Christmas Around the World - China

We are off to learn about another country and their holiday customs. We started with China which sounded close to the country that we live in. In China, not many people celebrate Christmas. It is mainly in the big cities where you will find trees and decorations even though they don't know exactly what they are celebrating. In our country, they use the trees for New Year's Eve so you may see some Christmas things around, if you are lucky.

We read about Christmas in China and discussed the similarities with our country. She colored a Chinese paper doll for her bag book.

We also read about Chinese New Year and then watched the Dragon dance (link below).

After watching the Dragon dance, she colored a Chinese mask for her bag book.

Her finished China pages for her bag book. The bag book is slowly getting larger and larger. The finished project will be awesome.

Links

Schooltube has the video of the Chinese Dragon Dance

Spoonful has the printable Chinese New Year mask that I used, I printed it smaller.

Education.Com has the printable China paper doll

Christmas Around the World - Africa & Sweden

We are still learning about different holidays around the world. We recently learned about Christmas in Africa.

J read about the different customs of celebrating in Africa using the QR code on the sheet.

J then colored an African mask to fit into her bag book. This was not one of the included crafts of the unit. I added it myself.

She worked on a silhouette picture of a hippo to fit in her bag book pocket. I chose a hippo because the was the animal we read about, it seemed fitting to create a craft for it.

She mapped how to say Merry Christmas in Afrikaans on the country of Africa.

J's Africa pages completed in her bag book.

After using the QR reader, we read all about St. Lucia's Day in Sweden. We read about how a new girl is chosen each year to play St. Lucia. She became a saint because she would feed the persecuted Christians in Rome.

St. Lucia usually wears a crown of leaves and candles. So J created one with construction paper.

According to the website, the children leave a sandwich for St. Lucia and her donkey to eat while she drops off her presents. So, it seemed fitting to have ham and cheese sandwiches for lunch.

For her bag book, she created a small version of the crown, which we will flatten, and a Swedish paper doll. I feel like I am breezing through the countries and am worried it is too fast for her to learn. But she is learning, she surprised me by explaining that she heard how to say Merry Christmas in Spanish on Handy Manny the other day. So, even though this is not an in depth study of the countries, just some of the holiday customs, she is learning quite a bit. Yay!

Links

Prudent Baby - watercolor silhouette project idea that I used for the hippo picture

Scholastic - has some information on St. Lucia's Day

YouTube - we watched a video of a girl choir singing in Swedish

Education.Com - has the printable Swedish paper doll

Christmas Around the World - Mexico & Germany

We are still working through our Christmas Around the World unit. The next countries that we visited were Mexico and Germany. We learned about LosPosadas and gingerbread.

J found Mexico and Germany on the world map and colored it in.

She used the QR scanner and scanned the code to read about Christmas in Mexico. After we read about it, she filled out her bag book page with some facts.

I found a youtube video explaining the custom of Los Posadas. It was short and sweet. Then we listened to Feliz Navidad on youtube.

After we read The Legend of the Poinsettia, she sponge painted poinsettias and add sequin centers.

Then she made a mini piñata using tissue paper and card stock. She wanted to add some candy but I wanted it to fit in the bag book.

We will add the poinsettia and the mini piñata to the Mexico pocket of the bag book.

For lunch, J made cheese quesadillas for her and her brother. Not necessarily a Christmas dish but a dish from Mexico.

For Germany, Kaleb made some paper gingerbread men that I found in a kit. It included stickers and bows. He chose one for his bag book and the rest went to make a garland for our tree.

J had a ball making hers. Since the kit only came with a few choice stickers, she decided to add to her gingerbread by making dresses, pants, and mittens. I love her creativity.

She also painted a gingerbread ornament for the tree. We have visited four countries in our Christmas Around the World study and we will be working through more. I am sure we will not study all the countries that are available in the unit but we will get through as many as we can. Hope this has been held to you.

Links

Deep Space Sparkle - art project using sponges to make poinsettia pictures

Scattered Thoughts of a Crafty Mom - art project using a paper bag and tissue paper to make a piñata

Honest Cooking - Mexican wedding cakes recipe

Party Pinching - mini pepper piñata craft idea

Inspired by Family Mag - a plastic cup piñata craft idea

Christmas Around the World - Italy & England

We just started our Christmas Around the World Unit study that I bought on Cyber Monday from TPT. I am struggling with the desire to add to the unit but I do not want to overwhelm us for the holiday season. So I am going to keep it simple - right? (We'll see.) The idea behind this unit study is to create a bag book. What is a bag book?  Each page of the bag book will cover each country studied and the kids will create mini crafts to fit inside the book. I love this idea. Our first country to learn about was Italy.

J used the QR reader on my iPad to direct us to the website about Christmas in Italy. Using the information from the website, J completed the Italy page for her Bag book. We read about how Italian put cribs in their homes to remember Jesus' birth but don't place Jesus in the crib until December 24th.

One craft I added to the study was to make a noodle version of the Italian flag. I gave the kids six noodles and some paint.

Kaleb loves to paint and had to participate as well. After they painted, they used left over glitter to pour over the wet noodles.

According to the website, Italians believe that a good witch named Befana brings children presents. They made mini brooms to add to their bag book pocket.

My ideal version of this unit study would allow my kids to create and taste different foods for each country. But I don't see that happening since it is basically a new country each day from now until Christmas. When I can, though, I am planning some cooking activities and today, we made English Muffin pizzas to celebrate Italy.

Kaleb added cheese to his muffins after spreading the sauce. I toasted them in the oven for a few minutes. I was somewhat skeptical about whether or not my kids would like them.

But J surprised me - she loved them! In fact, she ate 3! She kept commenting how good they were.

Kaleb liked them so-so. At least he tried them and them promptly fed them to Sammy the dog who is willing to eat pretty much anything.

Here's J first page in her Christmas Around the World Bag Book. The noodle flag and pipe cleaner broom will fit into the open pocket of the book.

For England, I added a world map so we can chart all of the counties we learn about and visit. She mapped Italy, England, and our overseas country.

She used the QR reader and went to the website that informed us about Christmas in England. We have British friends and I think the main detail I remember, when hearing about their Christmas dinners, was that they had several meats. Typically, in the states we do a turkey or a ham but most likely - not both. In England, they have several meats among other delicacies for their dinner.

I hung up a large map and we mapped the different countries and sayings for the holidays. I am not sure the map will stay up since I had to hang it over several windows (sorry, mom)  but we will see. I would like to leave it up for the month and add to it daily.

I truly like Hope King's Christmas Around the World study for the most part. One item I did not like was the craft for England. It was basically a black piece of paper cut in the shape of a coal. I looked for a different version but since time is short, decided on making crystals instead. (I know they are no where near coal like but I had to do something) We made a solution of borax and boiling water. J then ladled the solution into mason jars.

Then she added a snowflake made from pipe cleaners to the jar. She immersed it completely. According to the website, it should take only about 5 hours to create. We will see. She also made one for her napping brother - a candy cane. Now this craft won't fit in her bag book but I think it will look nicely on the tree. If I had black food coloring, I so would have made coal candy (link below). That looks awesome.

Lastly, they made pigs in a blanket for dinner. This, according to the website, was one of the foods the English eat for the holidays. Well, two countries visited and many more to go. I am not stressing, I just want this to be fun. I keep telling myself this is just an overview and we don't have to do too much. Hope your week is going well without stress. Enjoy.

Links

Hope King's TPT - Christmas Around the World Bag Book, $8.00 (I got it on sale though)

Befana tells her story (in English) - a youtube video about Befana's story

Mrs. Nelson's Class - has some printables for a Christmas Around the Worlds study

Blissfully Domestic - the idea for the borax snowflakes

Sprinkle Bakes - recipe for coal candy, totally would have loved to do this but just couldn't bring myself to run out and get black food coloring

5 Orange Potatoes - has a cute pattern for a coal stuffie, super cute. I think this could also be made from paper and stuffed with cotton balls. It has to be small to fit in the bag pocket.

Minie Co - has templates for Christmas crackers, both large and small. The small one might fit into the bag book. Crackers are an English tradition. They usually hold small gifts, jokes, or even paper crowns.