Holidays Around the World

All week, we have traveled the world. That's right, we packed our suitcases, created our passports and mapped our trip around the world! We didn't even have to leave our classroom. 

We loved looking out the window during our airplane rides!

The first stop on our journey was the Netherlands. Christmas begins on St. Nicolas Day (December 6th) when Sinterklaas visits from Spain on a steam boat. We learned how he rides a horse and has a helper named Zwerte Piet. After learning all about how Christmas is celebrated in the Netherlands we created a souvenir to remember a bit of what we learned. Children in the Netherlands leave a carrot in their shoe for Sinterklaas' horse and they receive gifts and treat that are left in their shoes. 

We packed up our suitcase and traveled to Israel to learn about Hanukkah. We learned how the 'Maccabees' fought for the right to practice their religion. When they reclaimed the temple they discovered there was not enough oil to burn their candles, but miraculously the candles burned for eight days and nights. We decided to make a Menorah to bring home in our suitcases. 


Our next stop was in China. We discovered that the holiday celebrated in China is the Chinese New Year. We learned about dragon dances and how dragons are considered good luck. We also learned about the Lantern Festival and decided to make a lantern to bring to our next destination. 

From China, we continued our travels to Mexico to learn about Las Posadas. The celebrations begin on December 16th. We discovered that lanterns are made out of brown paper bags are called farolitos. We also learned children's role in the procession where they walk to nine posadas (or inns). The symbol of Las Posadas we brought with us were beautiful poinsettias. 

Our last stop of the trip was in Germany. We learned about Advent wreaths and Advent calendars. We also learned that children in Germany write letters to Christkind or to St. Nicolas to ask for presents. We were most excited to learn about Gingerbread houses and Gingerbread cookies. We had to make a Gingerbread man to bring home from Germany. 

We learned that people celebrate different holidays all over the world. By traveling to all of these different countries we learned a little bit about how these holidays are similar and different than the holidays we celebrate with our families. It was exciting to learn that many of the traditions we share with our family are similar to traditions all over the world! 

At each of these locations, we ended our day with some fun learning stations that incorporated many symbols of the holidays we studied. We got to rhyme, count, read cvc words, add, read sight words, identify the beginning sounds and so many more! Take a peek at a bit of the fun!

Building CVC words

 Addition

Counting by 10s

Reading Sight Words

Reading CVC words

Reading CVC words

Counting

Counting by 10s