Holidays Around the World

During the first week of December, Kaitlynn was able to experience an awesome and unique experience at school. Every year, the PTA at WoodCreek plans and organizes a special event called P.A.T.H.S. (Parents and Teachers Helping Students) for each grade level. These events are like on-campus field trips, and each grade level has a different theme. The theme for the Kindergarten kids is "Holidays Around the World," where the kids are able to visit different countries, learning all about how holidays are celebrated in each.

This year the kids visited 7 countries: India, Nigeria, England, Israel, China, Poland and Mexico. Dozens of volunteers came together to decorate 7 rooms, 1 for each country, and they also organized various activities and crafts to help illustrate each country's holiday celebrations. The kids were given official passports and traveled from country to country, getting their passports stamped and learning all about each country through costumes, music, food, and fun!

Some of the awesome volunteers from Holidays Around the World.

The event was held in the campus's spare portable buildings, which was nice because we had them to ourselves for extra time to plan and decorate. When it was finally show time, the kids were super excited to begin their journey around the world.

Here they come, 210 kindergarteners ready to travel the world! Kaitlynn was so excited!

I've been so busy with various PTA activities this year that I decided to take a lesser role for this event. But I still wanted to participate and ended up on the Nigeria team. The team lead, Christy, is the Mom of Kaitlynn's classmate and she did a GREAT job of planning and representing Nigeria in our portion of the day's events.

Our Nigerian country leader, decked out in authentic dress. She looked awesome!

Kaitlynn's class listening intently to Christy, learning all about Nigeria. The brown bags are their "suitcases" which contained their passports and all of their fun country-based holiday crafts.

Kaitlynn working on her Nigerian coral beaded bracelet.

Quick pic with Mom in Nigeria.

When I asked Kaitlynn which country she enjoyed the most, she said China. They were able to witness the dragon dance with the awesome dragon costume, and they made miniature dragon crafts with little blowers in them. So cute!

One of my friends texted me this picture of Kaitlynn's class in China. I was a little caught off-guard when I noticed Kaitlynn with her arm around one of her classmates. (She has since declared that this is the boy she wants to marry, and she gets shy and giggly everytime she mentions his name. Ummmm.....)!

Kaitlynn visiting China, with her arm around her new man.

Kaitlynn and one of her best friends, Haasini.

The country next door to Nigeria was India, and I could tell that the kids were having a blast in there all day. The Indian country leaders brought enough kid-sized Indian clothes that all of the kids were able to dress up during their visit. Then they watched a little presentation and learned how to dance Bollywood style. So fun!

Kaitlynn in authentic Indian dress.

In India, the kids watched a short video to learn more about Indian holiday traditions.

My friend Nadia (Ms. Vaid, Connor's former 1st grade teacher who now teaches Kindergarten) was getting a kick out of watching Kaitlynn learn the Bollywood dance, so she took this short video to share with me. Love having teacher friends that love on my kids like this, too cute!!






After spending all day at school with 200+ kindergarteners, I was totally pooped! But what an awesome experience for the grown-ups and kids alike. Kaitlynn learned so much about the countries and holidays around the world, and I'm so thankful that she has such fun and unique learning opportunities at her school.