La Novena de Mama Suerte

My Z-man's dad is a first generation American; his parents moved here from Colombia before they had children. My family has been in America for as long as we have traced back. It is very important to me that I support and help to foster both sides of Z-man's cultural identity. 

I know my family's stories well, of wars fought, Great Depression struggles, the brave move from farm to city life, our legacy of educators.  Sometimes, my traditions, recipes, and values are shared so naturally that I don't even realize I'm doing it; these things are so much a part of who I am.

Fostering Z's Colombian identity is much more conscience for me-a challenge. I acknowledge that I might not always get things right, that my understanding might not be complete, and that the language barrier is a pretty big one. I'm committed to trying my best, asking family for priceless input and to make time with my guy, and to learning as much as I can.

So, last year, when his Tia mentioned la Novena, I knew I wanted to somehow work it into our December. I researched it and found out when to start it (December 16th) and what the ritual was. Then, I chose the parts of the ritual that speak to me, and that I thought would be important to Z-man. We haven't done the big party part of la Novena, but I'm hoping to incorporate at least one visit to a neighbor's house next year (any takers?).

So yesterday, and today, and every day for the next seven days, we will plug in our candle (classy, I know) and pull out our bible. I had the opening prayer from la Novena translated and I adapted it into something that Z can understand. We open in prayer and then read part of the birth story from the bible. We sing Christmas songs that Z-man picks out, lots because he loves to sing, and then close with a prayer.

I know my version of this is not culturally accurate. I know that it barely even resembles the traditional Novena. Today, Z-man asked if we could do his "novena". I can feel that this is making Christmas more meaningful for us. And that is what traditions are all about.

Christmas Around the World, Part Två

Last week, my class continued their world travels with trips to Australia, England, Israel, and Sweden. Oh what fun we had!
In Australia, we read The Australian Twelve Days of Christmas by Heath McKenzie. This book taught us about animals we might find down under (like kookaburra in a gum tree) and also gave us a great chance to compare and contrast this version with the traditional Twelve Days of Christmas song that they already knew (a partridge in a pear tree). We noticed that both versions repeated each of the items again and again and that they both counted down from 12. These are big things for a three year-old to realize! Christmas crackers were made: cookie cutters were dipped in paint to make prints on white paper and then wrapped around toilet paper tubes. My students put candy inside as they tied them up, making one for themselves and each of their siblings. They took them home to share and open.

Our trip to England included looking at Christmas cards, a strong tradition in Great Britain. Our school gets a lot of Christmas card front pages, which are so fun to make crafts with and also, really great for retelling the Christmas nativity story and The Night Before Christmas. We read The Jolly Christmas Postman by Janet and Allen Ahlberg. This is story plays with common fairy tales as familiar characters open little envelopes with holiday messages inside. I remember loving this book as a child, and my students did, too! Stamps, stickers, and staplers turned discarded bulletin board borders into Christmas crowns to wear on our heads like the children in England do this time of year.

One student in my class is moving to Israel with his family, so this day was extra special to our class. We ate cupcakes decorated with the Israeli flag in blue icing. We spun dreidels and talked about how some children don't celebrate Christmas, but celebrate other holidays. We read the Birds of Bethlehem by Tomie dePaola. My students covered six pointed stars cut from cereal boxes (the BEST crafting cardboard) with aluminum foil. Then, we used spray bottles filled with glue, water, and blue paint to sprinkle the stars. As we placed torn up tissue paper on it, the students watched the white tissue absorb our spray, changing to blue as it did. The stars are far from the best looking project we have done, (:/) but they really enjoyed making them.

We ended our week with a trip to Sweden for Saint Lucia's Day (a day early). Here, we made wreaths of candles for our heads to celebrate St. Lucy's Day. We glued green paper scraps onto paper plates and painted wine corks white for the candles, hammering the corks onto the circles to make them stay upright.

The best part of this week was our reference books. I found books on each country from the children's nonfiction section at the library. My students asked questions about each location, like "What do they drive there?" and "What do people drink and eat there?" Then, we used the index and table of contents to look up where to find the information and found it!
One more of world travels before the real holiday trips begin!

P.S. We broke our pinata open!

Christmas Around the World

In December, my lesson plan focuses on holiday traditions around the world. Each day, we look at our class globe, pretend to pack a suitcase full of appropriate clothes (flip flops or winter boots?), and do some yoga poses to represent planes as we fly to a new country. Then, we read a book about Christmas, mostly about or from the destination of the day, work on projects representing Christmas traditions these, and talk briefly about each country.

This week, we visited Germany first. We ate Gingerbread cookies and talked about how these treats decorate some trees in German households. We cut and stapled our own advent calendar chains to count down the days until Christmas, because advent calendars are a big thing in Germany. First, the kids cut their own strips (yeah for scissor skill practice!). Then, they put them in patterns (math!). Finally, they stapled them in loops (fine motor skills!) and counted to 24 as they went (more math!). Each day we remove one loop and count the days until Santa's big arrival.

The next day, our travels took us to Mexico where we read The Legend of the Poinsettia by Tomie dePaola. Using a real poinsettia for inspiration, we turned toilet paper tubes into flower ornaments. For the first time ever, I tried paper mache. So. Much. Fun. So. Much. Mess. We made our own pinata to break at the end of the month, like the children in Mexico do on Christmas.

When we visited Brazil, we read Christmas Around the World by Disney Book Group (the inspiration and resource for most of this month's planning). We tried to mimic this awesome idea substituting a glowing Christmas tree for buildings in the firework pictures. Although our representations weren't nearly as cute, my students loved the idea of fireworks to celebrate!

Friday, we traveled to Holland and made Kruidnootjes together which was so much fun. This links to a fabulous recipe with easy instructions for use with kids. I substituted Trader Joe's Speculoos Crunchy Cookie Butter for the speculaas spice, because I couldn't find it in my grocery store and didn't want to take the time to make my own. They were pretty tasty cookies! 

During circle time, we placed our shoes outside our classroom and miraculously, they were filled with candy and small presents when we checked them later! We guessed that Sinterklaas had stopped by for a visit!

Feliz Navidad! Feliz Natal! Vrolijk Kerstfeest! Frohe Weihnachten!