We love preschool around the world and back!

This week we traveled outside Palatine to various places around the world.  We learned about celebrations and holidays and the similarities and differences between these countries and our own.  We learned what a rebozo is and how it is used in some cultures as more than just a scarf.

We also made people using our "people colored paints" and then attached eyes and hair of a variety of colors.  Some made silly faces and others made people who looked like those members of our class.  This was a process activity which means we were more interested in letting the children play with the materials we provided and talk about the task then how they turned out in the end.

After making people, we grabbed some instruments and played some music from India as well as Ireland.  We marched around the room and eventually broke out in a marching band!

We learned about dream catchers and how some Native Americans use them to catch bad dreams at night in order to let only the good dreams flow through the web.  The children were so excited to create these items using string and beads as they practiced threading.  Many children told us they couldn't wait to get home and see if their dream catcher would work!

Then it was on to China where we got to see dragons dance then made our own using tape, yarn and construction paper to wiggle the yarn and place the pieces of paper down over the string to create dancing dragons of our own.

We were grateful to enjoy a birthday snack this week after making dragons and before continuing some other adventures in China.  After eating our snack we looked at a variety of numbers written in Chinese then had time to try recreating those symbols in flour on trays.  

This winter if your family tends to bake goodies, throw a little extra flour on your table and let the kids draw in it a while.  It works great small motor skills plus encourages writing numbers and letters without the boring old pencil and paper.

We played engineer this week as well with our magnetic shapes, large blocks and paper cups building our own creations as well as recreating famous structures from around the world seen in places like France and Greece.  

We identified the colors of the American flag and then compared them to the colors in the Mexican flag to figure out the one color that changes between the two.  Then, we headed to the tables to paint the Mexican flag.

We learned about piñatas this week and then used our imagination and information to either be silly or truthful when our teachers asked what would come out of a piñata if they broke one open.  Some children said candy and others said bubbles while some said balloons!  It is always great to hear what the children come up with when we do activities like these.  

The last place we visited this week was Hawaii!  We learned about leis and then made them while trying to follow the pattern the teachers gave the children.  One we made the leis we learned how to do the hula and practiced dancing at the circle.  It was hilarious when the children told the teachers they thought they were better at doing Hawaiian dances then they were; which caused the teachers to really step it up and hula harder!

What's coming up?

• This coming week is going to be all about Disney so we will have a lot of fun stories coming home I'm sure!

• We sent home the holiday party invitations this week and please take notice of the date; it is different from what was planned.  We are going to have our Holiday party of Wednesday, December 14th instead of the 16th due to a scheduling conflict.  The holiday party will be during normal preschool time and we will just end the semester one day early.  We apologize for any inconvenience and ask the RSVP be sent ASAP so we can be sure to send word to Santa about how many gifts to bring.