Pre-KG 2023/ 24 Blog 10
Halloween, Rübengeister und Herbstbasteleien
Diese Woche haben wir in der Schule Halloween gefeiert!
Aber was ist denn eigentlich Halloween ?
This week we were celebrating Halloween at school ! But what actually is Halloween ?
If you read my blogs, you might have realized that I love to read and learn about all kind of subjects and I am always trying to expand my knowledge, also to pass it on to the Pre-Kindergarten children.
So when Halloween, which was not celebrated during my childhood in Germany, became popular while I was living in Japan, I got curious what it was all about.
Quote : “Halloween, contraction of All Hallows’ Eve, a holiday observed on October 31, the evening before All Saints’ (or All Hallows’) Day. The celebration marks the day before the Western Christian feast of All Saints and initiates the season of Allhallowtide, which lasts three days and concludes with All Souls’ Day. In much of Europe and most of North America, observance of Halloween is largely nonreligious.”
For references in English I sometimes look at Wikipedia or Britannica etc., so here is one of the links to the Halloween explanations which is very interesting.
Another interesting fact is that in the south of Germany we used to carve Rübengeister from Zuckerrüben (sugar beets), which look very similar to Jack-o-lanterns.
Please find the story here, it is only in German though.
So on Monday the Pre-Kindergarten children started the Halloween celebration by colouring their own Cat candy bags made out of recycled McDonald paper bags. Secret trick: If you flip a McDo paper bag, you will get some cute cat ears right away.!
The finished bags were quite a hit with the children!
They proudly used them on Tuesday to walk around the school to get some sweet treats and a healthy one in form of a mandarine at Mr.Inman’s office.
The children all had come in their favourite costume and had a good time visiting different classrooms, friends and teachers.
As autumn provides plentiful harvest in nature, the Pre-Kindergarten class went on a treasure hunt twice this week and the children collected buckets full of shiny brown acorns, twigs and leaves.
In the classroom, they then honed their math skills by counting the acorns and used other STEM skills by engineering paper tube tunnels and by checking gravity on roller coasters and throwing the acorns into the air from small bowls.
The happy and concentrated faces of the children speak volumes about how interesting and enjoyable these activities were.
Please repeat them at home, all you need are some free acorns, free paper rolls and bowls you already own.
With all the beautiful acorns and other nature treasures on hand, we decided to use them to decorate some autumn mandalas. The mandala featuring shapes of cute hedgehogs, acorns, apples and pears was uploaded in my blog three weeks ago and we used the same print. Using the bright autumn colour orange, the children very much enjoyed painting with a big shaving brush and we let the Mandala dry for a day.
On Friday then the Pre-Kindergarten children each chose what they wanted to put on their piece of art and Mrs.Anita helped gluing the parts. As some of our friends were absent and we have not quite finished, please let yourselves be surprised next week with the results.
Diese Woche war wirklich eine tolle Woche mit vielen verschiedenen Herbstfreuden - von Halloween über Naturschätze sammeln bis zum eigenen Herbst Mandala Basteln war alles dabei.
Halloween zu feiern ist ja eine neuere Erscheinung, aber Rübengeister schnitzen kenne ich noch aus meiner Kindheit und auch die Freude mit Eicheln, Kastanien, Blättern und Zweigen zu basteln.
Während der Woche haben wir auch immer wieder die schönen deutschen Herbstlieder gehört, ich schicke sie hiermit nochmals als LInk.
Wishing you a wonderful autumn weekend in the warm, sunny weather !
Sincerely,
Anita Ursula Mönch
DSKI Pre-Kindergarten homeroom teacher
Playgroup / EY German
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