Christmas Around the World Presents for Our Class Tree

Students had to pick a country and create a present to put under our class tree that displays how that country celebrates Christmas.







What was some things you learned about how other cultures celebrate Christmas? How is this different from your culture? Explain.

Flat Eye from Thailand

THIS WAS SENT FROM A STUDENT IN THAILAND.















Below are the letters the students wrote back to Flay Eye as well as pictures that were sent!

Flat Stanley from Australia

The students had to read information sent by a student from Australia and create a Venn Diagram comparing their life in the United States to the life of a child in Australia. The Venn Diagrams are below but not all students work is posted. Come into our class to view the others! Please click on the comments to view the actually information sent by a student from Australia.

Comparing and contrasting

Compare and contrast how Christmas is celebrated in China and In France? Do you notice things that are different or similar?

Where would you like to celebrate Christmas?

After learning about other cultures and how they celebrate Christmas the students were asked where they would like to cerebrate Christmas and why? Here are their responses.

LOOK WHAT ARRIVED AT CAMDEN MIDDLE TODAY!!!

HERE IS A FLAT STANLEY FROM CALIFORNIA!!!!!!


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HERE IS OUR VERY OWN RESPONSE FROM OUR OWN CRYSTAL

Flat Stanley from Canada

Terrace, British Columbia, Canada

10 years old

I speak and write English (but this year we have started to learn French in school)

We go to school 5 days a week and learn Reading, Spelling, Writing, Math, Social Studies, Science, Art, Music, French and Gym

I wear jeans, running shoes, hoodies, t-shirts, scarves

We have lots of rainy weather all during the year. We get snow during the winter and we have fabulous skiing up in the mountains around Terrace. In the summer it is sunny and warm.... 25 - 30 degrees Celsius (not Fahrenheit!)

Our town has about 18, 000 people. It's in the Skeena River valley and there are lots of mountains and trees all around Terrace. Because there are forests close by, we often see bears, fox, deer and moose walking down some streets on the outskirts of town.

We have restaurants, stores, malls, etc. downtown. We have McDonalds, KFC, Pizza Hut, Boston Pizza, Dairy Queen, A & W.

I get around by walking, riding my bike, my parents drive me and I take the school bus to school.

I eat all kinds of food.... Chinese food, spaghetti, lasagna, salmon, hamburgers, pizza, chicken, ribs. Our school has a salad bar and we have a garden that grows lots of vegetables.

We have a college (Northwest Community College) and we have a satellite campus of UNBC (University of Northern British Columbia)

Some of the kids live in trailers, others live in houses. Our houses have pitched roofs because of the snow that collects on them. They are made out of wood and lots of them have wooden siding on them.

Flat Stanley from Merida

Where are you from? __We live in Merida, but my students are from all over Mexico, a few have lived in other countries. I am from Virginia (US).___________________________________



How old are you? ­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­My students are in the 9th grade, so most are about 14 years old. The school has preschool ages up to 9th grade.



What language or languages do you speak? One student speaks French, we speak Spanish and English (the school is bilingual) and SOME people speak Mayan. As far as I know, none of my students speak Maya, but it is common in Merida.

What language or languages do you write in? Just Spanish and English

Describe your schooling. IMA is a private, bilingual school in the city. The students have half the day in Spanish and the other part in English (same classes, different language).



What kind of clothing do you wear? Our students wear uniforms. I will try to send a picture. It is usually hot here, but we are in the cooler part of the year now. For me, it`s usually hot.....I used to be in the snow in Virginia.



Describe your climate. hot and wet or hot and dry....sometimes it can get cool



Describe your town, city, or village. Merida is the capital city of Yucatan. Seye, where I live, is a Mayan village. From what I have observed (as a foreigner), the city is filthy, but it is called the "white city". People are not very well educated and there is a lot of poverty, especially in the villages. Alcohol abuse is also a problem. There are many pretty culturally significant things to see in Merida. The ruins are close by. You can visit cenotes as well. Again, I will email pictures!



Do you have supermarkets? We have Sam's and Wal-Mart...



Do you have fast food chains? I have seen KFC, Burger King and McDonald's



How do you get around? bus/walk....people use bikes, motorcycles, tricitaxis, cars, etc.



What kind of food do you eat? I eat a lot of sandwiches! Common foods here are salbutes, tamales, panuchos, tres leches cake (wonderful!), piib, puchero, etc. Food is spicy (for me, at least). Chile peppers, onions, etc. add flavor.



Do you have colleges where you are from? There are several colleges in Merida.



Would you like to share cool words with us? mak a chi (Maya for be quiet), pek (dog), mis (cat), koolen (sit down)



What do homes look like by you? Most are made of rock and concrete. No wood is normally used. Houses have to resist hurricanes, so that is why so much concrete is used.



How do you get to school? I use the bus to get from the village to the city, then I take a city bus from downtown to the school.



Any additional information. We will email pictures!

Flat Stanley from Slovakia

Hi:
We live in the SLOVAK REPUBLIC, it is a country in the heart of Europe. We were part of Czechoslovakia until 1993 when both governments decided to split apart in what was called the Velvet Divorce.

Slovakia is about the size of Connecticut and has a population of 5.4 million people.
The capital city is Bratislava along the Danube River only about 40 miles from Vienna!

The second biggest city is Kosice (prounounced ko-she-say). It is also along a river, but much smaller Hornad River.

We have many beautiful old buildings. For example St Elizabeth's Cathedral with a beautiful gilded spire, the State Theater which is a beautiful opera house with three tiers of box seats, and the Museum which is being restored this year.
We have skiing and hiking in the High Tatras Mountains which form our northern border with Poland. We have many caves also, and many hot springs for relaxing.
USSTEEL has a very large company here

We speak Slovak, Polish, German, Russian and English. American styles and music is very popular here. PizzaHut and McDonalds have restaurants here. The supermarkets look a lot like supermakets in the US.

Dee Wright in Slovakia

Flat Stanley from Brazil

Where are you from? We are from Brazil .

How old are you? ­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­We’re about 11 years old.

What language or languages do you speak?We speak Portuguese, but we’re on the border of Paraguay and Argentina so some of us speak or understand Spanish too.

What language or languages do you write in? We’re write in Portuguese because it’s our first language.

Describe your schooling. It’s a kind of big school. There are about 600 students from 5° to 3rd year of high school.

What kind of clothing do you wear?At school we use the uniform(a white t-shirt and blue pants).In the summer we wear light clothes because our city is very hot, during the winter we have to wear heavy clothes because it’s very cold, almost freezing we reach 0° C easily but in the summer the temperature is more than 45°C . It’s a crazy weather.

Describe your climate.It’s crazy as we said. It’s temperate but because we have a lake and the city is below the sea level the weather is always hot. Our winter is short but very intense.

Describe your town, city, or village.Foz do Iguaçu is a small city in the south western of Paraná, there are over than 300.000 people from different etnies like Arabic, Lebanese, Chinese, Japanese and people from all over Brazil too. It’s famous for the Iguaçu Falls, one of the 7th Natural Wonder, Itaipu Dam the biggest dam in energy production, there is the Bird Park, a place where you can see birds like flamingos, macaws, parrots, ostriches and others in there you go into the cages where the birds live and be in contact with them. Eco Museum is another place to go to it tells of the human evolution an the animals that were rescued from the flood caused by the river changing during the dam construction.

Do you have supermarkets?Sure there lots of them, we also have Wal-mart here.

Do you have fast food chains?Sure, here we can eat at MacDonald’s or at Subway downtown or at Bob’s Burgers at the mall.

How do you get around?By car , bus or taxi if you got the money that is.

What kind of food do you eat?We eat everything. But feijoada is one of the brazilian tradition dish. In Foz a kind of Fish is the city food , barbecue is also eaten here and seafood at the beaches.

Do you have colleges where you are from?Sure. We also some from Argentiona and Paraguay .

Would you like to share cool words with us?yes. Caramba(something really good or if you are disappointed you can use it too, said in a low and sad voice.

What do homes look like by you?Our houses are like yours.

How do you get to school? By car , bus or walking some students who live nearby come by bike too.

Any additional information.

We’re about to finish our school year. We start studying in early February, there is 2-week break in July, we back in late July and end in early December.

We have vacation from December to January and start school again after the Carnival a party that you have probably seen on tv.

Letter from teacher in South Korea

Dear Ms. Regler’s Class:

My name is Jean Bales and I am an American, teaching in S. Korea. While my students have sent back your questionaire, I just wanted to add a bit more information for you.

The people here are just like people that you find all over the world --- even your own neighborhood. Most are really nice, some, not so much. You know how we nod to each other and say “What’s up?” Well, here, everyone bows and says, “Anyo – ah- sayo,” and the students call each other “elder brother, elder sister, younger brother, younger sister,” according to however old they are. All disputes are settled with “rock, paper, scissors.” You know that game? Yes! In my classes, when I ask who will read first, or talk first……. They go to “rock, paper, scissors…….” And no one disputes the outcomes……… What a world would we live in, if everyone did that?? Could be great, don’t you think??

Students from age 6 to 14, go to school about the same hours that you all do, but there’s 1 BIG difference!! After school, they go to private schools, called “academies” or “hagwons,” trying to learn as much as possible…….. some academies, like the one that I work at, focus on English or other single subjects. Others focus on multiple subjects. It isn’t unusual for a 10 –12 year old student to go to 3 or 4 academies in one evening, after their regular school day. So, they often don’t get home until 9 or 10 p.m. Also, they go to their regular school 6 days a week, every other week, as well as academies on Saturdays and Sundays.

That’s pretty amazing, isn’t it? And, yes, they have homework to do, just like you………. It’s just that they have to do it AFTER all the hagwons…… As for the high school students: well, I have to tell you that they go to school at 8:00 a.m. and stay there until 10:00 p.m. Not as many of them go to hagwons in the evenings, but some do. And almost all of them do, on the weekends…….

Does that make you tired, just to hear about it?? Sometimes, it does me!! These kids are amazing……….

Most Koreans, especially people your age, are very interested in America and Americans……… They work hard at learning English, but have a hard time speaking it, because so few people in this country do….

I hope that you all will find the time to look up S. Korea on the internet, and see how beautiful their land and their culture is….. Their history is 5,000 years old!! Thank you so much for sharing your world, and your flat Stanleys with my students…….

Peace,

Jean B

How to Preserve a Dead Body

After reading how ancient Egyptians mummified bodies, what sparked your interest and why? Explain







Each group had a different task surrounding this reading. One group had to create a problem/solution chart, another group had to create a How to Preserve a Dead Body instruction key with sequencing words, another group had to answer an open ended, and the last group had to do a cause/effect chart on this story.

Africa

The Nile is the largest river in the world.





If you could live in Africa, would you? Why or why not? Explain using details from what you learned. Was there anything you found interesting about Africa?

Australia

We learned that Australia was originally a prison island but then they cultivated the island into their own culture. In your own opinion, why did they bring all the prisoners to Australia? Do you agree or disagree with this decision? Make sure you use facts and details from what you learned? Explain.