Week four was all about traditions in Mexico and China and how they are different from our traditions in the United States.
For China, we discussed how one of the popular holidays there is the Chinese New Year. The Chinese people celebrate with parades in the streets. They wear bright colors and listen to traditional Chinese music. The Chinese tradition that we pinpointed most was the Chinese Dragon. For Halloween the students actually made a Chinese Dragon as a class and wore it for the school parade. This week they constructed their own individual dragons using paper plates, markers, streamers. glitter, and pompoms.
When learning about Spanish traditions, we discussed how they celebrate Cinco de Mayo with street fairs. They dress in extravagant, bright colored dresses and dance around the streets listening to Mexican tunes. They eat delicious Mexican foods and use pinatas. The aspect that we focused on was maracas. The students made maracas out of paper plates. they decorated using buttons, beads, and paint. After the maracas were finished we danced and shook them around the classroom while listening to Mexican music.
I found this week learning about traditions to be successful since the children learned that not everybody celebrates our holidays (Christmas, Thanksgiving, Halloween, etc.). One more thing they can add to the list of differences among cultures around the world!
