December 16th, 2016
Christmas is coming soon, but it is not the only holiday/celebration around this time of year. This week we learned about Hanukkah and Kwanzaa; where they were first celebrated and in what culture.
We thought it exciting that Hanukkah starts on Christmas Eve! We learned that Hanukkah is celebrated for 8 days because there was a special oil lamp that lasted for 8 days without going out. The amount of candles on the menorah reflects this. Each of the 8 candles is lit using the helper candle in the middle. After learning about this oil lamp we did a science experiment using water, oil and salt. We wanted to see what would happen when oil is poured into water, and what would happen when salt was drizzled on top. It was neat watching the salt bring bits of the oil down below the water briefly then bubble back up to the top. We compared Christmas gift giving to Hanukkah gift giving. Children usually receive a gift on each of the 8 days as opposed to Christmas where gifts are usually given all in the same day. During Hanukkah children like to play the Dreidel game. We learned how to spin the dreidel and identify each symbol on it’s four sides. The dreidel game was a great way to practice our counting, splitting amounts of coins in half to make two piles, following game rules and understanding that it is okay not to win. After the Dreidel game we painted the Dreidel symbols and explored colour mixing.
For Kwanzaa we danced along with Elmo to traditional African American music and learned about some of the principles of Kwanzaa that are celebrated during each of the 7 days. These principles teach you how to live a good life. The Kenorah represents the seven days of Kwanzaa; three candles are red, three are green and one is black. We created a paper collage using these here colours.
During these holidays, much like Christmas, they are most importantly about being with family.
We also used part of this past week to continue our learning about recycling. We made our own paper from newspapers. Everyone did a great job tearing the newspapers into tiny pieces and squishing the excess water from the paper pulp using a pop can. We also did some creative building/art using recycled tin cans, boxes, toilet paper tubes, and a lot of tape. We learned that tape worked a little bit better than glue.
On one of our Special Leader days there was a balloon included. We explored static electricity by rubbing the balloon on our heads and laughing as we saw everyone’s hair go up and down. We also rubbed our feet on the carpet and touched our friends to feel a little shock. It was too funny!
Some other things we did this week include; a B for butterfly craft, played vowel identification games and baked muffins.
Christmas is coming soon, but it is not the only holiday/celebration around this time of year. This week we learned about Hanukkah and Kwanzaa; where they were first celebrated and in what culture.
We thought it exciting that Hanukkah starts on Christmas Eve! We learned that Hanukkah is celebrated for 8 days because there was a special oil lamp that lasted for 8 days without going out. The amount of candles on the menorah reflects this. Each of the 8 candles is lit using the helper candle in the middle. After learning about this oil lamp we did a science experiment using water, oil and salt. We wanted to see what would happen when oil is poured into water, and what would happen when salt was drizzled on top. It was neat watching the salt bring bits of the oil down below the water briefly then bubble back up to the top. We compared Christmas gift giving to Hanukkah gift giving. Children usually receive a gift on each of the 8 days as opposed to Christmas where gifts are usually given all in the same day. During Hanukkah children like to play the Dreidel game. We learned how to spin the dreidel and identify each symbol on it’s four sides. The dreidel game was a great way to practice our counting, splitting amounts of coins in half to make two piles, following game rules and understanding that it is okay not to win. After the Dreidel game we painted the Dreidel symbols and explored colour mixing.
For Kwanzaa we danced along with Elmo to traditional African American music and learned about some of the principles of Kwanzaa that are celebrated during each of the 7 days. These principles teach you how to live a good life. The Kenorah represents the seven days of Kwanzaa; three candles are red, three are green and one is black. We created a paper collage using these here colours.
During these holidays, much like Christmas, they are most importantly about being with family.
We also used part of this past week to continue our learning about recycling. We made our own paper from newspapers. Everyone did a great job tearing the newspapers into tiny pieces and squishing the excess water from the paper pulp using a pop can. We also did some creative building/art using recycled tin cans, boxes, toilet paper tubes, and a lot of tape. We learned that tape worked a little bit better than glue.
On one of our Special Leader days there was a balloon included. We explored static electricity by rubbing the balloon on our heads and laughing as we saw everyone’s hair go up and down. We also rubbed our feet on the carpet and touched our friends to feel a little shock. It was too funny!
Some other things we did this week include; a B for butterfly craft, played vowel identification games and baked muffins.
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