Here is Ernie doing his best reindeer imitation when he was at his school last week…
We wanted to wish all of our little friends and their families a Happy New Year! I have had such a wonderful time with your children over the last few months. They are all so wonderful and special, and I can't thank you enough for sharing them with me this year!
I also wanted to share a few photos from our Winter Traditions Around the World activity that we did the week before break. As most of the countries we visited taught us that country's New Year's traditions, I thought it would be perfect to share today!
In addition to Kwanzaa, the children also traveled to Scotland to learn all about the Scottish New Year's tradition of Hogmanay! This involves lots of fireworks and dancing and a few new traditions as well. This includes the tradition of first-footing.
On New Year's eve in Scotland, friends and family members travel to different houses to try to be the first person to step foot into a doorway after the stroke of midnight. This brings good luck to both the first-footer and the families that live in the house. The first footer also brings different items that represent different kinds of luck that they are wishing for the inhabitants.
Here are some of our friends with their Hogmanay bags. This included coal to represent the hope for warmth in the winter months, a shortbread cookie to represent enough food for your family, a pastry known as black bun to symbolize hospitality and salt, which stood for friendship.
The children were then able to take their Hogmanay bags and a special star and travel around the school knocking on doors to practice being first-footers and wishing other classes good luck in the New Year!
We had so much fun learning about all the different winter traditions in the three first-grade classrooms! In addition to learning all about Kwanzaa and Hogmanay in our own classroom, we also learned about Japanese Chinese and Filipino New Year's in the other first grade classrooms, as well as learning about the winter solstice!
In the Philippines, people celebrate the New Year by eating 12 round fruits, each one representing a month.
In China, the children created dragon masks to represent good luck in the new year!
When learning about the winter solstice, the children created paper lanterns with new year's wishes drawn on the bags and tissue paper flames taped inside.
I unfortunately didn't get a picture of the Japanese wish balloons that the children also created, complete with written wishes inserted into the balloon, and ready to fly away! They were very excited about this activity!
All of these amazing crafts and activities should have made it home before the break in their suitcases, complete with world map and star stickers to show where we have traveled, their own personal passports and, of course, first-class tickets around the world!
Please tell everyone in your family a great big Happy New Year and Happy Hogmanay from Ernie and I!
