This past week we started our adventure on Mrs. Millers' Polar Express. One thing I always start out teaching your child as soon as school starts is that we are all different. My famous saying is "we are all different and that's okay". During this holiday season your child has been learning about how people all around the world celebrate Christmas. We have been reading stories, watching videos of actual families and their traditions, finding the countries on our globe and comparing and contrasing other ways people celebrate Christmas to how we do in America.
Day 1:
All Aboard! Today we read the Polar Express. I showed the kids a globe and explained what it is. I showed them where we live and we discussed what we see and do in the United States of America at Christmas time. We talked about what each of our families have done and do at Christmas. We painted a Christmas Tree with water color paints.
Day 2: Mexico
The kids learned that in Mexico posadas is a holiday they celebrate and Christmas. They celebrate for 9 days and spend the night at family or friends house having dinner and giving thanks. We only celebrate two days. In Mexico they play a game called the piñata, some of us have played that at birthdays but in Mexico it's one of their games at Christmas. They do have family dinners and Christmas trees like in America. The Mexican Christmas flower is a poinsettia which we can find in stores at Christmas time. The kids painted poinsettias with pretty red glitter paint.
Day 3: Brazil
Brazil is similar to Christmas in America, Santa comes on Christmas Eve, they have lights and Christmas tress and give gifts. But, on Cheistmas thousands of people gather to see millions of lights and the largest Christmas tree made of lights illuminate. There is also a big firework display, we do not do that in America on Christmas Day. The kids painted fireworks with neon paint and forks (the forks were a fun way to easily create the firework design). We watched an actual home video on YouTube of the light illumination and firework display in Brazil!
Day 4: South Africa
South Africa celebrates Christmas with a tree, Santa, family and gifts also. But, in South Africa the weather is very warm so many families have BBQ's for Christmas! There is also a big parade and carnival that thousands of people attend on Christmas. We watched an actual video of people in a parade and at the carnival on Christmas in South Africa.
Friday we reviewed all of the countries we have learned about so far! The kids are really excited and into Christmas. They look forward to finding out where we are going to go on our globe each day and with some prompting they can recall many facts we learned about each country. The kids are learning that while others may look different, speak different and even celebrate different there are also things that are the same that they can relate to.
We've also been very busy working on Christmas surprises!
This is such a fun time of the year (and very busy) time of the year!
My apologies again for the late post,
Mrs. Miller
