Ciao!

Today Cordelia's grandmother, Mary, came to talk to us about the small town in Italy where she grew up.  She lived on a farm.  Rome was the nearest big city.  She told us that Italy is a very Catholic country- there are churches everywhere!

European Tour

We stayed in England last weekend and on Monday, Lilia's mom, Sharona, returned to talk to us about her experience at Oxford University. She told us that many parts of the Harry Potter movies were filmed in and around Oxford.  Sharona also talked to us about how, even thought they also speak English there, many words mean something different.  

On Tuesday, Max's mom, Maria, shared about her home country of Russia.  We had already learned that part of Russia is in Europe and part (more) of it is in Asia.  Her home, St. Petersburg, is in Europe.  She showed us what a large country it is and how varied the climate is.  We saw a couple of types of nesting dolls and at the end, she gave us each a copy of a 100 ruble bill as well as our own name tag with our name written in Russian!

On Thursday, we had two visitors.  Una's mom, Lara, shared information about Croatia, where she grew up.  Most if us didn't know how much coastline there is in Croatia and that there are about 1185 islands in the country!  Did you know that Dalmatians come from Croatia?  Or that the smallest town in the world (on record) is in Croatia?  The town of Hum has only 17 residents!

Later that day, Isa's mom, Hariet, talked to us about Holland.  She compared it to the size of Massachusetts. Traveling by bicycle is hugely popular over there and the cities accommodate this well.  Holland is known for its cheese production as well as its tulips.  They cover the countryside in incredibly beautiful colors.  We practiced saying Vincent Van Gogh's name properly- very tricky!  Did you know that there are more than 1000 windmills in Holland?

On Friday, Bianca's mom, Nicole, gave us information about Germany.  She brought a map with all the German states on it and showed us how Germany is bordered by many other countries as well as some coastline. We heard about some of the sports popular there including soccer (football) and race car driving.  Nicole told us about some of the foods in Germany and that there is a city called Hamburg- possibly from where we get our term "hamburger."

On Monday we will visit Italy with Cordelia's grandmother!

Happy Mis-Match Day!

Author Visit

Today we were lucky to have Kevin Kurtz visit us in the Thompson library.  He spoke about how his love of writing and his love of animals brought him to become a writer of non-fiction books.  Kevin read his book, A Day in the Deep, a beautiful rhyming book about the animals of the deepest oceans and how they adapt to survive in that habitat.

Welcome to Europe

We arrived safely in Paris, France yesterday to be greeted by Chuck, our customs agent (Una's dad).  We had a great view of the Eiffel Tower from the plane!  We have learned that Europe is the second smallest continent, but it has almost as many countries as Africa!  We heard about Vatican City, which is a country inside of a city inside of a country!  How cool is that?

This morning Zadie's dad, Declan, came to talk about the United Kingdom.  He was born in England and his mother is Irish.  He told us that there are no snakes in Ireland, even though they exist in other parts of Europe.  He also showed us some important images of England.  

It was Lilia's birthday today and we were treated to a couple of great stories (Extra Yarn, Zen Shorts) when her dad, Jeremy, and her mom, Sharona, came in to read to us.   

We ended the day with a poetry slam, of sorts.  Last week we read an assortment of poems about the falling leaves of the season.  Today the students had a choice to read one of those to the class or write one of their own.  We have some very creative poets in this class!

Cooperation in action

On Tuesday, the students got to work on their cooperation skills. Ms. Glassman, our student teacher, has presented the kids with a "healthy habits" project.  They expressed their interest in different types of projects and then, in groups, are working together to create a skit, picture book or poem.  It was nice to hear some students saying things like "I like that idea!" to their classmates.  

More information about Africa!

Today we were visited by Gael's parents, Rachel and Herman, as well as his sister Elsa, who all gave us information about several more African countries.  Elsa started by sharing about her birthplace, Ethiopia.  From Rachel and Herman we learned about Zanzibar, Madagascar, Zambia, Namibia and the Ivory Coast.  We saw some beautiful pictures of the people and animals of these countries.  Ask your child what he/she remembers of this presentation.  

Three visitors!

Today we were so lucky to have not one, not two, but three special visitors in the classroom! Both Sloane and Nina celebrated birthdays today.  Nina's mom, Sarah, read us a Chinese folktale.

Then Isa's dad, Matthew, came to talk to us about the work he does for UNICEF. He just got back from Madagascar and he showed us some pictures of the schools he visited there.  He said some children had never seen a white person before and it was very exciting for them to do so!  Matthew told us that the only true thing about the movie "Madagascar" is that lemurs exist there.  In fact, it is the only place on earth where they exist.  We also learned that many spices we enjoy and most of the world's vanilla is produced there. 

Later in the day, Eli's mom, Elizabeth, returned to show us some Nigerian clothing and jewelry. The kids got a kick out of trying things on and dancing to some African drumming!

An incredible day, all around.  Please talk to your child about these experiences they had today!

Salibonani!

.... means "hello" in Ndebele.  Today we had a visit from Leon's dad, Simon, who spoke about his experience living in Zimbabwe.  He told us how he built in-ground latrines and was a teacher to adults in a village outside of the capital city of Harare.  We got to see a photo of the moment before he dropped from the bridge attached to a bunjy cord!  Simon reminded us that Africa is a huge continent consisting of a wide variety of countries.