“Hold onto your passports! We’re coming in for a landing!”
Peeking into the Kindergarten classroom at Grace Preschool, you may think you’ve just stepped into an airport in Costa Rica. Students are seated with their passports in hand, “flying” into the “airport” with shouts of, “I see a volcano over there!” and “I can’t wait to see the butterflies!”
Upon learning that a classmate would be traveling to Costa Rica with her family this month, teachers Heather Athey and Andrea McClain decided to jump on the opportunity to make it a learning experience- not only for the traveling child, but for the entire class.
As their classmate is learning about the new culture in Costa Rica, she is able to facetime with her class to share what she’s seeing, and learning, and is able to show her friends in real time. In turn, her teachers are able to create experiences for the rest of the class at home that help extend these conversations and make learning come alive, back here at home.
Each child is keeping a journal, complete with a map of the country, a picture of the flag, and pictures of what they’ve learned each day. Students read books with classmates and teachers that further explain all of the things their classmate shares. They’ve been able to brew coffee in a traditional Costa Rican coffee maker, make Costa Rican flags, play with Costa Rican household items and money at recess, bake empanadas, and cook and sample Gallo Pinto.
Students have also learned more about the blue morpho butterflies that live in Costa Rica, and created replicas to decorate their classroom. They also learned more about Costa Rican ox carts, and they created 3D replicas that can really move!
Most exciting of all, students learned about the volcanoes in Costa Rica. They were able to activate a model volcano and watch it erupt! (You can imagine the squeals of delight coming from the class!)
Once their classmate returns, the students in Ms. Athey and Ms. McClain’s Kindergarten class plan to “travel” on to Mexico, where they’ll discover a whole new culture (and collect stamps in their passports). It’s pretty exciting to be world travelers before you’ve made it to first grade!
