Mexico, Sweden and Germany

We learned so much on our travels last week! 

On Monday we traveled to Mexico. We read a fun book about all the many celebrations they have in Mexico during the month of December. (After which, I think I may move. They have so many fun holidays!) The kids' favorite was The Night of the Radishes. Kids in Oaxaca, Mexico picked amazingly huge radishes and carved them into Christmas decorations. They were truly amazing! Here is an example:

We made our own Mexican Christmas decorations, but we went the simpler route and made paper poinsettias, which are also popular in Mexico. 

For snack time, we made bunuelos (fried tortillas with cinnamon sugar). They were delicious!

On Wednesday, we headed back across the ocean to Sweden. We talked about St. Lucia day, the traditional costumes that boys and girls wear, the foods they eat and the parades they have. We practiced cutting by making our own pictures of St. Lucia.

On Friday we moved south to Germany. We talked about some of the many Christmas traditions we have the originated in Germany (Christmas trees, candy canes, and many songs such as Silent Night and Oh, Christmas Tree). We also learned about another holiday that is celebrated in Germany on December 6th. St. Nicholas Day. I talked with St. Nicholas before preschool and he said that he would stop by and fill the kids' shoes with treats, just as he does for children in Germany. We put our shoes under the tree to await his delivery! While we were waiting, we took part in another German tradition, making ornaments out of Christbaumgeback (salt dough).  The kids got to help mix and knead the dough, cut out shapes and then painted them after they had been baked!

A Letter from Mickey

I can't believe I forgot to write about this in my last post! Oh well, two posts for today. A few weeks ago, when we learned about mail carriers, we wrote and mailed letters to our favorite Disney characters. Today, we received this reply! Take a minute to read through it, I was very impressed with the people at Disney. They also sent a signed post card for each student, which was sent home today!

Christmas in Italy and Israel

This week was the start of our Holidays Around the World unit. I have had so much fun planning this unit and have learned lots of things that I didn't know. Hopefully this kids will love it as much as I do!

Our letter of the week was L, which was just perfect for learning to sing Deck the Halls! The kids are getting pretty good at the words and have definitely got the "Fa-la-la"s down. We also learned about things that start with L and worked on writing and finding the letter L. Today we did some fun review activities to go over what we've learned about the alphabet so far. We used some trucks to haul blocks to the mat and match the letters on the blocks to the letters on the mat. After that we used stickers to complete some alphabet mazes!

On Monday I introduced the new unit, had the kids make their suitcases and passports, and introduced our friend, Mr. Grinch. We read How the Grinch Stole Christmas and talked about what Christmas is really about. This month, as the kids see each other doing nice things, they get to add hearts to the Grinch. If he is filled up before the last day of school, we will have a special Christmas party on the last day! So far we have four hearts for things like helping other students clean up, asking nicely for things we wanted and waiting patiently when we couldn't have them right then. At the end of the month, I will send the hearts that each student earned home with them so you can see the nice things they've done!

On Wednesday we started our travels with Christmas in Italy. We learned about some of the foods they eat in Italy on Christmas like spaghetti and panettone. We also talked a lot about Befana, the Christmas witch who rides on a broom and brings Christmas presents to the kids in Italy. To show what we learned, we made broomstick Christmas Tree ornaments.

Today we traveled to Israel and learned about Hanukkah. We read several books that talked about why Jews celebrate Hanukkah and what they do for their celebrations. We made a couple of our own menorahs. One out of paper and one to eat for snack!

We also made our own dreidels and played the dreidel game. The instructions were sent home in their suitcases in you would like to play at home!

Doctors, Dentists and Police

Sadly, I must apologize for the lack of pictures this week. We did so many fun things and I completely forgot to take pictures of most of it.

We talked about the letter k this week and had lots of fun pulling out the paint to do something a little bit different!

On Monday we learned about doctors and had a special visitor come talk to us about some of the things doctors do. He brought his stethoscope, blood pressure cuff and a book about the body. Surprisingly, the kids were most interested in learning about bones.  

Wednesday was all about dentists. The kids were shocked and amazed to find out that teeth are actually bones. We used a mouth, some teeth and some dice to practice counting. The kids rolled their die, then put that number of teeth in the mouth. We also learned about the different parts of the tooth.

On Friday we learned about Police Officers and had another special visitor. He brought along some of the tools he uses on his job like a taser, handcuffs, and bullet proof vest. The kids loved seeing all of his tools, especially the car.

Our tool belt is filled with all the jobs and tools we learned about in the past month. I think this has been the favorite unit so far. The kids have loved learning about different jobs and sharing their experiences with people who do them!

I also have to share the new purchase made for the preschool this week, a rug! It helps us learn about the alphabet and learn to stay in our own space.

Thanksgiving

 Before we get to Thanksgiving, we did have one regular day of preschool last week! During centers time, we talked about colors. One of the centers was playing Candy Land. The kids loved playing and games are such a great teaching tool. Along with helping them review colors, it also gives us an opportunity to talk about playing fair and being good sports. We worked on taking turns and being a good sport whether you win or not. The kids were so nice to each other and wanted to keep playing until everyone made it to the end! 

For our occupation that day, we talked about teachers. We made a list of all the different types of teachers we know about and what we learn from them. The kids then took turns being the teacher. We learned how to do a flower dance, how to play soccer,  how to sing the Bob the Builder song and about the colors in the rainbow.

On Wednesday we got to celebrate Thanksgiving. We used the opportunity for a little social studies and learned about the first Thanksgiving. We watched clips from several videos on the Scholastic website that gave the kids an idea of what life was like back then. We talked about the Mayflower and then made and raced our own little boats. We then learned a little about the Pilgrims and the Wampanoag Indians and what they were celebrating at the first Thanksgiving. The kids got to make their own Indian headbands after learning about their significance in one of the video clips. Finally, we talked about what they might have eaten at the first Thanksgiving and made our own version with turkey sandwiches, corn and apple slices.

Fire Fighters

This week has been all about fire fighters! On Wednesday we learned about fire safety. We learned about how we would get out of our preschool if there was a fire. We also talked about stop, drop and roll. On Friday we went to the fire station and learned even more from the fire fighters there! They also gave me a ton of information that I will be sending home with the kids on Monday. 

Make sure you talk about fire safety at home. Help kids practice different ways of getting out of the house and designate a meeting place outside.

Occupations

We've done so much in the past week that I don't even know where to start! The kids are having so much fun learning about occupations.

Our bulletin board for the month is a tool belt that holds tools for each occupation we will be learning about. Each day the kids get to take an envelope out, look at the tools and guess what occupation we will be talking about that day.

On Monday we talked about construction workers. The kids had lots to tell me about that job from all the construction they've seen in our neighborhood! We learned about all the different tools and tractors they use to get their jobs done. We then got to build and paint our own houses.

On Wednesday we learned about pilots. We had a special guest (my dad) come talk to the kids about being a pilot. He brought a bag full of his tools to show the kids, which they loved! We learned about how a plane flies, how the pilot gets where he needs to go and how he keeps his passengers safe. We love guests and are looking forward from hearing from a few more throughout the month. If any other parents want to come talk to us about their occupation (or one they know a lot about) we still have a few times open!

Today we talked about mail carriers. We learned the parts of the letters and wrote some letters of our own. 

And of course, we have spent lots of time learning about the alphabet, numbers and shapes. One activity we did this week was putting the alphabet back in order. The kids did so well! Most of them were about to get to the letter I, which is as far as we've learned and some were able to do a little more!