Miss Kate's Corner: Holidays Around the World!

This week we continued learning about holidays around the world. We learned about traditions in Poland, Sweden, Germany, Mexico, and America. In Poland, they celebrate the Festival of the Star, while in Germany parents hide a pickel ornament in the tree, and their children look for the pickel on Christmas morning. The child who finds the pickel receives an additional Christmas gift. In our classroom, we made stars for the Festival of the Stars, and searched for hidden pickels. In Sweden, they celebrate Santa Lucia Day, which is the shortest day of the year. On this special day, the eldest girl in the family gets up just before dawn and puts on a white dress and a wreath of candles. She walks through her home, with a tray of yummy treats for her family. In our classroom, we made wreaths of candles, and talked about nice things we could do for our families during the holidays. In Mexico, their the holy flower is the poinsettia, and they celebrate Posoda Day with a Mexican hat dance, pinatas, and Posoda vests. In Classroom 8, we learned the Mexican hat dance, wore posoda vests, painted poinsettias, and worked together to make a Santa pinata. We also learned about how Santa's elves have very special jobs at the North Pole. We have been busy being little elves ourselves, by making Christmas presents for our families!
Our poem of the week was:

Santa had some little elves.
Ho! Ho! Ho! Ho! Ho!
They made toys
To put on shelves.
Ho! Ho! Ho! Ho! Ho!
With a train set here,
And a teddy bear there.
Here a ball, there a doll,
Toys that went from wall to wall.
Ho! Ho! Ho! Ho! Ho!