Friday, March 30, 2012

Continent Day

I am so ready for the weekend!  My kiddos were wild this week and forgot the rules after 143 days of school.  Anyways, I am exhausted tonight writing this blog post.  Today we had our annual Continent Day.  It is always so much fun, but exhausting.  We have to teach about all 7 continents at my school.  We decided a few years ago to have a Continent Day in which each kindergarten classroom would turn into a continent and the students would "fly" around the world to each continent.  At each continent it is up to the teacher what they want to do.  Each class spends 15 minutes in each room.  Some classrooms read a story about the continent.  Some classroom have a snack.  Some review what the students know about the continent.  Some dance. 

My classroom turns into Africa.  I had a lovely parent draw me some animals that I hang up throughout the room.  I usually ask the classroom parents to see if any of them have any African items to send in.  This year Continent Day came up so fast that I didn't ask parents.  Some years some parents have had clothing, flags, masks, and drums.  While the students come to Africa, they first review everything they know about it.  Then I show the students the continent and some of the countries in Africa.  I always point out Madagascar to them because they are familiar with it because of the movie.  Then I talk about the pyramids and Victoria Falls.  Then we watch a little bit of African dancing.  I tell the students to watch how big they dance.  Then after we watch the African dancers I have them stand up and we dance.  I show them moves and then we usually make a circle and continue dancing.  The students and I love it!  The dancing is so much fun!  So since today was Continent day, I danced for 7 classes.  From 8:45 to 10:30.  I am sure I will be sore tomorrow.  

Each Kindergarten teacher dresses up to represent their continent.  
  Ahhhh, we look so good!!

Here is a video of my class dancing.  Some years I have had the students make mask and wear the mask while dancing.

Asia.

Europe

Antarctica

South America

Australia

Africa


As you can see it was a very eventful day!  So much fun and a wonderful learning experience.  Do you do anything like this at your school?

6 comments:

  1. Those pics are great!! We do something similar for Christmas with "Holidays Around the World"

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  2. Each year in December we celebrate Christmas Around the World! Each class chooses a different country. We either do a craft, read a book, or have a snack. The kids love it! Instead of doing it in one day, each day during unit we switch classes.

    We also do something similar for Thanksgiving. We do this on one day with 15 minutes in each class.

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    1. The Christmas Around the World sounds like fun! Thanks for sharing. What do you do for Thanksgiving? The tribes?

      April

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  3. What a fun idea, I love that you all dress up:)

    Corinna
    Surfin' Through Second

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