Always loving. Always learning.

Cinco de Mayo and Mother's Day

All in the Same Week

We had lots of fun learning about Mexico and it's culture

and celebrating our Mommies!

Here's all we did, in just one school week!

Designed Festive Sombreros

We used paper plates, paper cups, and pom-poms,

to make these festive Mexican-style hats.

We had noticed, while reading a book about Mexico, that men in Mariachi bands would wear big-brimmed hats called "Sombreros". At circle, we discussed the location of Mexico on the Earth. We were able to see that Mexico is pretty close to the Equator, and big- brimmed hats are necessary in such a hot climate, to provide shade and protect the skin.

Now... I am not sure how much protection from the sun our homemade sombreros would give us… but they sure are the cutest little hats I ever did see!

Aren't these best buddies just precious!?

On the 5th day of May (Cinco de Mayo), this little girl wore a dress her grandparents brought back from Mexico. It looked a lot like the "flamenco dancer" dresses we had been reading about and we loved that it was made with the colors of the flag of Mexico!

Speaking of...

We Colored the Flag of Mexico

Using ink pads and our fingertips!

We were happy to show off our Cinco de Mayo crafts after a themed learning circle!

Also at group time this week, we learned how to say more vocabulary words in Spanish and Ms. Lisa and I described some our experiences from our family vacations in Mexico. The children were very eager to hear our tales and very attentive to a short video we watched about rural Mexico- which followed a young girl through a typical day in her life. I was impressed by how much the children recalled of the documentary when I asked questions at the end. They had even noticed things that I hadn't! What observant children!

Ate Foods From Mexico

People of Mexico have a distinct food culture. For morning snack at the beginning of the week, we learned about, and enjoyed, a few signature foods people in Mexico eat.

On day 1, we dipped tortilla chips in guacamole, sour cream, and salsa,

which were arranged in the order of the Mexican flag!

Day 2 we nibbled on sweet green and red pepper, with cream dip.

Also prepared to look like the flag of Mexico!

And on Day 3, we had a "burrito bar",

where the kids fixed their own burritos for morning snack.

There were tortillas to fill with rice and black beans,

as well as a variety of toppings like salsa, cheese, cilantro, guacamole, and mango.

All traditional Mexican ingredients!

And Had Homemade Piñata Play

This homemade piñata was super easy to make and was a fun closing activity to the unit on Mexico! All I did to make it was tape strips of tissue paper to a brown paper shopping bag. The bag had handles on it, which made it simple to hang from the ceiling!

The children were arranged from shortest to tallest, to set the order.

And each child took a turn hitting the piñata with a yard stick.

We went through the group for 2 whole rotations before I provided a little help by ripping the bottom of the bag a tad (turns out a paper grocery bag is pretty sturdy!). By the end of the 3rd rotation, the children had added to the hole at the bottom, and prizes and stickers were falling to the ground.

The children just love whacking a piñata! They do a tremendous job cheering each other on, and this time, they practiced counting in Spanish for every attempt a classmate made!

Because of these Mexico-themed activities,

we had a great 5th, 6th, and 7th day of May!

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Morning With Our Mother's

May 9, 2014

All week, while celebrating Mexico, we were also preparing for a Mother's Day celebration in our classroom. Needless to say it was a very busy week! On Friday before Mother's Day weekend, we invited our mommies in for refreshments and quality time together.

It looked as though everyone enjoyed themselves and I hope the mom's felt special and appreciated, for that was the children's intent for this day!

Here are some snapshots of special moments with the

Moms of iMontessori School's Primary Class:

Refreshments With Mom

"Muffins for Mom", of course!

Alongside fruit, cheese & crackers, and fresh-squeezed orange pineapple spritzers.