Entry 2

Guten Tag, family! 

Over the past few weeks, the entire first grade has been traveling around the world.  This traveling unit was put together to help students learn and become more familiar with different cultures and traditions practiced in other countries.  So far we have visited China, Germany, and Mexico.  Our next destination is Japan!  Each student has made their own suitcase and they travel in and out of the United States with their passports.  The passports have each student’s picture on the front, and inside of the passports are stamps that the students have been collecting from each country.  While at the destination, students participate in activities that allow them to see what kinds of food, clothing, and even leisure activities are popular in that particular country.  Students observe the differences and similarities in each countries flag, and showcase their suitcases with the collection of flags.  My favorite part of this experience so far is observing how excited students get when they are traveling.  Many students have never been on an airplane and enjoy opening their imagination to a world that they wish to see one day. 

This past week when we were visiting China, I was in charge of the painting station where students painted the Mandarin Chinese numbers from 1-10.  Many students were beside themselves when they saw how different the Chinese numbers were compared to our numbers.  Participating in this travel unit has opened up my eyes to many avenues as a pre-service teacher.  As I observe how beneficial this experience has been for my first graders, I could definitely see myself using this unit again in my future classroom.

Hope everyone is doing well!! Miss and love you all!