Holidays Around the World: Germany

Today we journeyed to our final country in our holidays around the world trip. It's a little bittersweet. We've had such a great time learning about how different people celebrate and collecting souvenirs, but we have some fun things planned the next two days before the break as well.

We began by finding Germany on our map.

Then we hopped aboard the Holiday Express for the last time. We watched a slideshow with pictures of traditional German Christmas celebrations, and listened to Oh Tannenbaum.

When we arrived, we got our passport stamped for the last time.

Next we watched our slideshow about holiday celebrations in Germany. This was our favorite country to learn about by far! We learned that the tradition of the Christmas tree began in Germany. One of my friends commented that we should be very thankful to them because they gave us the idea for something so great! 

We also learned about a new fun tradition: The Christmas Pickle! In Germany, families have a pickle ornament. While the children are asleep, one of the parents hides the pickle ornament somewhere in the tree. The next morning, when the kids wake up, they have to try to find the pickle. The first child to find the ornament receives a small present or prize. I shared with the class how my youngest brother learned about this tradition when he was in first grade and my family had fun celebrating with it in the years that followed.

We had two fun projects to create today as a souvenir from our trip.  First, a Christmas tree using sequins and glitter!

And even more exciting, was our Christmas pickle ornament. Everyone was VERY excited that they could teach their family about this fun tradition at home!

That's it for our trip around the world. We had such a great time! I hope your children all brought home their suitcases today and had lots of information and stories to share with you.

Tomorrow we are looking forward to Polar Express Day! Your child can wear school appropriate pajamas and bring a small stuffed animal and blanket if they would like. Should be a very fun day! :)

Holidays Around the World: Sweden

Today we continued on our trip around the world, stopping in Sweden to learn about their holiday celebrations. We started out locating the country on the map. 

Then we hopped aboard the Holiday Express to travel to Sweden. We listened to When It's Lamp Lighting Time in the Valley (sung in Swedish) and watched a slideshow with pictures of celebrations in Sweden. After we "arrived' we all got our passports stamped:

We read a bit online about celebrations in Sweden and learned all about St. Lucia day, then filled out our scrapbook page to help us remember our learning.

Finally, we set to work making our souvenirs from the trip. Each of the girls put together a traditional St. Lucia crown of candles:

While the boys got to work making a star hat like the boys wear during the celebration:

Such a fun morning! Only one more stop on our journey. Tomorrow we're off to Germany!

Holidays Around the World: Antarctica and Australia

Today was a fun day on our holiday trip around the world. We started out heading to Antarctica. As always, we began by finding the location on the map:

Then we hopped aboard the Holiday Express, watched a slideshow of pictures of Antarctica, and listened to Oh Tacky Tree (from the Tacky Christmas CD, LOVE this!).  When we arrived we got our passports stamped:

Then we watched our powerpoint to learn about holidays in Antarctica.  We learned that no one lives there permanently so no one really celebrates holidays there. We saw pictures of penguins, whales, and seals and learned that they all reside there.

Since there are no celebrations in Antarctica, we hopped back on our plane, watched a slideshow with pictures of Australian holiday celebrations, and listened to Aussie Christmas, to travel to Australia.

We watched our powerpoint and learned a lot about how people celebrate in Australia. We learned that it's not winter there right now, but summer, so many people celebrate Christmas on the beach!  We learned that when Santa gets to Australia he gives his reindeer a break and he surfs in to deliver the presents! How funny!

Finally we made our souvenir from the trip. An Australian holiday snow globe!

What a perfect reminder of how people in Australia celebrate!

Only two more stops on our journey around the word.  Next up, Sweden!

Holidays Around the World: Brazil

We were pretty busy yesterday designing a new suit for Santa at the request of Mrs. Claus, but we managed to squeeze in a quick trip to Brazil to learn about how Christmas is celebrated.

As always, we started our trip by marking our destination on our map so we could see where we were headed:

Next, we hopped aboard the Holiday Express, listened to Noite Feliz, and watched a slideshow of pictures from Christmas celebrations in Brazil.  Upon landing, we got our passports stamped:

Then, we watched our powerpoint about Christmas in Brazil.  We learned that kids there call Santa Claus, Papi Noel, and that he delivers gifts to them just as Santa does to us. Everyone was jealous to hear that kids in Brazil not only get gifts on Christmas from Papi Noel, but also get gifts from the 3 wise men six days later! We learned that people there celebrate each year with a huge fireworks display, similar to what we have here on the 4th of July.

We quickly filled out our scrapbook page:

And finally we made our souvenir from the trip: fireworks!

I usually don't let the kids use glitter themselves as it can make such a mess and it's easy to waste too much of it if you don't know how to use it.  However, for this project I let them use the glitter themselves and they did a great job. I love how they purposefully put different colors of glitter in different places of the fireworks to make them rainbow colored. So pretty!

Next stop: Antarctica!

Side note: Everyone is already wondering what we will be doing there. Students have already pointed out that no one really lives there, it's just too cold. Check back Monday to see!

Holidays Around the World: Mexico

Yesterday we traveled to Mexico to learn about how Christmas is celebrated.  As usual, we began our day by looking at our map and marking our next location:

Then we hopped aboard the Holiday Express, turned off the lights, listened to Feliz Navidad (and everyone enjoyed singing along thanks to our fabulous music teacher at JSES!), and watched a slideshow with pictures of celebrations in Mexico.

Upon arrival, we got our passport stamped and were ready to go:

I purchased these great holidays around the world powerpoint presentations from TPT. We started out watching the one about Mexico and learned a lot about the different ways they celebrate. After we watched the powerpoint, we got to work creating our scrapbook page:

I just LOVE how these scrapbooks  are turning out! Such a great addition to this unit.

Next, we gathered around on the carpet and read The Legend of the Poinsettia. Finally we set to work creating our souvenir from this stop on our trip ... of course, a poinsettia. We used our handprint to create this one:

Next stop: Brazil!

Holidays Around the World: Christmas in America

Today we didn't have to travel very far. We learned about Christmas in America!

We started out our morning by hopping on our plane to travel across the country. We turned off the lights, watched a slideshow of pictures of some of the different things you might see at a Christmas celebration in America, and we listened to Santa Claus is Coming to Town. When we arrived at our destination, we got our passports stamped with a picture of a stocking.

We looked at our map and discovered that we did not need to color anything new in yet since we were still in America.

Then we were ready to learn about how Christmas is celebrated in the US. Everyone had LOTS of connections and we spent some time sharing how our families celebrate. Then, we read the book 'Twas the Night Before Christmas because it depicts a lot of the typical traditions here in the US.  After reading the book we got to work on our scrapbook page.

Once that was completed, we were ready to begin working on our souvenirs from this stop on our trip.  First, we got to work making a stocking. These will be hung in our classroom, filled by the teachers, and everyone will get to open them at our holiday party!

While students were working on their stockings, I called them up to my table a few at a time and they got to make a bag of reindeer food. It's hard to tell in the picture, but it's oats mixed with a handful of glitter. The reindeer food went inside each student's suitcase, so they will get to take it home next Friday before the holiday break.

Finally, I called each student to my table one by one to begin to make a special project that will become a gift for their families. I won't share a picture of that here yet because I want it to be a surprise!

What a fun day today!  Tomorrow we are headed to Mexico. Can't wait!

Holidays Around the World: Hanukkah in America

Today we started our journey around the world to learn about how different people celebrate the holidays. We started right here in the United States to learn about Hanukah in America!

We began by locating the United States on our map, and coloring the country and the map key to match. (Sorry I forgot to get a picture of this!)

Next, we all stepped aboard the Holiday Express. We turned off the lights and watched a slidshow with pictures of Hanukkah celebrations, while we listened to Hanukkah, Oh Hanukkah. When the song and slideshow were finished we had arrived and were VERY excited to learn about Hanukkah! Before we could depart our flight, everyone had to get their passport stamped. (apparently I also forgot to take a picture of this, I'll add the pics in tomorrow)

Finally, we were ready to learn about Hanukkah. We gathered around on the carpet and read Hanukkah. After reading, we discussed a bit about the celebration and how it was the same and different from how our families celebrate different holidays.

Next, we worked on filling out our scrapbook page about the holiday. We had to draw/write about the country's flag, what you might see, what you might eat, how you wish someone a happy holiday, and some holiday traditions we learned about. Everyone really enjoyed this and it is going to be a great keepsake at the end of the unit!

After our scrapbook pages were completed, we got to work creating our artifact that would remind us about Hanukkah. Of course, we made a menorah! Everyone that followed directions was able to use glitter to finish theirs off, so of course that was VERY exciting haha

After our menorahs were dry, we put them inside our suitcase as our very first artifact from the trip. Everyone is super excited to find out what we will get to add tomorrow!

In the afternoon, I gave Ms. Coburn another activity relating to Hanukkah in case she wanted to do an extension. The kids were able to make a dreidel and learned how to play the game. They were all out in the hallway having a BLAST!

I'd say it was a successful first day of our trip. Can't wait for tomorrow!

Holidays Around the World: Introduction

Yesterday our class got an introduction to our 2 week Holidays Around the World Unit! This is something I am so excited about, and have been looking forward to teaching for awhile!

Our first job was to get all our things packed for our trip around the world. We started out by making a suitcase. This will be used to hold our daily scrapbook as well as the artifact we get from each country. On the front, students were allowed to decorate as they wished.

On the back, we glued a map of the world. If you look at the key it gives you an idea of where we will be traveling on our journey.

The last item we needed is extremely important: our passports! If you are going to take a trip around the world you have to have a passport. We talked about what exactly that is, and I showed the class an example. Then each student was given their own "passport" for our travels around the world and asked them to complete the inside.

As you can see, on the right we even have a space for our passport to be stamped in each country we visit! Everyone was super excited to start our trip the next day!