Things I taught this week:

We’re teaching the kids about the world right now. Anything from culture, to geography, to wildlife, to the games children play. It’s fun, hard-work, and slightly absurd. This week, Europe (each week’s a different continent), I taught:

Monday The Brothers Grimm (Germany) - We watched some fairy tales on you tube and discussed them.

Tuesday Irish Castles - We looked at pictures of castles in Ireland, and talked about what castles were like (cold and dark) and discussed whether or not we’d want to live in one (consensus: yes). Then, we built Lego castles.

Wednesday The Legend of Count Dracula (Romania) - Students took a short quiz about Count Dracula. I showed them pictures of monster versions of Dracula, Vlad the Impaler, and Dracula’s (Vlad’s) Castle. Then we drew pictures of Dracula.

Thursday Aesop’s Fables (Greece) - We watched a short fable, then I explained who Aesop was, where he lived, and what a fable is. Then we watched a “Aesop and Son” (Remember, from Rocky & Bullwinkle) and talked about that. This was probably the hardest lesson.

Friday Hans Christian Andersen (Denmark) - Where he’s from, and what he wrote. For the 7 year olds I let them write short fairy tales/fables. For 6 year olds, we read Thumbelina, then filled out a worksheet about Characters and Setting. With 5 year olds, we read Thumbelina, and then I had them predict the ending. We finished it, then watched, “The Ugly Duckling”.

It seems strange/absurd to be teaching this stuff to Kindergartners. I remember learning letters, shapes, and colors. Our kids are learning about Pompeii (Karen’s lesson) and how a volcano wiped out a huge number of people. This is AP Kindergarten. And yes, the kids are understanding! In a second language!

Next week, Asia!

Love,
Cory

P.S. If you’re curious, my lesson about the U.S. was about diversity. We played, “Are they American?” There was one lively discussion in one class between three boys and how they would never be friends with someone from India… Most kids thought it was good though to be friends with everyone…