Kindergarteners At Wesley Learning Center Celebrate The Holidays

By Eliza Hallabeck

Wesley Learning Center kindergarten teacher Randi Rote said her favorite holiday story to share with her students comes from Ukraine. The story is one of many she shared with her students this year as part of teaching them about how the holiday season is expressed throughout the world.

Due to a snow day on December 19, the event was rescheduled, and friends and family of the students in Ms Rote’s class were invited to join them in sharing what they learned on Monday, January 5.

“The kids worked for a couple of weeks,” said Ms Rote, “preparing crafts and food from different countries.”

Some of the countries the students learned about included Sri Lanka, China, Ukraine, Germany, Sweden, and England.

The event on Monday started with the students sharing songs they had learned. Along with “Feliz Navidad” and “Jingle Bell Rock,” the students sang a song about Hanukkah that was set to the tune of “Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star.” They also sang a song about holiday lights that blink that was set the to tune of “Jingle Bells.”

After the students sang, parents were encouraged to have their children bring them around the room and share with them what they had been learning.

In preparation, the students learned about a different country each day over three weeks, according to Ms Rote. She said there is no specific order the students start to learn the countries in, but she starts with the United States for Christmas and Hanukkah first.

The holiday story from Ukraine, according to Ms Rote, was about an old woman who could not afford to make Christmas decorations for herself. As a response, spiders came out of the wall and decorated her tree. Students in Ms Rote’s class responded to this story by creating spider decorations for their tree.

“I find that if you teach them things like that they remember,” said Ms Rote.

The group as a whole gets excited about everything they learn, according to Ms Rote, but they particularly liked learning how to create holiday crackers from England. Other crafts the students worked on included making an Italian Yule log and edible dreidels.