Lakewood Child Care Center

Happy Kwanzaa! This week we took a look into the holiday of Kwanzaa. Did you know that this holiday was started in the United States in 1966? It sure did! We kicked off the week by learning some facts about Kwanzaa. Kwanzaa has seven principles which also represent the 7 candles that they light on the kinara. Kwanzaa was originally spelled with one ‘a’ at the end but another ‘a’ was added so there were 7 letters instead of 6. Kwanzaa begins on December 26th and ends January 1st which is 7 nights. From there, we discussed the other holidays that are coming up which includes Christmas and Hanukah because these two holidays start on December 25th. At group we discussed some similarities between the holidays such as each holiday you get presents and you are surrounded by the people you love. We also discussed some differences such as Christmas last one day while Kwanzaa lasts 7 days and Hanukkah lasts 8 days. With that in mind, we had a special guest Miss Jodi (a parent from the infant room) come to teach us more about Hanukkah and what her family traditions are! The children learned how to “light” the candles in the kinara as well. The colors that represent Kwanzaa are black, red and green. The black candle symbolizes the African American people which is the first candle. The red candles represent their struggle and the green candles represent their future. The black candle is the first candle lit and for each night, the individuals who celebrate uses that candle to light the others starting with a red candle and alternating between red and green which signifies each principle. With all this information on Kwanzaa, the children took time to work on some letter recognition activities as well as writing the Kwanzaa principles. The children worked on number recognition activities as well this week. At art, the children created their own m’keka mat, designed their own candle and their own unity cup which is a symbol of togetherness in Kwanzaa where everyone around takes a sip. The children also took some time to create art work for the nursing home down the street for those to enjoy during the holiday season. We also took some time to work on the letter of the week which was Nn. We came up with words that began with the letter, sang the letter Nn song and read the letter Nn book. Boy, did we have a busy week learning about Kwanzaa. With the holidays approaching…we want to wish you all a Happy Holiday and a very healthy New Year. We appreciate all that you do!