What a great school trip!  Thanks to Miss Dogery, Miss Ida and Mr. Andrew for planning this wonderful trip.  In preparation, all the classes read A Christmas Carol.  Our students will do a character analysis, a sequential order, and a story mapping of the story.  Discussions will include the cause and effect that the spectres had on Scrooge’s outlook on Christmas. 

Here are some websites that you can connect with the book and the movie. 

StoryNory

Holidays

Congrats to Miss Gunderson’s Class, Miss Dickerson’s Class, and Miss Dogery’s Class!  Great job collecting pennies….  You are all philanthropists!!!

Bring on the Round Table… Team Donation Nation…..

http://lakelandschools.org/EDTECH/China/chinahunt.htm

 http://www.einaudi.cornell.edu/curriculum/monkey/geographic/index.asp?grade=3

Compare and Contrast Countries

Home Page for ABC’s of China

 http://www.owen.k12.ky.us/trt/scavengers/china.doc

http://www.users.globalnet.co.uk/~jobmtkk/funfacts/china.html

http://www.kiku.com/electric_samurai/virtual_china/index.html

Class X01 is celebrating the December holidays by exploring different customs in the country of Italy.  The legend of the Befana has had an important role in the imagination of all children of the world.  Those who wish to relive the magic of the first wonders of infancy and understand the meaning and origins of this extraordinary figure, should be prepared to undertake a long voyage that will carry them back in time, to the origins of human’s history. We’ll discover what makes this personage so mysterious and arcane, because this little old lady so dear to children has continued to fascinate them for centuries, and they still await her arrival on the night of her holiday.

ceppo: The ceppo is a wooden frame several feet high designed in a pyramid shape. This frame supports several tiers of shelves, often with a manger scene on the bottom followed by small gifts of fruit, candy, and presents on the shelves above. The “Tree of Light,” as it is also know, is entirely decorated with colored paper, gilt pinecones, and miniature colored pennants. Small candles are fastened to the tapering sides and a star or small doll is hung at the apex.

Christmas in Italy

The Christmas season in Italy goes for three weeks, starting 8 days before Christmas known as the Novena. During this period, children go from house to house reciting Christmas poems and singing.In some parts shepherds bring musical instruments into the villages, play and sing Christmas songs.     

In the week before Christmas children go from house to house dressed as shepherds, playing pipes, singing and reciting Christmas poems. They are given money to buy presents.

A strict feast is observed for 24 hours before Christmas Eve, and is followed by a celebration meal, in which a light Milanese cake called panettonefeatures as well as chocolate.

Presents and empty boxes, are drawn from the Urn of Fate - lucky dip, which always contains one gift per person. By twilight, candles are lighted around the family crib known as the Presepio, prayers are said, and children recite poems.

At noon on Christmas Day the pope gives his blessing to crowds gathered in the huge Vatican square.

In Italy the children wait until Epiphany, January 6, for their presents. According to tradition, the presents are delivered by a kind ugly witch calledBefana on a broomstick. It was said that she was told by the three kings that the baby Jesus was born, she was busy and delayed visiting the baby.

She missed the Star lost her way and has been flying around ever since, leaving presents at every house with children in case he is there. She slides down chimneys, and fills stockings and shoes with good things for good children and it is said leaves coal for children who are not so good.

Schedule

 http://www.the-north-pole.com/around/

$711,394.58

Nationwide students in 807 schools gathered $711,394.58 in pennies during the 06/07 school year.

A Pretty Penny

The most valuable pennies known to exist were minted in 1793, and the only four known to exist today are worth $275,000 each.

Award winner!

Common Cents won the NY1 New Yorker of the year award for 2007.
» learn more

Child Philanthropy

The Penny Harvest is the largest child philanthropy program in the United States

Copper?

Pennies made from 1793 to 1837 were pure copper. Today the alloy is 97.5% zinc and only 2.5% copper.

Faces on coins

In 1909, President Lincoln appeared on a one-cent coin and became the first real person—as well as the first American president—to have his face appear on a regular-issue American coin.

Facing right

Why does the portrait of Abraham Lincoln face to the right when all of the other presidents’ portraits face to the left? Lincoln faces right not because of a law, but simply because Lincoln happened to face right in the image Brenner used to design the coin.

More pennies

There are more one-cent coins produced than any other denomination

Penny Designs

There have been 11 different designs featured on the penny.

Students’ Self-worth

100% of teachers surveyed this year agreed that participation in the Penny Harvest increases students’ self-worth as well as increasing students’ empathy for the needs of others.

Then and now

The image on the first cent was of a lady with flowing hair, who symbolized liberty. The coin was larger and made of pure copper, while today’s smaller penny is made of copper and zinc.

What’s in a name?

The proper term for a once cent coin is “one cent piece,” but in common usage this coin is often referred to as a penny or cent. Many times, even the Treasury Department and the United States Mint use the term penny because that is what is normally referred to in general use by the public.

http://www.nwtf.org/conservation/bulletins/bulletin_14.pdf

 Turkey Vulture Facts

The First Thanksgiving – You Are the Historian – Online Learning Center

  PS 373 News Letter

..   People are requesting more harvest bags…   Please let me know if you are in need of the harvest bags……………….. Stay tuned…  

http://www.pennies.org/history/intro.html <~~ Click here to read about the history of the penny…