Exploring Asia

Our second stop around the world was a visit to Asia. Asia is the largest continent and lays claim to the highest point in the world – Mt. Everest, and the lowest point in the world – The Dead Sea.

The Taj Mahal is a famous structure in Asia and India’s most recognized building. The Indian ruler Shah Jahan had it built after the death of his wife. This symbol of love serves as her tomb and a monument to her life. The kindergartners used water colors to paint the building’s reflecting pool. They added it to a cut-out of the Taj Mahal.

We also learned about The Great Wall of China. The kindergartners put together a diorama which shows the wall zig-zagging across the countryside.

In Japan, the carp (or koi) fish represent courage, strength and perseverance. The kindergartners painted and colored a koi pond.

Visiting Europe

We began a trip around the world with a visit to Europe. We learned that Europe has thousands of castles. In fact, Germany has over 20,000! The kindergartners designed their own castles using squares, triangles, and rectangles.

We talked about one of Europe’s famous landmarks – the Eiffel Tower in Paris, France. The tower is painted every seven years to protect it from rust. The kindergartens drew the letter ‘x’ all over a picture of the tower in order to give it its lattice look. They used sharpies to “paint” it.

We watched a video about London, England and saw some of the landmarks there. We also talked about the tradition of high tea. We held our own version of an English Tea complete with scones, fruit, crustless sandwiches and apple juice “tea.”

We made paper bag kilts when we talked about Scotland. The kindergartners played “toss the caber” which is one of the events you might see at the Scottish Highland games.

Russia is the world’s largest country and is in Europe and Asia. We talked about St. Basil’s Cathedral which is in the European part of Russia. Ivan the Terrible had it built to celebrate the capture of an enemy. The kindergartners designed their own versions of this colorful landmark.

Pirate Day!

Maps and pirates – they just go together. We finished our social studies map unit with a fun pirate day! The classroom was decorated and we dressed up as pirates.

We played a walk the plank game with popcorn words.

We also played a pirate squeeze math game.

Snack time!!

The kindergartners used their map skills to find some treasures on the playground.

We had a great day!

First Day of Kindergarten

We packed a lot into our first day of kindergarten. We started by taking some pictures to preserve this monumental day.