India
We have a few students from India, so this week I was more like a student and they were the teachers <3. It was memorable and I have saved things we made for future celebrations of India in my classroom.
What did we/I learn about?
Diwali! An important holiday in India, which I really didn't know anything about before. We read the story of Rama and Sita, which they immediately asked me to read again. We also read a book for children about Diwali traditions, then made our own banner to decorate for it ourselves (ignoring, of course, we were in the wrong month.) The kids even asked how we could make pretend oil lamps, so they were obviously into it. I'll have to plan something for that next time!- Henna hands - We learned what it was, looked at pictures of
many designs, then the kids traced and cut out their hands to make their own
henna designs.
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National symbols - I love "floam challenges." We sit
in a circle and everyone has their own handful of floam (or play dough) to make
something that meets my challenge. For
India week, I challenged "Make a peacock" or "Make a lotus
flower" etc. Tons of fun to meet a lot of our goals, encourage ingenuity
and creativity, and tie it all back to India.
England
- Sensory meets Art:Painting with tea bags! Discussion of smell, feel, and appearance of this popular English beverage.
- Dramatic Play: Pretend tea parties (dressed up fancy, of course)
- Math: What time is it, Big Ben? Read and change clock hands atop a tower
- Construction: Stonehenge, Big Ben, what else can you reconstruct?
Other Activities...
- Palace Guard paper doll stick puppets :)
Shakespeare Friday! We watched "Gnomeo and Juliet" for lots of fun.
Show and Tell - Can't thank parents enough for sharing family
photos of trips to London, currency from England, and other awesome and fun
things related to this country study.
