Holidays Around the World in Kindergarten

Each day at the end of the day, they know it’s time to take our next trip! The children grab their passports and suitcases and wait in line (in the hallway) to go through security. I usually have a parent volunteer to check their passport (they love when I ask them to state their full name). I usually announce “Now boarding flight 007 to ____ (wherever we are traveling that day).”  Then, they set their suitcase in the overhead compartment (at their table), board the plane (our carpet) and take their seats. Once everyone is aboard, I announce close the door and give the official airline announcements- I tell students to buckle up for safety! I use Google Earth and we talk about where we are departing from (we say our elementary school name, city, and state). I type it in to Google Earth and show them on the Smartboard so they can “look out the window” as we depart. Then, I type in the destination and the kids “ooh” and “ahh” as they watch us travel around the world!

 

Gingerbread man, and tie in a fun STEM activity where the kids have to help the Gingerbread man make it across the lake. They work together in teams of 3-4 and try to construct  floating device to help a gingerbread cookie float for at least 30 seconds (enough time to make it across the lake). This is a favorite activity since we do our gingerbread week with all the variations of the Gingerbread man stories. We use basic classroom items like rubber bands, tape, index cards, straws, etc. I love the way they all end up designing different devices and we learn about sinking versus floating, too. We end up writing and drawing if our plan worked, and if the gingerbread cookie sank or floated. It’s a great intro to experiments!