During the month of January, classroom 5B explored traditions around the world. We began our journey in Mexico. We looked at where we live on a map and where Mexico is, and we brainstormed different modes of transportation we could use to get there. We read Round is a Tortilla by Roseanne Greenfield Thong and we observed various shapes in everyday things. Then we put our fine motor skills and shape recognition to use and we cut shapes out of colorful paper, creating papel picado.
The next stop on our journey led us to India, where we read Where Three Oceans Meet by Rajani Larocca. For our activity, we created henna hands. Our Pre-K friends are working on following multiple step instructions, we started by tracing out our hands, and then we cut them out. Then we created beautiful patterns and shapes using brown markers onto our hadn’t cut outs. We looked at pictures of traditional henna for inspiration.
Our next stop was China, just in time for Lunar New Year! We read Lunar New Year by Hannah Eliot. We had so much fun learning about all of the traditions and the meaning behind Lunar New Year decorations. We created dragons by coloring in their heads and tails, then we created a pattern of red and yellow bodies. Then we did a Lunar New Year dance with our dragons for some music and movement.
Our last stop was the island of Hawaii! We read Froggy Goes to Hawaii by Jonathan London. For this activity, we put our fine motor skills to work again as we created a pattern of straw, flower, straw, flower and we created beautiful Hawaiian leis. We had a blast learning about different cultures and traditions this month!
