To begin our inquiry into celebrations around the world, we looked at maps and globes to see how big the world is. We found Ohio on world, maps, maps of the United States and on globes. We read books to show how people live and do things in different parts of the world. We learned that people speak in different languages, eat different foods, have different homes, and different schools. Yet we all love, have friends, families, and have the same needs such as food, water and shelter. I set up an area where they could explore globes, world maps, maps of the United States, and different types of Ohio maps showing cities and lakes, roads and counties. Paper was available to show what they notice and create maps that they see. They were very interested in the compass rose and how it showed what direction North, South, East and West is. I also set up an area where they could explore continents through clay. Some tried to put the continents together to show the world! The kids practiced reading and creating treasure maps in our sand box by hiding "golden nuggets" and creating a map using the pieces in the sand and also on paper. After studying the maps and learning about how people live around the world, we started discussing different celebrations that the kids in our class celebrate. We have friends who celebrate Christmas Diwali, Ramadan, and Kwanzaa so I decided to focus on those traditions most. We started with Diwali. It is a beautiful celebration of light! One tradition was creating Rangolies out of colored salt and sand. We watch some videos of some being created and the kids were enthralled! Since I did not have colored salt or sand, the kids made mandalas inspired by the Rangolies we saw! I set up an area for them to explore and create their own mandalas using different loose parts. I added a book about mandalas for inspiration. I was amazed at the beauty they created as they used the math concepts of growing patterns and symmetry to create them. I love when art and math come together! They also crated mandalas using our pattern blocks. They even started using the same math concepts at the easel as they started painting mandalas. I let those who were interested create rangolies out of clay and beans. Many created lovely growing patterns on these also! Mandalas started showing up outside! Some friends collaborated to create the largest one they could with the long grasses drying in our garden! We watched a video that inspired the kids to try to create "Human Mandalas!" They had so much fun with this! Light plays an important part of Diwali. It is a celebration of light defeating darkness. One tradition is lighting small lamps called Diyas. Children who were interested, created diyas of their own using air dry clay and beautiful beads. Another tradition is to create beautiful henna art on their hands. We watched a video showing the use of henna to draw these beautiful designs on a hand and wrist. We have seen henna on some of the hands of our friends in the past. The kids thought it was absolutely beautiful and loved watching this! Inspired by the video, the kids created their own henna hands. I found an old map created by a previous class that was so faded the water had turned pink! We decided to freshen it up and use it to create a display that shows these different celebrations and traditions we are learning about and where they originated. We documented what we had learned about Diwali on the computer together and highlighted sight words we had learned. We noticed "they" popped up a lot so we are focussing on that word right now! It is one of the harder ones for them to remember. I then put out samples of our art to show some of the traditions. This was only the beginning of learning about different traditions and celebrations. We learned about Diwali, but have many more to learn about! We will show you what else we learn in our next post! SaveSave
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As Strasbourg was during our weekend trip to Colmar busy with the funerals of the late chancellor Helmut Kohl, the 'father' of German unification, Mulhouse was the best option at hand for a short-term trip. With the French SNCF - looking as nothing happened in France in terms of trains design since the 1980s - we arrived to Mulhouse in 19 minutes. The one way ride costs 8.70 EUR. The short train journey leads through beautiful landscape dotted by green covered mountains. Situated so close from both Germany and Switzerland, it seems it took the best from the two worlds. With only a couple of hours to kill, and apparently too many attractions, a short selection should be made. There will be no museums - there is a trains museum, and an automobile museum and one of electricity and another of printed textile. From the train station, we walk until Tivoli Park, where a statue of a hard worker accompanied about a quote about the importance of work reminds me that Mulhouse is basically an industrial city, also called the 'French Manchester'. We walk on very narrow streets with houses hiding up on hills surrounded by luxuriant green yards. Nearby, we pass near a loudy family celebration, with kids and their parents playing together and barbecuing. I am tempted to join the party, but we are here for a reason: to visit the famous Mulhouse Zoo, which we finally reach after more than 30 minutes of walking. Besides the various animals hosted here, among which white bears and very funny and ready to play lemurs, there is also a small park with carousels and a large area out of the 25 ha to be used just for running around in the middle of the nature. The Zoo park is impressive, and it also includes a botanical garden, which makes the visit even more colourful, especially when the summer flowers are in full bloom. Back on the beaten road, we are heading to the central area, with a short stop at Rue du Sauvage, where most shops and trade are concentrated. So charmed by the German city halls, I forgot about the majestic presence of their French equivalent. L'Hotel de Ville in Mulhouse is one of a kind, with historical and mythological episodes painted on the walls. The area around is even more attractive, with rows of colourful houses with outdoors restaurants and coffee houses with best observation points over the entire plaza. We continue to move around the main square, on the streets bordered by half-timbered and painted houses, with historical characters glued on the corner, which seems to overlook the place until far away, a guarantee that things are under control. Running out of time, we don't plan to have a long meal, but at least we can have a little taste of some local honey produced by a family company on the market since 1921: Famille Mary. Each of them has a natural moderate sweetness and a very strong flowerly fragrance. There is a certain freedom I like to offer myself once in a while when I travel: wandering the streets, without a certain agenda, just to enjoy walking in a strange town, smiling at people I will never see again. Happy too that my travels brought me to beautiful places, with surprising histories and generously sharing to everyone - me included - their beauty and uniqueness. The typical Haussmann balconies are generously decorated, maybe to compensate the limited space allowed for human closeness. The serious mood is broken by some funny pom-poms hanging around Rue de Mittelbach. Is like you use the street as your private creative workshop. Not a bad idea at all. Our time in Mulhouse was short enough to give us the taste for something more, the promise of coming back in the air. At Wilson, at the corner of Rue Henriette, we have a merengue lemon tart, a tasty reward for an afternoon very well spent. For more inspiration, check the dedicated Pinterest board
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Hi everyone! Now that I am a little more caught up on sleep after the first week of school, I want to show you more of my Travel-Themed classroom! I got these colored parasols from Goodwill- brand new!- and the small trunks in the corner are from an antique shop in the Texas Hill Country! I'm just a little proud of both these finds! Over the summer I started collecting maps of all kinds and used some as backgrounds on my little shelves. I think its the details that make a room! I stuck them on with sticky tack so I can easily change them out (if I change my theme again). These suitcase and passport labels are from my World Travel Theme Pack. I use the "suitcases" as name tags and the "passports" number the hooks so my kids know which hook belongs to them. I covered boxes with crumpled brown paper to look like leather suitcases. I just use them as display above my cubbies. I will use the laminated butcher paper transportation posters to display academic vocabulary words. The Alphabet Pennant is also from my World Travel Theme Pack. The city signs and clocks are from my Pack as well. I attached a cardstock ring to the back of the clocks to make them pop from the wall. Again, I love details! I printed out a couple different compass roses off the internet and put them in various sized embroidery hoops as sun catchers. The mini hot air balloons are from a tutorial in my Pack. In the past I've had a hard time finding places to display the anchor charts I make with my class so this year I decided to give myself a whole wall! And of course, I added a Dr. Seuss quote to the hot air balloon. Up-close of my number sign. Whenever we leave the room, my Location Leader moves the clip to the appropriate box. My Leader-Themed Jobs Chart FREEBIE. This behavior chart is travel themed and uses some of the language from The 7 Habits of Happy Kids! A bonus, non-travel themed area: My Birthday Chart! In the past, I've struggled with having all the goodies ready to go for my kids on their birthday. This year they are all packed and ready to go! I can just take the child's bag down and hand it to the them! It was a long post but I wanted to share everything! I hope school started/is starting well! Dylan {The Savvy Schoolteacher}
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Pancolar 50mm f/1.8 1/750sec @ f/5.6