Embracing the Light in Winter Holidays

 

This December we were able to embrace three Winter Holidays that the children of the school celebrate; Christmas, Hanukkah, and Winter Solstice.  Coming from a Multicultural and Art Education background, I believe teaching different cultural celebrations help children learn to understand and embrace each others unique traditions.

 

Hanukkah

 

During the Hanukkah celebration we discussed that it is a holiday celebrated by Jewish people honoring the miracle of their being enough oil to keep the lights burning during a time when they were not allowed to celebrate their holidays and traditions.  It gave the people hope, and helped them re-dedicate themselves to their beliefs and traditions.  The word Hanukkah means "dedication."  Simplifying this concept for the children, we talked about it being a holiday to celebrate the miracle of people all over the world being able to believe and celebrate their holidays and traditions, and that even though we may not celebrate each others holidays, it is nice for everyone to be able to celebrate their own holidays.

 

As part of our celebration we played Dreidel, and instead of Gelt (gold chocolate coins) we played for glass gemmies.

 

The Dreidel is a four-sided top, with a word on each side giving each player instructions on what to do. The words are:

Nun - you get none

Hei - the player gets half the pot

Gimel - the player wins all of the pot

Shin - the player must put 2 in

 

Our craft for the day was to make The Star of David, which we did with markers and adding water droplets to make the colors run.

We had a special treat for snack that day, one of our students and his mother made Hanukkah cookies in the shape of Dreidels and The Star of David.  Unfortunately I missed the photo opportunity, but it was fun watching the children spin their cookie Driedels on the table.

 



Christmas

 

As with Hanukkah, Christmas is a celebration of miracles and light. 

It is beautiful how many of the holidays celebrated around the world have a similar message of hope, love, dedication, joy and light.

We began our holiday preparations by making a garland to put around our tree as a gift to her for being cut down and allowing us to place our lights on her limbs and give us joy.



The children strung cranberries and popcorn (or at least attempted to string popcorn, it was a little difficult so they ate it as a snack).

I took all their individual stands of berries and tied them together into one garland.

They then worked together to place it on our tree and give thanks.

Our pretty garland on the tree.

 

As we embraced the holiday of Christmas one of the things that often came up in our circle conversations was talk of getting gifts.  This is special for the children, so each shared what they wanted to receive, but then we talked about what we were grateful for already having received in our lives.  Many children mentioned Mommies, Papas, Daddies, siblings, pets, etc.

We also talked about what we could give that was not a toy type of gift, such as saying "I love you", giving kisses and hugs, helping out. 

There will be more posts to come on what the children made as their gifts to their parents and loved ones, but how special is their real gift, simply them being in our lives and making us feel the magic if these holidays again.

Winter Solstice

 

We revisited the concept of light again as we talked about Winter Solstice at school.  During circle time we talked about how it is the shortest day and the longest night. That during the Solstice we honor the coming of longer days and we acknowledge the importance of light in our lives; that is keeps us warm, that it helps our plants to grow, that it helps us to see, etc.

During Solstice, much like Hanukkah, their is a re-dedication to our path in life, whatever that path may be.  Explaining this to little ones, I said it is a time to once again be grateful for what we have and to look forward to more days of sunshine and joy.

 



 

Our project for the day was to paint lanterns.  The children used water color paints, and then took eye droppers with water and spread the paint over the lanterns.  Anytime we use water and eye droppers is pure fun and joy for the kids, they love it!

 

 

When I started Art and Soul Preschool, one of the things that I wanted the most was to create an environment where all were welcomed and that we learned and celebrated all of our unique differences as well as similarities.  That we also learned about the world outside of our little school, and embrace it in our small way.  Too bad there was not enough time to learn about the many other winter holidays happening around the world, but fortunately we were able to embrace the ones celebrated by the children at school.

 

Candle Making

 

We attended a Yuletide Festival this December and one of the things that my daughter and I enjoyed the most was the candle making.  I thought it was so beautiful watching the children walk slowly around a table and dipping sticks with wicks tied on them into beeswax and then cold water.  They continued this rhythm until they had a wonderful candle.

 

I of course got home and couldn't wait to do it with my older kids on Tuesdays and after school.

 

 

Fortunately, I had all the materials.  I am regularly given  coffee tins which I used in a pot of hot water as a double boiler.  I first melted down the wax in a larger tin and pot on the stove top, and then transferred the wax into a smaller, taller tin and pot of water that I kept on the warm setting on the hot plate.

 

 

As the children walked around our table, they dipped their wicks into the wax, let it drip, then dabbed it onto a piece of wax paper.  They then walked over to the cold water and dipped the candle into the water.

 

As the children walked around we played some Holiday music.

We did this project on two different occasions.  The first was during one of the days of Hanukkah and we talked about honoring the light and the mitzvah of Hanukkah.

The second time we did this project in the afternoon with a small group, this particular day was the day before Winter Solstice and we discussed that we were approaching the shortest day of the year, and that we are bringing our own light into the world through making our candles.

Both felt like a sweet way to honor the concept of light and the importance of it in our lives.

 

 

It was very exciting for the kids to see their candles grow each time they walked around the table.

We had a wonderful time enjoying the simple process and ease of making these candles.

One student used her candle on her Daddy's birthday cake, how sweet!

Here are some of our candles.

All Hallows Eve and Dia De Los Muertos

This week was a busy week, preparing for Super Storm Sandy, which we were so fortunate not to have been physically affected by, and celebrating both Halloween and Day of the Dead.

I hope these pictures bring some smiles to faces after the stress and emotions from a hurricane coming to town, but also in remembering the pure excitement, joy, magic, and wonder children have during this time of year.

 

Here we are lined up just before our little parade, which really only made it's way over to my 96 year old neighbor's door to wish her a Happy Halloween, but it was a  fun journey not matter how short.

At school that day we had a Fairy Tale, a Princess, a Lady Bug, a Butterfly Princess, a Pumpkin Princess, a Quarter Back, a Cow, a Bat, Spiderman, Peter Pan and Dice!  It was an exciting group of guests that arrived that day.

When the children came into school I had a Halloween house set up for them to explore.

There were lights coming through the ceiling, packing bubbles on the floor so that when they went in, it made noises. Spiders hanging from the ceiling and snakes hiding in the bubble wrap.

I think it had just enough to not make it scary, but have a Halloween feel.

All the children that day are actually inside the house, but a couple are hidden in the back.

They had a ball in there, and I have to say they were rather calm.  I think popping the packing bubbles put them in a trance.  We also played a fun game of pin the wand on the witch and monster match, a memory game we have with candy monsters.

From play time we had circle and then painting pumpkins in art time.

This little group was very serious about their art that day!

 

I did not want the children to have candy, I figured they would have plenty later on, so I made these Ghouls for snack.  Apples with almond slices for teeth, tooth picks with green grapes as eyes, and they did get two chocolate chips each from the eyes.

They also made pumpkin quesadillas, which were very tasty and warm.

 

Peter Pan checking out the Ghoul, deciding whether or not to eat him.

When I cut the circles for the quesadillas I didn't want to throw out the extras so I cut them into bats and baked them so they were like chips.

I think the bat that came to school that day enjoyed that.

 Here is a Pretty Pumpkin Princess Playing with Pegs.
Try saying that 5 times fast!

 Our Fairy Tale Duo, Cinderella and The Unicorn Fairy Tale.

 A Little Butterfly showing off her cat tattoo

The Quarter Back flying high while the Pumpkin Princess cheers him on.
A funny thing about our Quarter Back, he was a Giant, and when the children shared about their costumes at circle time, a couple children who did not know what that meant, got a little concerned saying they didn't like Giant.  I explained to them that he wasn't a fairy tale "giant" but a football player for a team called the Giants. It always amazes me when I realize how truly new the world is to these little ones and each day they are learning so much.  

Peter Pan and the Butterfly taking flight

A ladybug and cow coming to a stop at the train station.

He was too cute in this costume, and a blur in this picture because that little dice kept moving around.

I tried to get individual shots of all the kids, but there was a whirlwind of activity and enjoyment that I didn't get to capture them all on the camera, but here is one more group shot of these little ones.

 

 

 

Dia De Los Muertes

Day of the Dead is traditionally a Mexican Holiday, but it is also celebrated all over the world.

On November 1st and 2nd, honor is given to those who have passed away, a joyful remembrance and in turn a celebration of life.  Alters are set up with flowers, pictures of loved ones who have passed, often favorite foods or sweets, a lot of time sugar skull and papel picados (paper cut-outs) are placed around the alter and decorate the home and village. 

 

I feel this is a special celebration to honor, for it offers thanks and remembrance to loved ones, but I always look at the holiday as a celebration of the life we have, and to give thanks for that as well.

When I talk about this holiday with the children, we have a simple conversation without discussion of afterlife or even too much focus on death, for each child has their own relationship with these ideas at home.  What we do talk about is the people we love as well as pets, and how some of these people and pets are no longer with us all the time, but we can remember them and feel happy.  The children who brought pictures for the alter placed their pictures on the alter and some talked about the people and pets.  Other children who did not have a picture shared stories of someone or a pet and placed a flower on the alter, and others just chose to put a flower by someone else's picture.  This is something I love about this little school, we embrace everyones experience, and because they are little they can share without self-consciousness and we try very hard to teach the children to respect someone when they are talking and to be understanding of everyones unique differences as individuals.

 

Placing flowers and pictures on the alter

I have a wonderful Pan de Muertes Bread recipe that the Mexican artist Frida Kahlo use to make.

Unfortunately, I was unable to start the bread the night before, so what we did instead was make our usual bread recipe, and then shaped them into skulls, added a nose and
eyes with chocolate chips, and sprinkled powdered sugar on top which with traditional Pan de Muertes is the final touch.

Although is wasn't real Pan de Muertes, it was still very tasty

 

We then made celebration Dia de los Muertes masks

 

 

 We also attempted papel picados, paper cut-outs.

This is a great project for hand eye coordination and cutting with scissors.

We worked on doing an accordian fold together by making a game of it.  "fold, crease, and flip!"  Just shouting out those three words was enough to get them having fun with it.  They then cut the sides of their paper like you would a snowflake.  This was the harder part for many of them.  With a little more practice we will be making some great snowflakes soon.

 

 

Here is a picture of the papel picados that we had hanging around the school.

For more projects on Day of the Dead and Halloween, you can view last years posts by clicking on the links below.

 

http://www.artandsoulpreschool.blogspot.com/2011/12/day-of-dead-celebration.html

 

 http://artandsoulpreschool.blogspot.com/2011/12/halloween-fun.html