10 ideas to celebrate carnival with preschool children
Valuing
culture and traditions is part of an inclusive curriculum. It also can create a
range of learning opportunities and great fun for the kids. As part of a globalized
society we are all facing multi-cultural classrooms and offering spaces to
appreciate the difference and promote inclusion is a daily compromise of
preschool teachers.
I
grew up in Brazil and have a strong passion for my country heritage. When I was
working in a preschool in Dublin, we had one of my biggest memorable days in
childcare celebrating the carnival festival with the kids. It was such a great
party atmosphere among those children, they learnt and enjoyed it so much! That
is all what we want, isn’t it? Children learning while they are having fun!
I
am sharing 10 ideas of what you could do if you are looking for tips to
celebrate this festival in your classroom using the arts and drafts resources
you already have in the class; some carbon boxes and other recycle resources
and a bit of time researching about it.
1)
Carnival:
what is? You can work the carnival festival as a project in your classroom. We
spent some time studying about it: what is, which countries celebrate most and
how it looks like. You can here explore curiosities about “Schools of Samba” in
Rio de Janeiro/ BR; carnival masks of Venice/IT and giant carnival dolls of
Olinda, Pernambuco/BR. We printed a range of photos to let the children explore it
and ask the parents to bring some images they would search as well with examples of
dressing up, masks and face painting for children.
(Photo: Roteirinho Carioca)
2)
Deciding for Masks (Venice) or Giant Dolls (Olinda) or both: we ask the children to
decide their style for carnival. They should make their own masks with their
chosen models and we got together in teams to draw and painting thematic giant
dolls. We drew them in carbon boxes and made hangers for them to stand up
during the parade. While they had great fun creating it; we noticed that some
mask styles weren’t practical during the party, as they kept falling. Also, the children got very excited dancing in the parade and they didn’t want to hold
the giant dolls! So, we evaluate it as a nice strategy to study about the
differences of carnival around the world and an opportunity to create with arts
and craft (some children created their own mask without any prompt); however
they weren’t practical for the day of the party.
(Photo: Portal do Professor)
3)
Making confetti and serpentine: loads of confetti are throw out in the
party while people walk and dance in the parade on the street. Serpentine is
used to decorate clubs. We used old magazine and the children cut confetti for the
party. It was an excellent exercise for fine motor skills. Also, the children cut
out different shapes of serpentine and we hanged out in the class room. If you
need to complement the volume of confetti, a good tip is to put some recycle
paper in a shredder!
4)
Practice the dance: carnival is a party which people dance for 4
days! We had “marchinhas de carnaval” – typical carnival music playing
for many days in advance for children familiarize themselves with the music.
This was a opportunity to explore body movements, rhymes and freedom of
expression with loads of fun.
5)
Making musical instruments: you cannot have a carnival party without music!
Drums and percussion are essential for a happy carnival atmosphere! We invited
children to bring recycle resources from home to make their own musical
instruments. Cool shakers and different drums were created and decorated with
loads of creativity.
6) Learning songs: we practice some of the
traditional carnival songs! Children have great fun repeating words from other
languages and it was also an opportunity to celebrate culture diversity. “Marchinhas de carnaval” bright up the singing such as “Mamãe eu quero, mamãe eu quero, mamãe eu quero mama!”
7)
Making some snack: Brazil is a tropical country and people can
have a big variety of fresh fruits over there. A fruit salad was made for snack
with different tropical fruits. Children helped to prepare, peeling and
cutting them with no sharp knives.
(Photo: Melissa Bonotto)
8)
Preparing drinks: we took the chance to explain how is important
to drink plenty of water to keep hydrated in a hot weather. We also made fresh
juice!
9)
Preparing dressing up or face painting or both: most children adore
dressing up and having their face painted! They were very excited choosing which
dressing up to wear and their face painted in case they were having one. That
was a great moment for imagination and creativity.
10)
Having a parade: carnival is famous for having groups of people (“blocos
de carnaval”) dancing on the street following the crowd and the music. So,
we did! Children dressed up, faces painted, plenty confetti to throw away,
masks, giant dolls, musical instruments and off we went around the others rooms in the creche spreading happiness! The best part was when we went around in the
garden and have many of other kids joining us in the parade!
Loads of children smile faces and in the next day parents very content telling us all
about how much the children have enjoyed it. It was hard work to get all done
but we worked it as a project for a few weeks. Most important, we followed
children interest. We listened to how they wanted to do it (planning) and what
they wanted to get involved in. Some children didn’t want to do the masks and the
giant dolls and others didn’t want to do the confetti. And that was ok! Having
a variety of activities gives space for children to be involved in what they
most enjoy! Musical instruments were kept in the music corner and the parade together with the final dancing were the biggest hit! It also gave us plenty of chance to
develop social skills and to do some team work.
I hope you can have some of these activities with your children and
have a bit of fun through learning as we did! Enjoy the party!
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