Holidays Around the World & an Asian Fruit Freebie

It seems a little unusual, but we just finished up our Holidays around the World unit this past week. We started before the winter break, and now we are done! I love sharing and learning about different cultures. Usually my team and I rotate teaching different holidays to our kindergarten students. This year, we covered Chinese New Year, Kwanzaa, Diwali, Ramadan, and Hanukkah. I did not take completed photos of all the projects. We made red lanterns for Chinese New Year, paper kinaras for Kwanzaa, rangoli designs and peacocks for Diwali, Crescent Moon & Star necklacse for Ramadan, and handprint paper menorahs for Hanukkah.

I read this book to my students on the first day back from the winter break. It is a wonderful book describing different traditions for the new year. We made our new year's goals and tried some black eyed peas. Surprisingly, some of my pickiest eaters liked black-eyed peas!



We reviewed some holidays with word sorts. My students quickly drew little sketches to go with each word to help them remember them. Then they sorted the words. To get the word sort for Hanukkah and Christmas, click HERE.

During our morning meetings, we are having fun learning different ways to greet each other. I will surprise one of my students with a Greek greeting!

I am having a giveaway for the upcoming Lunar New Year. Check it out here. This giveaway will be over tomorrow, Monday, January 21st.

In the past, I have brought in chopsticks and rice for the lunar new year... especially if there are too many food allergies, this is something plain. Sometimes, my Asian students' parents would cook some fried rice or noodles for us. I also like to bring in some Asian fruit for my students to try. My mom grows all kinds of plants in her yard. I like to tell her she is my personal farmer's market or grocery store. Sometimes she will have pineapple, kumquats, dragonfruit, starfruit, and recently custard apples! I have not seen custard apples in the U.S. You can find Asian pear, pomelo, starfruit, persimmon, and other fruit in a normal grocery store. I also go to the Asian markets to see what I can find fresh or I buy canned fruit. Just last week, while learning about Diwali and India, I asked how many of my kinderkids had mango. Only one... as she was familiar with mango lassi (a yogurt based Indian drink). Here is a freebie for you to download to learn about some of the yummy Asian fruits, as well as graph components to find out which fruit your students liked best.

Download it here.


Have a great MLK Jr. Weekend!