that they all ran away! So we had to go on a Gingerbread hunt to find them.

 

Finally we found them! Then we got to decorate them :)

 

and then ATE them!!

 

Science:

Ms. Carla, my assistant, did an experiment with the students. First she poured water on a napkin to see if the water would seep through, then she used a washcloth and lastly a diaper. We talked about absorption. Then we took apart the diaper to see why the water absorbed. They thought this was gross but LOVED every minute of it.

 

 

 

What happens to a bottle of water when you drop a red marker inside? We observed over two days what happened.

 

Small Groups:

We sowed up Gingerbread Men

 

 

Made Gingerbread Ornaments

1 cup of applesauce

1 cup of cinnimon

It's SUPER easy. Just make sure you let it dry for several days.

 

The students decorated Gingerbread Men. I will post later what I did with the finished products!

 

Extra:

After much consideration we decided on the name Ellie :)

 

One of my students touch Ellie the Elf. This is how she reacted....

 

Countdown to Christmas. Everyday we trim a number off of Santa's beard.

 

I will be posting a picture of my bulletin board and what we did with our decorated Gingerbread Men, so stay tuned!