Holiday Wishes

Our kindergarten classroom consists of 26 children with many different backgrounds.  I couldn't be more excited to have this diverse group of children to learn from and to witness their growth in not only English but all areas of academics and social awareness.  Most of the children were born in the United States but a lot of their parents were not.  I have parents from India, Philippines, South America, Mexico, Poland, Korea and Albania. There are families who are Greek, African American and like myself a mixture of a little bit of everything. :)

 Some children spend a full day in kindergarten and then go to other schools to learn more about their language and/or religion.  This time of year we spend a part of it learning about the different customs our families continue even though being far away from the country of their birth.  I have had families who celebrate Eid, Diwali, St. Lucia, Las Pasadas, Orthodox Christmas as well as Christmas.  

Because it is kindergarten, we take a fun journey around the world following the Gingerbread Man who runs from country to country and learn all about these celebrations.  Also, as homework families send back a page or two about their special traditions in their house and we all learn from each other. 

Here is the world map, underneath are the celebrations which we read throughout the month and then post for the whole school to be able to read too.  I have had children bring in special costumes, statues, and fabulous pictures to explain more about themselves and their families. It truly is a special time!

Last week we also discussed what our holiday wish would be...of course the first thing for them would be toys ..so we brainstormed other wishes we could have. I thought they did a nice job. Here are few examples.  Aren't they sweet? 

My holiday wish is helping my family.

My holiday wish is to love and like one another.

My wish is that my cousin stays warm and my mom, dad and my sister stay warm.

 We also made snowman ornaments for their parents.  Due to the many celebrations in our classroom I did have to change the hand print tag added to their ornaments.  Here is a copy if you would like.What do you do in your classroom to incorporate your families' customs and traditions?

SNOWMAN HANDPRINT ORNAMENT TAG