>Happy Three Kings Day!
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Today is Three Kings Day or El Dia De Los Reyes, as it’s known in Latin America. It is the 12th day of Christmas, when, legend has it, the three kings finally arrived to visit baby Jesus.
In addition to teaching Punky Kindergarten Math and Phonics, I also try to work in a theme every few days, like “Winter” or “Hummingbirds” or whatever it is Punky has been talking about lately. Three Kings Day was the perfect theme to work in a little social studies lesson about Spanish speaking countries. I also liked that it gave me, I mean, US, something to look forward to after Christmas (we’ll be celebrating Chinese New Year, too, in case you wondered).
Anyway, our first-ever Three Kings Day celebration was so much fun, I think we just might have to make it an annual tradition.
The night before, we gathered some grass for the three kings’ camels and left it out for them to eat. As you can see, by morning, most of it was gone!
The kids also left out their shoes for the three kings to fill with gifts. Miracle of miracles, the next morning they were filled! (I spent under ten dollars on this part, by the way. We have quite enough Christmas presents to last us for a while, thankyouverymuch.)
We also read a few books in preparation for the big day. “Three Kings Day” was a little too advanced for Punky, but it really helped me understand how to properly celebrate the holiday. “Hurray for Three Kings Day,” on the other hand, was perfect for the preschool- 1st Grade set.
As part of the celebration, Punky and I made a King Cake together.
Hm. I like to think of it as “rustic.”
After dinner, we all wore crowns and prepared to eat the cake. There was high excitement, because the person who found the baby hidden in the cake would have good luck all year long!
Guess who found the baby?
This post originally appeared on Parents.com.
