Friday 29 March 2013
Science presentations with Ellie! (Primary 5 and 6)
Hello everyone! First of all, I'd like to wish everyone a happy Easter holidays! I am looking forward to hearing all of your stories on Wednesday! We were working very hard before Easter on our Science presentations and speeches. Here are a selection of the fantastic group projects from 5th and 6th grade:
Unfortunately, I am having some 'technical difficulties' so I am only putting up a few of them. Expect more after the Easter break!
Easter Customs in the UK
Easter in the UK
In the UK Easter is one of the major Christian festivals of the year. It is full of customs, folklore and traditional food. However, Easter in Britain has its beginnings long before the arrival of Christianity. Many theologians believe Easter itself is named after the Anglo-Saxon goddess of the dawn and spring - Eostre.
In Britain Easter occurs at a different time each year. It is observed on the first Sunday after the first full moon following the first day of spring in the Northern Hemisphere. This means that the festival can occur on any Sunday between March 22 and April 25. Not only is Easter the end of the winter it is also the end of Lent, traditionally a time of fasting in the Christian calendar. It is therefore often a time of fun and celebration.
The Friday before Easter Sunday and the Monday after are a bank holiday in the UK. Over Easter schools in the UK close for two weeks, just enough time to digest all the chocolate.
Maundy Thursday
Maundy Thursday is the Thursday before Easter. Christians remember it as the day of the Last Supper, when Jesus washed the feet of his disciples and established the ceremony known as the Eucharist. The word Maundy" comes from the French word, "Mande," meaning "command" or "mandate” and is taken from the command given by Christ at the Last Supper, "love one another as I have loved you.”
In Britain, the Queen takes part in the Ceremony of the Royal Maundy, which dates back to Edward 1. This involves the distribution of Maundy Money to deserving senior citizens (one man and one woman for each year of the sovereign's age), usually chosen for having done service to their community. They receive ceremonial red and white purses which contain coins made especially for the occasion. The white purse contains one coin for each year of the monarch's reign. The red purse contains money in place of other gifts that used to be given to the poor.
In the 17th century, and earlier, the King or Queen would wash the feet of the selected poor people as a gesture of humility, and in remembrance of Jesus's washing the feet of the disciples. Suffice to say that doesn't happen any more, in fact the last monarch to do this was James 2.
This is how the Royal Mint explains Maundy history:
"...The Royal Maundy is an ancient ceremony which has its origin in the commandment Christ gave after washing the feet of his disciples on the day before Good Friday. The commandment, or mandatum, 'that ye love one another' (John XIII 34) is still recalled regularly by Christian churches throughout the world and the ceremony of washing the feet of the poor which was accompanied by gifts of food and clothing, can be traced back to the fourth century. It seems to have been the custom as early as the thirteenth century for members of the royal family to take part in Maundy ceremonies, to distribute money and gifts, and to recall Christ's simple act of humility by washing the feet of the poor. Henry IV began the practice of relating the number of recipients of gifts to the sovereign's age, and as it became the custom of the sovereign to perform the ceremony, the event became known as the Royal Maundy. In the eighteenth century the act of washing the feet of the poor was discontinued and in the nineteenth century money allowances were substituted for the various gifts of food and clothing. Maundy money as such started in the reign of Charles II with an undated issue of hammered coins in 1662. The coins were a fourpenny [groat], threepenny, twopenny and one penny piece but it was not until 1670 that a dated set of all four coins appeared. Prior to this, ordinary coinage was used for Maundy gifts, silver pennies alone being used by the Tudors and Stuarts for the ceremony. Today's recipients of Royal Maundy, as many elderly men and women as there are years in the sovereign's age, are chosen because of the Christian service they have given to the Church and community. At the ceremony which takes place annually on Maundy Thursday, the sovereign hands to each recipient two small leather string purses. One, a red purse, contains - in ordinary coinage - money in lieu of food and clothing; the other, a white purse, contains silver Maundy coins consisting of the same number of pence as the years of the sovereign's age. Maundy money has remained in much the same form since 1670, and the coins used for the Maundy ceremony have traditionally been struck in sterling silver save for the brief interruptions of Henry's Vlll's debasement of the coinage and the general change to 50% silver coins in 1920. The sterling silver standard (92.5%) was resumed following the Coinage Act of 1946 and in 1971, when decimalisation took place, the face values of the coins were increased from old to new pence. The effigy of The Queen on ordinary circulating coinage has undergone three changes, but Maundy coins still bear the same portrait of Her Majesty prepared by Mary Gillick for the first coins issued in the year of her coronation in 1953..."
© Royal Mint, 2007.
Good Friday
On the Friday before Easter, Christians commemorate the crucifixion of Jesus Christ. It is a day of mourning in church and special Good Friday services are held where Christians meditate on Jesus's suffering and death on the cross, and what this means for their faith.
Calling it 'Good Friday' may seem a bit bizarre, but some people think that it was once called God's Friday or Holy Friday.
Symbols of Easter
Many of the symbols and traditions of Easter are connected with renewal, birth, good luck and fertility.
The Cross
Of course as it is a Christian festival one of the main symbols is a cross, often on a hill. When Jesus was crucified, the cross became a symbol of suffering. Then with the resurrection, Christians saw it as a symbol of victory over death. In A.D. 325, Constantine issued a decree at the Council of Nicaea, that the Cross would be the official symbol of Christianity.
Palms
The week of Easter begins on Palm Sunday. Why Palm Sunday? Well, in Roman times it was customary to welcome royalty by waving palm branches, a bit like a ticker-tape parade. So, when Jesus arrived in Jerusalem on what is now known as Palm Sunday, people welcomed him with palm branches carpeting the streets and waving them. Today, on Palm Sunday, Christians carry palm branches in parades, and make them into crosses and garlands to decorate the Church.
Easter Eggs
Easter eggs are a very old tradition going to a time before Christianity. Eggs after all are a symbol of spring and new life.
Exchanging and eating Easter eggs is a popular custom in many countries. In the UK before they were replaced by chocolate Easter eggs real eggs were used, in most cases, chicken eggs. The eggs were hard-boiled and dyed in various colors and patterns. The traditionally bright colours represented spring and light. Sadly, nowadays if you gave a child in Britain a hard-boiled egg on Easter Sunday, you would probably end up wearing it!
An older more traditional game is one in which real eggs are rolled against one another or down a hill. The owner of the egg that stayed uncracked the longest won. Even today in the north of England, for example as at Preston in Lancashire, they still carry out the custom of egg rolling. Hard boiled eggs are rolled down slopes to see whose egg goes furthest. In other places another game is played. You hold an egg in the palm of the hand and bang against your opponent's egg. The loser is the one whose egg breaks first.
Nowadays people give each other Easter eggs made of chocolate, usually hollow and filled with sweets. On TV you will see adverts for Cadbury's Creme Eggs, a very sweet confectionery. The catchphrase for the adverts is "How do you eat yours?" And Britain children hunt for (chocolate) Easter eggs hidden about the home or garden by the Easter bunny.
The Easter Bunny
Rabbits, due to their fecund nature, have always been a symbol of fertility.The Easter bunny (rabbit) however may actually be an Easter hare. The hare was allegedly a companion of the ancient Moon goddess and of Eostre.
Strangely the bunny as an Easter symbol seems to have it's origins in Germany, where it was first mentioned in German writings in the 16th Century. The first edible Easter bunnies appeared in Germany during the early 1800s, they were made of pastry and sugar.
In the UK children believe that if they are good the "Easter Bunny " will leave (chocolate) eggs for them.
Sadly hare hunting (hare coursing) used to be a common pastime at Easter. But this might please some of the more fundamentalist Christians, who consider the fluffy fellow to be unchristian.
Morris Dancing
Morris dancing is a traditional English form of folk dance which is also performed in other English-speaking countries such as the USA and Australia. The roots of morris dancing seem to be very old, probably dating back to the Middle Ages.
In the dance men dress up in costumes with hats and ribbons and bells around their ankles. They dance through the streets and one man often carries an inflated pigs bladder on the end of a stick. He will run up to young women in the street and hit them over the head with the pigs bladder, this is supposed to be lucky (men)!
Dressing Up For Easter
Easter was once a traditional day for getting married, that may be why people often dress up for Easter. Women would make and wear special Easter bonnets - decorated with flowers and ribbons. Even today in Battersea in London there is a special Easter Parade, where hand-made bonnets are shown off.
Hot Cross Buns
Hot cross buns, now eaten throughout the Easter season, were first baked in England to be served on Good Friday. These small, lightly sweet yeast buns contain raisins or currants and sometimes chopped candied fruit. Before baking, a cross is slashed in the top of the bun. After baking, a confectioners' sugar icing is used to fill the cross.
An old rhyme was often sung by children awaiting their sugary treat:
"Hot cross buns,
hot cross buns,
one a penny, two a penny,
hot cross buns.
hot cross buns,
one a penny, two a penny,
hot cross buns.
If you do not like them,
give them to your sons,
one a penny, two a penny,
hot cross buns."
give them to your sons,
one a penny, two a penny,
hot cross buns."
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oODul5hgIl4
Monday 18 March 2013
Thursday 14 March 2013
Sunday 10 March 2013
Julio's mum´s Comenius experience.
Thank you Julio for sharing with us your wonderful family.
Europe is now bigger and sweater.
Part 1 (Translated by Eleanor Mcguirre, our dear, dear assistant)
MY COMENIUS EXPERIENCE
It all began with a letter home from school that mentioned a school exchange was taking place between Abencerrajes and a school in Hungary – ten children would be able to go for free! Julio thought it was crazy and that his loving parents would never consider dumping their darling little boy in a place that was so alien to him. However, we told him that it could turn out to be really interesting and stressed that the most important thing is to live life to the fullest. We wanted to sign up!
A few days later, when I was picking Julio up from the school gates at hometime, he complained about having to go to Hungary. He didn't understand that he was lucky to be so privileged to get such an opportunity. However it didn't take much for Pepa to convince me to accompany the children on the Comenius trip. There we were! We would soon be on our way and ready to go! Julio had his first ID card, his first passport, EU health card! And as my mother joined in with the revelry, Julio went from feeling like he was embarking on his own odyssey to feeling worn-out from so much protection.
Bit by bit I found out about the details: I knew that the other adults taking part in the project were an affable bunch and, as far as the Julio was concerned, he had a lot of good friends taking part but he was seperated from his usual friendship circle.
I had never had any grand travelling experience before – they were always very well-organised, family-orientated holidays in a four or five star hotel... so this trip would be a bit of a novelty.
We were advised to give gifts to our host families and while I love giving presents, without knowing what the family was like, the presents soon became impersonal Andalusian mementos. I stuffed my suitcase full of olive oil and ham (so much so that I could barely fit in my own luggage!) as well as a Spanish football team supporter's scarf and some bracelets with the Spanish flag on.
And there we were – our next stop was Madrid and the airport! We hadn even reached our destination when we had our first setback. We had joked about the possibility that someone would end up stranded in Barajas and we nearly found ourselves in that situation when Diego lost his wallet. Thankfully we were able to catch our plane to Munich. The journey on the aeroplane was fun – the kids were excited and switching seats. I am not particularly afraid of flying but the thought crossed my mind that should the plane crash, they wouldn't find our bodies in the correct seats. Some of the other passengers complained about the racket that the kids were making and asked the air stewardesses if they could changed seats which just led to more laughter.
Our in-flight meal did not live up to the children's expectations and they found the food to be somewhat inedible (an odd sausagey meatball concoction and those who dared to try it were not rewarded for their bravery). I began to wonder about the problems Julio might encounter when it came to trying other new foods – although he is a good eater, it can sometimes be hard getting him to try new things. In Munich, Pepa noticed that the children has suddenly gone very quiet whereas I noticed the cold and the rain and at once understood why the little ones were so hushed. The cold and the rain were sapping the entire group's energy, and it was especially affecting the twelve kids. I gradually regressed into a little girl myself with each new experience – I got confused and ended up in the gents' toilets! Germans are an uncompromising bunch!
We made good use of the tea and coffee self-service machine in Luftansa. It was all very civilised until I realised that Germans are also pigs and left their used cups etc on the chairs instead of putting their rubbish in the bin.
The bright lights and adverts in Munich airport destroyed my wonderful camara! All my photos were ruined! I couldn't believe that it was our first big adventure abroad and we wouldn't be able to any pictures to document it!
We got back on the aeroplane after killing time in the airport for several hours. We were almost used to taking off and landing. We had another bizarre lunch on the plane. If I didn't know any better, I'd swear the Germans were trying to turn us against Frankfurters!
When we landed in Hungary, we were a little underwhelmed by everything that we saw: the people, the outskirts of the airport, the bus that picked us up must have been 50 years old! And the hotel! Never have I been so cold in all my God-given days! I didn't get a wink of sleep all night and I couldn't understand why there was no bottom sheet on my bed. I was so disgusted that I slept fully clothed! I still have nightmares about the night that we spent there!
Breakfast brought out the best in everyone and, seeing as we are 'made in Spain', we helped ourselves to the breakfast buffet and made ourselves a mid-morning snack. We even began to exchange our first few words in English. I didn't know how to say salt so I started to shake an imaginary salt-shaker. My first few steps in English would definitely get me a Masters in mime! The little ones were kept entertained by the water dispensor and they had a right old laugh with the fizzy water! (Blue was sparkling and pink was still, if you are interested!) They changed euros at the hotel reception desk and a morning walk …..
Europe is now bigger and sweater.
Part 1 (Translated by Eleanor Mcguirre, our dear, dear assistant)
MY COMENIUS EXPERIENCE
It all began with a letter home from school that mentioned a school exchange was taking place between Abencerrajes and a school in Hungary – ten children would be able to go for free! Julio thought it was crazy and that his loving parents would never consider dumping their darling little boy in a place that was so alien to him. However, we told him that it could turn out to be really interesting and stressed that the most important thing is to live life to the fullest. We wanted to sign up!
A few days later, when I was picking Julio up from the school gates at hometime, he complained about having to go to Hungary. He didn't understand that he was lucky to be so privileged to get such an opportunity. However it didn't take much for Pepa to convince me to accompany the children on the Comenius trip. There we were! We would soon be on our way and ready to go! Julio had his first ID card, his first passport, EU health card! And as my mother joined in with the revelry, Julio went from feeling like he was embarking on his own odyssey to feeling worn-out from so much protection.
Bit by bit I found out about the details: I knew that the other adults taking part in the project were an affable bunch and, as far as the Julio was concerned, he had a lot of good friends taking part but he was seperated from his usual friendship circle.
I had never had any grand travelling experience before – they were always very well-organised, family-orientated holidays in a four or five star hotel... so this trip would be a bit of a novelty.
We were advised to give gifts to our host families and while I love giving presents, without knowing what the family was like, the presents soon became impersonal Andalusian mementos. I stuffed my suitcase full of olive oil and ham (so much so that I could barely fit in my own luggage!) as well as a Spanish football team supporter's scarf and some bracelets with the Spanish flag on.
And there we were – our next stop was Madrid and the airport! We hadn even reached our destination when we had our first setback. We had joked about the possibility that someone would end up stranded in Barajas and we nearly found ourselves in that situation when Diego lost his wallet. Thankfully we were able to catch our plane to Munich. The journey on the aeroplane was fun – the kids were excited and switching seats. I am not particularly afraid of flying but the thought crossed my mind that should the plane crash, they wouldn't find our bodies in the correct seats. Some of the other passengers complained about the racket that the kids were making and asked the air stewardesses if they could changed seats which just led to more laughter.
Our in-flight meal did not live up to the children's expectations and they found the food to be somewhat inedible (an odd sausagey meatball concoction and those who dared to try it were not rewarded for their bravery). I began to wonder about the problems Julio might encounter when it came to trying other new foods – although he is a good eater, it can sometimes be hard getting him to try new things. In Munich, Pepa noticed that the children has suddenly gone very quiet whereas I noticed the cold and the rain and at once understood why the little ones were so hushed. The cold and the rain were sapping the entire group's energy, and it was especially affecting the twelve kids. I gradually regressed into a little girl myself with each new experience – I got confused and ended up in the gents' toilets! Germans are an uncompromising bunch!
We made good use of the tea and coffee self-service machine in Luftansa. It was all very civilised until I realised that Germans are also pigs and left their used cups etc on the chairs instead of putting their rubbish in the bin.
The bright lights and adverts in Munich airport destroyed my wonderful camara! All my photos were ruined! I couldn't believe that it was our first big adventure abroad and we wouldn't be able to any pictures to document it!
We got back on the aeroplane after killing time in the airport for several hours. We were almost used to taking off and landing. We had another bizarre lunch on the plane. If I didn't know any better, I'd swear the Germans were trying to turn us against Frankfurters!
When we landed in Hungary, we were a little underwhelmed by everything that we saw: the people, the outskirts of the airport, the bus that picked us up must have been 50 years old! And the hotel! Never have I been so cold in all my God-given days! I didn't get a wink of sleep all night and I couldn't understand why there was no bottom sheet on my bed. I was so disgusted that I slept fully clothed! I still have nightmares about the night that we spent there!
Breakfast brought out the best in everyone and, seeing as we are 'made in Spain', we helped ourselves to the breakfast buffet and made ourselves a mid-morning snack. We even began to exchange our first few words in English. I didn't know how to say salt so I started to shake an imaginary salt-shaker. My first few steps in English would definitely get me a Masters in mime! The little ones were kept entertained by the water dispensor and they had a right old laugh with the fizzy water! (Blue was sparkling and pink was still, if you are interested!) They changed euros at the hotel reception desk and a morning walk …..
Lisa Gerrard - Now We Are Free - Gladiator HD
My dear Teresa , my dear students, this morning revising Teresa's video I realize I know and I love this song. It is in the soundtrack of one of the most marvellous and overwhelming movies about Hispania and Roman times never record...
Thank you Teresa you has joined all our History project topics
Romans' video.
Thank you Teresa you has joined all our History project topics
Romans' video.
Wednesday 6 March 2013
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