Around the World: Sensory Play

While a lot of our themed learning about different countries and cultures involves directed activities and projects, I like to continue to provide independent play opportunities as well. Our play area is set up to include theme-related materials that encourage building, dramatic play, and even sensory play. When it comes to world travel themed sensory play, the options are endless! Sensory bins or tables can be set up using materials related to a country's climate/terrain, a popular food, or even colors of the flag. Here are a few of our favorites so far, including a recipe to make your own Rainbow Pasta!

Sand is a great sensory material for learning about desert terrains. We used kinetic sand in connection with our learning about the deserts in Mexico. It was a less-messy option than loose sand for a quick set-up/quick clean-up evening play activity.

Color-themed sensory bins can be made from a variety of materials and small parts. This red, white and blue sensory table was the great creation of our local Mommy & Me Playgroup (and actually was part of a Post Office/Community Helpers theme). It would be a great way to incorporate a United States theme, or a France theme, United Kingdom theme or any number of other countries that have these colors in their flag. You could adjust your colors to match the flag of any country. This particular bin has white bubble wrap, blue shredded plastic and red tissue paper. In addition to the color, a variety of textures were also explored and enjoyed!

There are so many special foods eaten around the world. We try to introduce at least some of them in our kitchen activities, but with a selective eater in the house, sometimes more exposure is achieved through sensory play! Black beans were a great sensory material to learn about Mexico. They are a fabulous filler for a sensory bin and also make for a great transfer practice material.

Rice is a huge staple in many Asian countries and will likely fill our sensory bin with a variety of play opportunities as we travel in that direction next week.


Pasta is another major staple to many world cuisines. It can be great for sensory play both cooked and uncooked. Uncooked pasta is definitely a longer-lasting sensory play material than its cooked counterpart. It is a great filler for a sensory bin or table. It can also be used for stringing, craft projects, even sticking in clay, playdough or floral foam for a great fine motor activity. The variety of shapes and textures of pasta are exciting enough to stand alone. Adding color definitely adds a new element of fun to explore. You can easily (and inexpensively) dye pasta at home with materials you likely already have on hand.

Make Your Own Rainbow Pasta

You Will Need:

• Uncooked pasta in your favorite shape 
• food coloring
• ziplock bags
• water

Directions: Decide how many colors you'd like to make. You will need about half a cup of pasta for each color, although you can adjust to dye more or less. Separate portions of pasta into the appropriate number of ziplock bags, one per color. If you prefer, you can use plastic containers for a less disposable alternative. To be a bit more earth-friendly, you could also re-use ziplock bags for future dying activities if you happen to make your own rainbow sensory materials more often. In each bag, you will need about 10 drops of food coloring in your color of choice and 1 teaspoon of water. Seal and shake your bag. Once color is sufficiently spread, lay your pasta to dry on a nonstick surface. I used a disposable foil pan. You could also use foil sheets or wax paper. Allow it to dry overnight or until color is set permanently. Enjoy the beautiful results for play, crafting, gluing or stringing. Rainbow pasta can be stored and used over the long term in a ziplock bag or container.

Happy, Hands-on Playing!

Around the World: Afternoon Tea for Two in England

There's nothing like a good book and a hot cup of tea to go with it! And that is exactly how we spent our evening together! One of my favorite benefits of homeschool preschool is the ability to have "school" when it works for our family's schedule. We are open on snow days! We have school in the morning some days of the week and school in the afternoon when our mornings are filled with other activities like Mommy & Me groups, play-dates, appointments or whatever else. I use songs and familiar routines around our school activities to designate a time as a "school" time and this seems to work very well. It's more about having a recognizable routine for us than a structured schedule. Especially on evenings when my husband is working, fun learning activities are something my son really looks forward to that makes the time feel a little more special to him (and pass a little less slowly for me, the tired mama!).

This particular evening began with a great old story that took us right back to our most recent destination, England! We read Michael Bond's Paddington. I read from the original version (pictured below on the right) while my son enjoyed looking at the photographs in the recent motion picture edition (to the left). He loved the idea of taking care of that adventurous little bear so much and was very eager to make his own little Paddington Bear to take care of. He especially loved the presence of trains in the story (they are one of his very favorite things) and got his own train toys out to play with our toilet paper tube craft when we were done.

I found the idea for this craft on this blog, and you can check it out, too, for some great story stretching ideas related to the book and/or an England theme! This project is definitely a joint effort with a significant amount of adult preparation/participation when done with a toddler. Older children could definitely do more independently (like cutting, drawing on details, etc.) and you could also adapt it to make it more or a child-led experience with younger ones. I more wanted him to have a chance to participate in constructing it and ample opportunity to play with it afterward.
You will need:

• empty toilet paper tube
• red, blue, and brown construction paper
• black marker
• scissors, glue, tape, stapler

I pre-cut the red hat and blue coat as well as two brown arms. I also drew on the details of Paddington's face, hands, feet and buttons in advance. My little guy helped with the gluing and I used tape and a staple to reinforce the hat and arms at the end so it could better withstand some playtime with a toddler! 

While he played about the story of Paddington with his toy trains, I got to work in the kitchen preparing for our tea party dinner! Our menu included a heart shaped grilled cheese sandwich (one thing I knew he would eat), heart shaped finger sandwiches, heart shaped cucumber slices (can you tell I don't have a big variety of cookie cutters for actual kitchen use??), some favorite cookies for dessert, and, of course, the tea! For toddler friendly tea, we like to use a decaffeinated option and since my toddler's palate is not quite refined enough for English Breakfast Tea or Earl Grey, we chose a raspberry flavored fruit tea mixed with some apple juice. I just steep a tea bag in some hot water and combine it with a fruit juice with a 1:1 part ratio. 

So often our meal times happen at an adult sized table where my son joins our adult world. Tonight, to make our tea time extra special, I invited my son to help me set his little table and I would join his world! We set out a tablecloth and picked out some leftover party plates, napkins and cocktail forks and spoons (what's more fun than a tiny little fork and spoon?). If you have a lovely tea set, this would be such a great time to introduce it and to teach and talk about handling fragile objects. We don't happen to have one, so paper party-ware seemed a bit more festive than our usual dishes. We even dressed for the occasion! My son put on a tie and jacket and felt so special and grown up sitting at our tea table. He even ate quite well if I do say so myself! This was also a great time to talk about the importance of table manners and challenging childhood mealtime concepts like sitting down while we eat, remaining at the table throughout the meal, and not bringing toys to the table...

Our evening's grand finale was a great process art activity that I encourage you to try. We painted with tea! It's a fabulous opportunity to let your little ones take the artistic lead and explore the scents, textures and colors of different types of tea. We talked about how teas are grown, processed and enjoyed in many different countries around the world (and as such, you could incorporate this activity in many themes related to world travel). The aroma was lovely! One tea bag broke adding a whole new element of texture to his artwork and it was a pleasure to watch him explore and experiment.

Painting with Tea 

You will need:

• a selection of tea bags with or without strings--the string does make a nice handle for dipping and twirling and stamping, but those without strings are also fun to handle and squeeze and press! I chose a raspberry tea, an orange tea, a black tea and a green tea for color variation.
• white paper, the thicker the better (construction paper or watercolor paper would be ideal)
• a tray for your paper to catch excess liquid
• a cup or shallow dish of water for dipping (it does not need to be hot!)

As with all process art experiences, I encourage adults to step back and let the little ones explore, experiment and experience. You'd be surprised (as I was) that they inherently know what to do even presented with new materials and they may even teach you a thing or two in the process! If a child is hesitant to begin without instruction or demonstration, I typically use minimal language and model using the material very briefly (if at all). I might use "I wonder what would happen if..." statements or invite a child to form their own questions about and experiments with the materials. 

Around the World: Welcome to England!

Our travel adventure continues this week! We boarded our make-believe plane and headed across the ocean (singing our favorite travel themed songs along the way) to our first stop on the continent of Europe: England! My little travel companion is always excited to get another stamp in his passport (and one on each hand). He loves seeing photographs and hearing tidbits from non-fiction books on the countries we are learning about. I try to also include some relevant fiction and Ludwig Bemelman's Madeline in London was a big hit. He loved the rhyme scheme and the illustrations as well.

Each country we visit comes with its own host of interest activities and themes to explore. Architecture and building are a big theme of what we will be learning about as we travel through four European countries this week. Our play area is stocked with some favorite building toys as we explore the beautiful castles, bridges, towers and other interesting structures pictured in many of the books we've checked out of our local library. Meanwhile, we had our first snowfall of the year here, providing a great building medium outside! Check out my upcoming Mad Science Monday post next week for a great science/engineering activity on building and testing bridges...

Language development is also a huge part of our Around the World until. We are developing a lot of vocabulary around traveling and taking some opportunities to soak up the local languages of the interesting lands we visit as well. We've been working on a chart of greetings in various languages from the countries we study. When we visit a country like England that is also predominantly English speaking, it's especially fun to learn about some words that are used differently than they are here. My son got such a kick out of calling potato chips "crisps," and french fries, "chips!"

We use this unit as a surrounding theme as well with our learning about letters, shapes, numbers, colors and other core skills. This week we introduced the letter B, and what could be more fun than singing and dancing to the song "London Bridge" or "Row, Row, Row Your Boat?" Making a collage about it! Check out our London Bridge, complete with a boat traveling beneath it!

We love using stamps as another medium to
practice pre-writing and letter recognition

Mr. Munch returned this week for a second course--but this time he's got a strong taste for the letter Bb! This is such a fabulous fine motor activity and manipulating letter magnets is a great way to introduce those little hands to the shape and structure of letters they will someday grow to write. I've found that the more means of exploring letters and their sounds, the better. Using a multi-sensory approach and including a lot of exposure and playfulness to how you introduce core concepts like letters, numbers, shapes and colors truly does help it all sink in.

I was a super proud mommy this week when my little one brought me a book he's been loving from the library and said "Look, Mommy, letter B!"

All of our building and learning has definitely made us hungry and perhaps a bit thirsty as well. Join us next post for a peek at our English Tea Time including some great children's literature, a cute craft and a fabulous process art activity. Until then, happy playing and safe travels!

Sneaky Reader Post: Letter "M" Activities & Name Games

Welcome to the very first in a series I call "Sneaky Reader Posts!"
I've recently begun teaching (very part time) a reading/early literacy program to a local preschool class. The program I am teaching through was developed by a former teacher turned reading specialist who now teaches other teachers how to teach reading! It uses a variety of fun and evidence based methods to develop early literacy skills in pre-kindergarten aged students. Among these early reading objectives are:

• recognizing first names in print
• recognizing that letters make sounds
• identifying rhyming words
• identifying parts of a book (front cover, title page, end pages, back cover, title, author's name, illustrator's name)
• identifying action words (verbs)
• identifying descriptive words (adjectives)
• hearing and recognizing the number of beats (syllables) in words
• developing an understanding of words and word meanings--teaching little kids BIG words, as I often say
• increasing opportunities to listen to spoken language, conversations and stories read aloud
• practicing where reading begins on a page and moving from left to right
• illustrating and dictating sentences and on a particular topic through the use of journals

The goal of programs like this one or many of the amazing programs offered at local libraries for children under the age of 5 is not to create fluent readers by kindergarten. Educators recognize that children learn to read and write at different ages and stages. The most important part of developing competence in this area is by and large developing confidence in this area! Surely through exposure, opportunity and encouragement, the rest falls into place all in due time. In the mean time, children who are positively and playfully exposed to literacy at a young age develop a lifelong love of reading that will carry them as learners throughout the years to come.

My mother also taught preschool and when I was in grade school, returned to college and completed a degree in childhood literacy. For many years she tutored children who struggled with a variety of reading difficulties and trained early childhood teachers in the area of early literacy. I have only one sibling, an older sister (also an early childhood educator!) who was an avid reader growing up. She loved to read and reading came easily to her. I, on the other hand, was a reluctant reader until I was in high school. While I enjoyed creative writing, composing songs, and had a love and fascination with language, I was not the type to take to her room and snuggle up with a good book by choice. Lucky for me, I lived in a house where fostering a love for and competency in reading was nurtured but never forced. I had plenty of opportunities to develop the important skills associated with competency in reading and writing, plenty of great teachers along the way, and eventually I learned that a great book can be a great adventure, a great escape, and a great companion. 

Schedules can be busy and family time limited when it comes to extracurricular activities, appointments, homework and more. Some children love to read; some are hesitant. For a variety of reasons, we must get sneaky with our little readers--and the time to begin this is in early childhood! Any kindergarten teacher, preschool teacher, librarian or educator will tell you that the most important thing you can do to support children in early childhood is to read to them. Read, read, read and read some more! Even when you've read this book for the 857th time, feel free to read it again (or temporarily hide it and selectively introduce a new favorite). Recognize the value in your children seeing YOU read for pleasure as well. Never feel guilty for taking some time in the morning with coffee and the newspaper or spending a quiet evening together reading books on the couch. And in between that, enjoy some tips of sneaking early literacy activities into your daily routine. You can find many ideas on Pinterest, in other blogs, via your local librarian or your children's teachers. You can also find some here in my Sneaky Reader Posts. Here are some marvelous ones related to the letter "Mm" to get you started:

Mr. Munch/Munch Monster

Mr. Munch is a Munch Monster who has a hardy appetite but a sensitive palate. You can make your own Munch Monster using a recycled baby wipes container (pictured at the top of this post) and gluing on some eyes and accessories. This makes a fabulous tool for fine motor development as children learn to recognize letter beginning sounds. You can designate your Munch Monster a lover of only one letter (like the letter "Mm" as shown here) or use him for different letters on different occasions. I used letter shaped sticky notes so I can remove the letter "M" and replace it with a different soup du jour when the fancy strikes. Younger toddlers (like my son) might use letter magnets to feed Mr. Munch his favorite letter. When we play together, he "feeds" Mr. Munch his favorite letter, "Mm" and we say a hardy "mmmmmmm" together so he can begin to recognize that letter sound. If you wanted to play with the letter "Tt," you might say "tasty!" or "terrific!" As a child advances, you might mix in some other letter magnets that are not "Mm" (or your designated letter) to challenge your child to feed Mr. Munch ONLY his letter of choice. 

Alternatively, you can use pictures on flash cards or laminate your own of things that begin with the letter "Mm." Mr. Munch likes monkeys and mops, moons and money...mmmmm! Mix it up a bit with some pictures that do not begin with the letter "Mm." Zebras? Yuck! Violins? None for me!

 You can also make a Munch Monster using a paper plate folded in half. Children can draw on a mouth, a nose, and eyes and/or use stickers. They can make their monster look scary or silly, but he'd better be hungry! Inside his "mouth" should be an uppercase and lowercase letter (Mm in this scenario). Older children can trace or write their own. Using sticky notes, have your child(ren) dictate, draw or write words beginning with Mr. Munch's favorite letter to feed him.

Name Games:

What's a word that begins with Mm that we can all relate to? ME, of course! Children love opportunities to be the star of the show when it comes to learning and playing together. One of the very first words they come to recognize, read and write is their own name. Here are some clever and sneaky ways to develop important early literacy skills using your child's name.

• First letter recognition: have child(ren)'s name(s) written on a sentence strip or piece of paper. You may also wish to have an ABC chart on hand to show all of the letters. Hold up one name for the child to recognize and sing this song to the tune of "Have You Ever Seen a Lassie?":

Have you ever seen a ___________[insert child's name] , a _________, a ___________

Have you ever seen a _____________, it starts with a _____ [insert first letter of name].

• Rhyme Time: help your child to recognize rhyming sounds by rhyming their name! Some results will be quite silly and giggles are OK! You can even sing the popular name jingle below, inserting your child's name, other family members' names or friends' names:

Jane, Jane, bo-Bane, Banana-fana-fo-Fane, Fee-fi-mo-Mane, Jane!

• Recognizing Syllables: words are comprised of a beats, or syllables and different words have different numbers of beats. Using your child's name is a great way to encourage recognition of syllables in words. Try saying your child(ren)'s name(s) and clapping the number of syllables in each. Make a chart together recording the number of syllables in each child's name or the names of everyone in your family. You can also make or use a drum or tambourine to sing this song together, tapping out the number of syllables in each name:

Rum, pum, pum! This is my drum! [tap out rhythm, children can tap their knees or clap the beat]

My name is __________, what's your name?

[First model your name, then insert child's name. Each child will get to tap the syllables of his/her name on the drum before passing it to the next participant! "Bob" would get one tap, "Mary," would get two, "Olivia" would get four, and so on...]

• Words are like a puzzle made up of individual letters. In advance, prepare two sentence strips with each child's name. Hold up a child's name to show a whole word. Cut (or have older children cut) between each letter of their names. Can they put together the puzzle of their name by placing the letters in the correct order. They may use the uncut name strip for reference. 

• Tactile Awareness of Letter Formations is vital to development of writing skills. Many early readers may be reluctant writers. Drawing, tracing and writing are not skills that come easily to all children for a variety of reasons. Sometimes there can be a contributing factor like hand weakness or upper-body weakness that make using writing utensils difficult. Sometimes visual processing difficulties can make aspects of reading and writing more challenging. In some cases, additional support may be needed, but in many cases, the developmental skills required for writing will fall into place in due time. Some reluctant writers may need alternative methods for developing tactile awareness of letters (their shape, how they are formed and eventually how they are written). In previous posts, I've touched upon the use of a variety of manipulatives and materials to introduce letters including magnets, foam letters, puzzles, stamps, stickers, cookie cutters, blocks, sand letters, stencils and more. Sensory play can be another great method to introduce pre-writing skills and tactile awareness of letters and playdough is a perfect medium for this! Using store-bought playdough or even your favorite homemade recipe, have your child(ren) form the first letter of their first name. Can they form all of the letters in their name? You can also use letter cookie cutters to cut out their special letters or rubber stamps to imprint their name in playdough. Playdough is one of my go-to mediums for letter and word practice. It can really introduce children to the shape and feeling of each letter and as an added bonus, working with playdough helps develop the small muscles in the hands and larger muscles in the upper body necessary for successful writing!

Around the World: Exploring the Brazilian Rain Forest!

Whenever I introduce a country's flag, I point out familiar
colors and shapes my son can recognize. 

Bem vindo ao Brasil! Today our world travel adventure took us to another South American country. I introduced our journey with the same continents song and airplane song presented in this post and as soon as we touched down, my son was greeted with a new stamp for his passport. We learned how to greet someone in Portuguese and looked at a photo of the Brazilian flag in a book of world flags we borrowed from our local library. We talked about the rain forests in Brazil and looked at some non-fiction books about rain forests also borrowed from our library.

My little monkey loved gluing ears to this paper plate
mask and coloring it a bit with crayons as we acted out
the action rhyme, "Five Little Monkeys."

Since we are learning about the letter "Mm" this week, we began with some activities centered around monkeys. This fun action rhyme is a great one for toddlers preschoolers:

Five Little Monkeys
Five little monkeys swinging from a tree
  [hold up hand with five fingers]
Teasing Mr. Alligator, "you can't catch me!"
[wag finger back and forth, teasingly]
Along came Mr. Alligator, quiet as can be
And snapped [clap] that monkey right out of the tree!
[hands together, wiggle like an alligator toward child/children]

We used our journal and stickers for a "Five Little Monkeys"
picture and math activity.

We talked about other plants and animals found in the rain forest. Our library books made a great

I based our tree frog scavenger
hunt on an activity found in
this fabulous book. I highly
recommend it!

resource. Even though children's non-fiction can be a bit wordy for very early readers, the photographs are invaluable and you can paraphrase or select particularly relevant passages to read together. Never underestimate the non-fiction side of your library's children's department! Seeing actual photographs of topics that they are learning or curious about helps children to feel connected to people and things outside of their immediate environment and can help them relate to people and things inside of their immediate environment!

We learned a bit about tree frogs and toads in the rain forest. Looking at photographs together, we were able to see how some tree frogs and toads are brightly colored giving predators (animals that might want to eat them) a warning that they are poisonous and not safe to eat. Others have colors that blend in with their surroundings, helping them to camouflage. I am all about teaching little kids big words--this increases vocabulary and confidence in communication. Next, we went on our very own tree frog scavenger hunt. While my son was busy finishing his supper, I hid 5 plastic frogs in our play area. I explained that we were going to be rain forest explorers and provided a magnifying glass, binoculars and a plastic jar to fill with our findings. We needed to find 5 hidden tree frogs. Some might be camouflaged and some might be brightly colored. I offered clues along the way, and my little explorer had a blast collecting the frogs in his jar!

Want to do more?

Gross Motor: Rain forest Yoga! We found a great rain forest themed yoga video on YouTube via Cosmic Kids. My little Yogi LOVES this series (and so do I)!

Play Soccer or learn some Judo! Soccer is a popular Brazilian sport and Brazilian Judo is a widely practiced martial art across the world. If weather permits, take a soccer ball outside to play together. You can also teach your little athlete that Brazilians refer to this sport as "football," rather than "soccer." My husband happens to be trained in Brazilian Judo, so my son has been learning some moves with him over his short life and some Portuguese vocabulary to go with it. You can likely find some great videos online or at your local library.

Cooking Activity: talk about foods that grow in the rain forest. We learned that bananas and cocoa beans are found in rain forests. We baked banana chocolate chip bread together that will surely be enjoyed as a Shabbos treat this week (if there is any left by then)!

My little Yogi

 Sorting Game: Create a large poster with a vertical line down the center. Label one side "animals found in the rain forest" and the other side "animals not found in the rain forest." Alternatively, you can use masking tape for your line directly on your floor and sentence strips or smaller sheets of paper to label your categories. Using stickers, pictures cut from magazines or printed from the computer, toy animals or even felt ones if you happen to have a flannel board set to sort your rain forest dwellers from those who live in other terrains. Younger ones may need more assistance and clues (you can use those fabulous library books as a reference!) while older children may be able to work through the activity more independently.

Animal Antics: Play a game of rain forest animal charades. Using pictures of rain forest animals and/or cards with animal names written on them, invite each player to act out their animal while others try to guess what it is. Alternatively, play "I'm Thinking of a Rain Forest Animal." On his/her turn, a player thinks of a rain forest animal without disclosing it to the audience. "I'm thinking of an animal, can you guess what it is?" Players will have an opportunity to take three guesses before asking for a clue. The player will then provide a clue about the animal (like what color(s) it is, how it moves, what it eats, etc.) and guessers can continue to try to solve the riddle, asking for clues as needed. Whomever is first to accurately guess the animal in question gets to play the next turn. This is a great game to play on a car trip or while waiting for an appointment or a restaurant meal to arrive.

We are having a fabulous time on our Brazilian Rain Forest adventure. Next week we are leaving South America and heading to a new continent: Europe... See you there and until then, pleasant travels and happy playing!

Around the World: Playtime and Party Planning in Mexico

Our travel adventures continue here as we spent some time in play and party planning. As much as I love teaching a world travel theme, I was not sure how my little student would take to it. The verdict after just one day is that he LOVES it! He is proudly using the few words and phrases he's learned in Spanish (as we are "visiting" Mexico), and reported at bedtime last night that his favorite part of the day was having pretzels and orange juice on our pretend airplane (go figure!). This morning he went to his dress-up basket and retrieved his pilot's hat and immediately rearranged his chairs back into airplane formation!
Play is such an important part of our learning experience together. We do formal activities while also incorporating many opportunities for independent play and work with materials that have been demonstrated during lessons. My little guy loves all things related to transportation, and how we get around is certainly an important facet of world travel! Part of our toy rotation into this theme has including swapping in some favorite transportation themed toys and materials.

Our library was also a fabulous resource for books, music CDs and DVDs related to our theme. My son has taken a strong liking to the book This is the Way We Go to School: A Book About Children Around the World written by Edith Baer. It's a beautifully illustrated picture book with delightful rhyming passages about the unique transportation methods used by children and families all across the globe. We also talk as we read about how he gets to school (he walks downstairs!) and the different ways his parents got to school over the years! 

In conjunction with our Mexican theme, I provided some play materials for my son to explore in our free time.

He loves transfer activities and our "Mexican bean transfer" was a real winner. He feels so proud of himself as he independently carries the materials, tray and all, from his shelf over to the table, practices with the spoon (and sometimes with pouring, too), and carries it all back again at the end!

We learned that Mexican landscape is partially comprised of dry, sandy deserts. I wasn't quite up to getting lots of sand out for indoor sensory play, but kinetic sand was a great option! I happened to have some stored with some shells and natural materials we found on a family visit to Virginia Beach a couple of years ago and he had a lot of fun exploring it (even though shells wouldn't necessarily be found in a desert)!

 Our library had a copy of "Sesame Street Celebrates Around the World" on DVD that seemed like the perfect evening activity for us last night. While we don't have a TV and use videos and screen time somewhat sparingly, my son has a super sweet spot lately for Sesame Street, and this cute movie featuring New Year's celebrations in several different countries was a real hit in our house. He was so excited that the first segment took place in Mexico and also felt very proud that he already knew about the Jewish New Year, Rosh Hashanah (which we celebrated a few months back) that was featured in the segment on Israel. We honestly didn't do much here for New Year's Eve being that it fell on a Saturday this year, but learning about celebrating in Mexico in particular was a perfect segue into our activities today: preparing a family Fiesta! He even got to see how a pinata is made and used, which was a perfect introduction to our morning project...

 Our Table Time activity this morning included some scissor skills practice with tissue paper strips. My little guy loves practicing with scissors. We are still working on hand positioning and remembering to keep thumbs up, but I try to balance the desire to correct for success with becoming over-involved and causing undue frustration. When he seems to be struggling or verbalizes that he would like help, I assist in positioning the scissors on his hand and even using hand-over-hand technique to cut together. However, if he reverts back to his own method (as pictured to the left) and is having success as well as enjoying himself, I allow and encourage him to experiment. It is most important to me that he develop confidence and then competence will follow. We used his morning work along with some pre-cut strips of tissue paper to glue onto a brown paper bag for our very own paper bag pinata. I found the idea and instructions for this project on this blog and it seemed like the perfect activity to modify for our Mexican theme.

After we finished gluing together and left it to dry, we took a little field trip to our local party supply store to pick out a few trinkets to fill it with. With Chanukah and some family birthdays now behind us and my husband back at work, we needed a little family fun night this week and an impromptu Mexican Fiesta seemed like a great way to incorporate our learning theme and our family needs. My son is so excited he even helped make an invitation to his Tatty while he was at work last night! This afternoon, he will join me in the kitchen to make some homemade salsa and black bean and cheese enchiladas for dinner. We will enjoy some Mexican Mariachi music in the background (YouTube is a great resource for this) and get to take a swing at our homemade pinata. I just hope he doesn't cry when his project gets broken!

Tomorrow our travels through South America continue with our next stop in Brazil...see you all there! Until then, happy playing!

Around the World: Maps, Mexico, Mariachi Music and Making Maracas!

In case the title didn't give it away, today's blog post has been brought
to you by the letter of the week, "Mm!"

Today was the day! We returned to our homeschooling routine and kicked off our Around the World unit. I wondered as I was planning if I might be over-planning activities and our starting up school again might be a slower transition we would need to ease into. I could not have been more wrong!  My little pupil was so eager to be back "in school," I had to dip into some extra activities I had planned as fillers just in case! Over the past few days, I've gradually been making over our playroom and learning area to prepare for this theme as I packed up our Chanukah materials and decorations for next year. Last night while my little guy was in bed, I transformed our living room into an airport. Today we weren't just traveling to school in our living room; today we were traveling to Mexico!

My son was so excited to see an airplane waiting to be boarded!
 We began our morning routine in the usual way with a morning Circle Time, daavening (prayers), charting the weather and some music & movement with shakers and scarves. Then we learned a bit about maps, globes, continents and countries. We looked at a couple flat, two dimensional maps and a 3-dimensional globe. We found where we live on both. We even sang this fun song about the continents:




We've Got the Whole Globe in My Hands
t.t.t.o.: I've Got the Whole World in My Hands


We've got the whole globe in our hands,
We've got the whole globe in our hands,
We've got the whole globe in our hands,
We've got the whole globe in our hands!

We've got North and South America in our hands,
We've got Europe, Asia, Africa in our hands,
We've got Australia and Antarctica in our hands
We've got the whole globe in our hands!

 Next, my little pilot put on his captain's hat and we boarded our plane! With extra tzedakah (money for charity) in our pockets and our passport ready to go, we took off to the blue skies for our grand destination, Mexico!

While aboard, we sang The Airplane Song (see below), enjoyed an in-flight snack (my toddler's favorite part!), and kept our ears open for landing when we would be greeted by some festive Mexican Mariachi music. It's important to know how to communicate when visiting a foreign country, so I made sure we both knew how to greet everyone in Spanish. My travel companion has been walking around shouting "hola" all morning now!

Captain!

In flight snack

When we landed, we put our tzedakah into the pushke (charity box) and danced to the music. We looked through a great book all about Mexico that we checked out from our library's non-fiction section and saw a photograph of the Mexican flag.

Next we got a little bit crafty and made our own maracas using two plastic cups duct taped together and filled with a few scoops of dried beans. My little guy had a great time decorating the cups with stickers, helping to scoop in the beans and shake, shake, shaking his new maracas to the "Mexican Hat Dance."

We finished our morning with the introduction of our marvelous new letter, the letter "Mm," using letter magnets and some journal work. Join us tomorrow for the next part of our visit to Mexico. We'll be making our own pinata, preparing homemade salsa for a Mexican feast and celebrating a family fiesta! Until then, adios and happy playing!

Tiny Mariachi musician with his maracas!