Oh what fun to fly all over the world and learn all about different holiday traditions – without ever having to leave the classroom!
That’s what EJR kindergarten students got to do with their teachers. Students in Ally Moore’s class first ‘visited’ Israel during Hanukkah. They learned all about this eight-night festival of lights and what it represents. People who celebrate Hanukkah enjoy sufganiyot (jelly donuts), latkes (delicious potato pancakes) and chocolate gelt, which they win when they play the dreidel game. Each night is marked with a candle on the menorah and family get-togethers and gift giving.
After Israel, our students ‘jetted’ to Sweden to learn how people there celebrate Christmas. In addition to receiving gifts from family and Santa, children in Sweden also receive gifts from Tomte the gnome! Swedes decorate their Christmas trees with candles and apples and enjoy a special bun for breakfast on Christmas.
Next stop: England. The English people celebrate Christmas with Father Christmas. A tradition is putting a silver sixpence into their special Christmas pudding. Whoever finds the coin sees it as a sign of good luck for the coming year. Presents are put in stockings for English children. England is where the tradition of giving Christmas cards began!
Then the students went halfway around the world to Australia, where it is summer in December. Children build sandmen instead of snowmen here and the tradition is to have a barbeque at the beach. People in Australia say “Happy Holidays mate” when greeting each other during the holiday season.
The last stop of the students’ journey was in Mexico! Some of the traditions of a Mexican Christmas are candy in pinadas, eating tamales and having poinsettias. Mexicans say Feliz Navidad to wish each other Merry Christmas!
The students read a book about traditions for each of the countries in their holidays around the world project. They also got to make a book and craft from each of the countries – a stocking, a Christmas gnome, a menorah and dreidel and finally their own paper pinatas.
That’s a lot of traveling for kindergartners but they were certainly up to the task.