Holidays Around the World: Germany & Mexico!

For the next few weeks, we will visit many different countries to learn about their holiday traditions. This week we boarded a “plane” and “flew” to Germany on Tuesday & Mexico on Friday. 

All aboard the Holiday Express Airlines!

As the kids came in, they were given a ticket to board the plane. 

We used this map to locate the United States, Germany & Mexico. Ask your child if they can find where we live and where we flew. Some of them were able to remember!

Ready for take off!

Before we took off to Germany & Mexico, we made sure our seat belts were tightly fastened, that our tickets were carefully stowed under our seat and that we were sitting up straight in our seats!

Checking to make sure the plane is ready to go!

And we’re off!

We started off on the “runway" (La Granada Drive) and I used Google Earth to fly from the street view option to the country we were visiting. I wasn’t able to hold the camera and zoom in, but we ended up landing on a dirt road next to the beach in Puerta Vallarta, Mexico! One of the kids said it looked just like Disneyland! :)  I think it was the big buildings and palm trees! 

Germany

Two of the holiday traditions that originated in Germany are gingerbread houses and decorating Christmas trees. The Germans create fancy gingerbread houses and we were able to see some in a history video on the Internet. We also learned about how the first people who brought evergreen trees into their house used to decorate them with fruit and candles. We learned how Thomas Edison created the very first strand of lights that was used for decorating the Christmas tree.

While visiting each country, the kids are keeping a suitcase full of all of their treasures from each country.

The kids color the country’s flag and a picture of the country from a map. We are also keeping a travel log which includes a sentence either about what we learned or made while in the country. Auden wrote that he made a Christmas tree in Germany. We also made gingerbread men. 

Here’s a look at some of the fun activities we did earlier this week:

When the kids came in to class this week, I had set up a HUGE gingerbread house for all of their gingerbread men! The kids did a great job on their gingerbread man homework assignment. 

We made these trees by using pre-cut strips by placing them in order from shortest to longest. This concept is often quite challenging spatially for Kindergarteners and is such a good exercise for them. They topped the project off with 20 white snowflakes. It’s fun to see where each child places the 20 dots. The kids were persistent through the process and the final product came out beautiful! This bulletin board looks like a beautiful winter forrest. 

We aren’t actually done with the following activity, but the pictures of the process were too good not to share. During math, we have been decomposing teen numbers. Every day we count the days of school using straws. We currently have 6 bundles of 10 and 5 ones. Stumped? That’s 65 days of school. We have used straws and our Ten Frames to help us count. I introduced the following video of a new way to decompose teen numbers: by using base ten blocks that we called a “tower of 10” and the single cubes were “ones”. 

We had practiced on Tuesday making teen numbers using unifix cubes. On Wednesday, we did a worksheet where the kids had to count the cubes and write the number. Finally, on Thursday, we were able to make our own teen number trees! The kids worked in groups to make 9 trees, one for each number 11-19. They cut out stars with the teen numbers on them and places them on top of the tree. They then grabbed a tens tower and some ones to show that number. I was really proud of the hard work the kids put in to the activity and how nicely they worked together in small groups!

Macy & Avery showing off their carefully organized trees waiting to be decorated with base ten blocks. 

Waylon & Dean hard at work assembling their trees. 

Kate & Abigail working away.

Siena, Camryn & Madylan making lots of trees.

Dylan, Carson & Jason 

Emily & Julia counting out how many tens and ones they will need. 

Mexico

On Friday morning we flew to Mexico to learn about their holiday traditions. We saw pictures of children taking part in a parade-like procession called Las Posadas, which takes place every night from December 16-24. We also learned about the legend of the poinsettia. We heard a story about a little girl who brought what many people thought was just weeds as a gift. To everyone’s surprise, the “weeds” turned into beautiful poinsettias! Ask you child what part of the poinsettia is actually the flower and which part is the leaf. It might surprise you!!

While in Mexico today, we made poinsettias, as Julia wrote in her travel log. 

We painted these BEAUTIFUL poinsettias today using sponges and added construction paper leaves. 

I wonder where we will go next week!?!