America! Native American necklaces!

 

Next up, simple native American necklaces!

I found some pendants to colour (on the crayola website), which the kids took great care to do perfectly! And, then we dyed pasta in order to make our 'beads'. Threading the beads was another activity the kids loved, so this project was a winner all round!
  Add all the beads together with the pendant....Da~ Daa~

America!!! Dreamcactchers!!!

  

 This was a simple activity that really took off. The kids loved the idea of making their own dreamcatchers after watching this story (it didn't matter that it was in French)

It was relatively easy for my class (4-6 years) to complete this by themselves, although for the star, some needed help, others wanted to just do it themselves and in other case, I guided their work. it was a lot of fun!!

 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U79mP52Qf6Q

MeXico~! Aztec beads

My class simply LOVE necklaces (boys too!), beads and anything they can make themselves to decorate themselves!

I stocked up on hama beads (the ironable, plastic beads that kids often use to make shapes with. We have them at the 'dollar store' / 100 yen store here.

Inspired by Aztec patterns, we set about trying our hand at our own designs.

 (There are some great ideas out there, but we wanted to keep it simple, but enjoyable enough for everyone. Playing with beads provides more entertainment for a 4 year old than using sharpies on a plate, although Aztec designs on a plate sounds like FUN!! Next time!)

The temptation was there to make the entire shape, but the class knew that we were making small beads so they stuck to the plan!

It was a great lesson in patterns and shapes, but more importantly, it was colourful and fun! Everyone was super happy with their new necklaces!!

INDiA ~ Ganesh!

Inspired by this great book....http://www.penguin.com/book/the-little-book-of-hindu-deities-by-sanjay-patel/9780452287754

The class were able to take a step towards Indian mythology without really having to learn too much at once.

Some of the short movies on youtube scared them as they are still a little young but the pictures in this book they simply couldn't get enough of!

Ganesh is easily a character for young children to relate to - he's an elephant after all! Why he is so, my class don't really care, but they like that he has lots of arms!

So, the task? Let's make a elephant head and see if we can dress up for an awesome finale at the end of the month wearing Indian Saris too!

 The final product!
It was so much fun and we even decoratedna framed print out of the main picture for a momento!

Africa...Beads!!

Using our great salt dough recipe (remember the topology map of Africa?!) We made our own beads!!

Given that the kids had already done the mixing for the map, I prepared the dough so they were ready to make the beads.

They got the hang of it pretty quickly and were careful too with the stick to make the hole.

Student's effort!

Teacher's effort as an example...

Student's effort!

Teacher's effort as an example...

 We painted them with acrylic paint and also acrylic paint pens for the designs. It got really messy, but that's part of the process! I varnished them too for a shiny 'keep-forever' style. A few however broke shortly after...!

Student's effort!

Student's effort!

Student's effort!

Finished result!

They LOVED this project so much and wore their beads around school all week!

Finished result!