We switched gears a bit after completing 40 themes in 40 day. We embarked on a Travel Around The World In A Week and I continued to name our themes after the days of the week. A few years ago, I ordered the girls these Little Passport Kits. At first they seemed like a great idea and it was fun to get something in the mail every few weeks. I loved the idea of exposing the kids to travel and other cultures around the world. Each shipment comes with a little educational book, post cards, activities, and trinkets. My biggest complaint about the shipments was that they weren't really organized. So you end up with a bunch of random stuff in no particular order that ends up in this overflowing lunchbox they provide you. I wish it came with a scrap book or some way to keep it all to reference later. Anyways, after a while the shipments become repetitive and the girls lost interest. I tried to get them to stop the shipments but it became like the episode of Friends, The One Where Ross Tries To Quit The Gym. It took multiple call and emails to finally cancel it and it ended up costing me a significant amount of scratch. As a result, I had refused to throw out the contents but was still a bit bitter about it. Well I finally went through it all and planned a full week using some of the random passport projects and some of our own content.
1. Travel The World Tuesday- We set up our books, maps, Little Passport contents, dolls, toys, and money that we could find from around the world. We printed out several decorations for our class including clocks from around the world to note the different time zones (see link below). For our first day, the girls wrote a journal entry with the topic "if they could travel anywhere, where would you go?" Avery wanted to go to Paris to see the Eiffel Tower and New York to see the Statue of Liberty. Elise wanted to go to Germany because "it seemed fun." We also read one of my favorite childhood books "Come Over To My House" about a child that visits other children's homes around the world.
2. Wonders of The World Wednesday- You can see our stash of Little Passport Books that came in handy. There were three that were fitting for today: Natural Wonders of the World, Wonders of the World, and Oceans Of The World. We read them and did some of the remaining worksheets in the books. Since both girls are into sea life, I wasn't surprised that they were really fascinated by the Great Barrier Reef. So we tried one of the craft suggestions in the book, making your own jelly fish. It is just a styrofoam bowl colored with a maker pen. The marker took about a day to dry on styrofoam for some reason, so paint might work better. You then cut several pieces of string and tape them to the inside of the bowl. You then poke a hole in the top and string one piece of string through, tying a knot at the bottom. Finally, we glued on some eyes. Avery's school assignment this week included a virtual field trip to several wonders of the world so we enjoyed taking a trip to several destinations. Two links are below.
3. Transportation Thursday- I thought this day was going to be a reach when I was searching for a T descriptor for our themed Thursday. Somehow this day ended up being one of their favorites. They woke up and dressed in their best cruise outfits and were ready to anchor away! We started out by decorating our school door like we were embarking on a Disney cruise, the link is below. Avery then decided to make her own suitcase out of construction paper. Elise packed a suitcase and pretended to head off to a trip around the world. Elise made at least four outfit changes like she was really on a cruise. She ended the day by building a plane on the coach and they both pretended to travel to different favorite places. I know you miss going places girls. Some day we will travel again!
4. Food & Festivities Friday- We were really looking forward to today! Having both gone to a Montessori school for their early education and having so many friends from around the world, the girls have a love and interest in other cultures and holidays. To prepare for the day, I asked friends and family to post photos from some of their favorite celebrations around the world. We started off the day by reviewing some of their cool celebrations including Holi and The Coconut Festival in the Philippines that some friends had posted about in my feed. We also read a great book we have called Celebrations Around The World. We then downloaded the link below about celebrations around the world from Montessori. It was fun to read about so many different celebrations around the globe!
We found a great craft in our Passport World Celebration book from Dias de Las Muertos. In the book we also read about May Day, the 1st of May. Which was actually today, what are the odds? I remembered May Day as a kid and making flowers similar to the ones we made. I scanned in the directions on how to make them below. In addition to hoarding party supplies, I also hoard wrapping supplies and I have a ton of different colored tissue paper. All you need is tissue paper and pipe cleaners and bang you have a great way to make flowers. The girls also discovered how to make paper chains and spent some time making those from construction paper.
We could have done a lot of cool ideas for dinner but we stuck with Brezen(Oktoberfest) again. Every since our International Fair day, the girls have become obsessed with this bread.
5. School Around the World Saturday- Even though it is Saturday, I tried to fit in some of the activities we had not been able to get to over the last few days. We talked about some of the different subjects kids study around the world. We talked about how most kids learn at least two languages in school. We colored in some flags from our flag coloring book, worked on some pages in our geography book, and did some travel around the world sheets. The link to these pages is below. I wish I had discovered this earlier in the week, there are some really great handouts I will continue to use even after this week is over.
We also learned in our book about how kids celebrate different holidays in school. We came across another day cool day, Children's Day that is celebrated in Japan. We found a little activity in our book. We also discovered and it is celebrated on May 5th which is in just a few days!
6. Sports Sunday Olympics- oops not really! So I planned to host an Olympic themed day, complete with an opening ceremony and several events but Steve and I remembered it was our 17th wedding anniversary! So true to real life, the Olympics were postponed! We will post an update when we find a new date for the Jacobs Olympic Games. I wasn't sure what the girls had been up to lately. They were busy this week making paper chains and cutting up a bunch of bits of colored paper. I realized when they let us come into the toy room that they had been creating an anniversary party, complete with signs, decor and a little table for us to sit at where they served us an anniversary breakfast that consisted of water and mints. They worked really hard and I was so touched I didn't even let the OCD in my out when I saw cut up paper all over the floor!
7. Music Around the World Monday- Monday was a perfect day to honor music because they both have online piano classes every Monday. We started off by reading from our Little Passport To World Music. We made a rainstick craft from the book and I scanned the directions below. The directions were simple but I realized mid way into the project I was missing some key supplies. For starters, we have not had a roll of paper towel in the house for weeks due to the Covid 19 shortage (we have been using the cheap fold up paper towels.) Luckily. we had been collecting toilet paper rolls which ended up working out. Next, I realized we didn't have enough tin foil but somehow thick construction paper worked out. It didn't make quite the same sound but they were happy. We realized earlier in the day that it was May the 4th Be with you. So we took down our Travel the World display and set up our Star Wars display for dinner. I have a separate post on May the 4th.
8 Taco Tuesday- Cinco de Mayo! Remember how excited everyone was this year about how Cinco de Mayo was going to fall on Taco Tuesday and it was going to be the greatest party ever? Oh the irony of how it was ruined by a virus named Corona. The jokes and memes on the topic have given us a good laugh during these uncertain times.
We decided to make the best of it and have a Cinco de Mayo celebration. The girls got in the outfits we bought on our last trip to Cancun and we enjoyed some delicious Mexican food (California style Mexican food.) I know there is always a fine line between learning about another culture and cultural appropriation which I tried to navigate carefully and respectfully over the last week.
There is so much to see and learn around the world and we really enjoyed our trip. I hope we are able to see more of the world soon. Bon Voyage!
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