The preschool in Varberg builds its own hot air balloons to discover different countries and cultures with the children. All inspired by the wonderful book Farmors hattar (Grandma's Hats), where Grandma tells about all her travels around the world.
How did the project start?
– When we work with identity and culture at preschool, we usually start from a book, this time we chose Grandma's Hats. When we worked with identity, we started with the self. We talked about differences and whether you can recognize a friend just by looking at their eyes or mouth.
Then we made puzzles of ourselves and put together new people by mixing the children's face pieces. It was a fun task with lots of laughs!
The first balloon flight took place Sápmi
– Culture is not easy to learn practically, but easier to understand through play, so we decided to visit different cultures using hot air balloons.
Before the first trip, the children got to paint their favorite balloons. In parallel with the trip, we made models of the balloons, which the children had to cover with wallpaper paste and newspaper, and then paint the balloons according to the sketch they made first. We made the baskets from milk cartons and colored paper.
In connection with the Sami National Day, we landed in Sápmi, which was the first trip! The trip was made with the help of Youtube and drone footage.
We looked at what the preschools look like in Sápmi , what food they eat, if they have a special hat and a funny dance. The children recognized the hat from the book Grandma's Hats.
The second trip was to China.
– The next trip was to China, where we floated over the Great Wall. We had fixed up an old suitcase with different hats (much like the chest with hats in the book). The children love trying on different hats and scarves, which also became a fun element of the game.
We have also visited France, South Africa and now we are going to Brazil and the rainforest.
The children had to build their families out of sticks
– Before the first trip, there was a lot of anxiety from the children. They were afraid of heights and didn't want to leave their families at home. Then we decided that the families would be allowed to come along in their own balloons.
After a morning in the forest, where we collected sticks of the right length, we started making our families. Almost everyone got a hat or cap, hair and eyes.
To conclude our project, we plan to make something from each place we visited:
We 'll bring chopsticks, taste the recipe from Grandma's Hats (chocolate balls), eat a baguette and dance a little, but we haven't finished our journey yet. Hopefully we'll make it to every continent before we're done!
Tips from Eva!
Think about where you want to go and research movies and facts beforehand. Balloons are a great fun project that will be something fun to take home!
Thank you so much Eva for letting us share your fun and creative idea! Now we hope that more preschools will be inspired!💜
Here you will find the book Grandma's Hats!
