Tales Of A 4-5 Something

Global Focus is one week of the year where the whole Lower School studies one country of the world. 4-5 does starts earlier so we do one month and then enjoy one major week with the rest of the Lower School.  This year we’re studying New Zealand. Some of the things we've done include cooking! We made kiwi bread, coconut soup and fruit salad with kiwi. We have also made mince lamb pies, settlers pie, sweet potato cakes, and ginger crunch.  We’ve also had some guest speakers! Martha and John came in twice. They taught us where really cool caves are and guess what? Some of the beaches in New Zealand have black sand that the Japanese take and turn into steel. We have also had visits from Ciccone who has been here every day to teach us language. Patrick shared a lot about the birds of New Zealand and Emily told us about her visit to all the beautiful sites.  Did you know that New Zealand is thinking about changing their flag because it looks to much like the Austr...

Tu Rakau is a song and when people sing it they hit the Lummi sticks together to make the rhythm. We made the sticks in class and learned the song and steps in PE. We decorated the sticks using sharpie markers and we used designs from Maori art. It was fun learning this with Elicia. It was loud but fun hearing and seeing all the sticks moving. Isabella, Alden W., Elijah We made Lummi sticks last week. Lummi sticks are long circular wooden sticks that are made for playing games. We got to sandpaper them and then used sharpie to decorate them. After a long time of decorating we finally got to play the game in PE. The whole thing was lots of fun!

John and Martha came all the way from New Zealand to talk with us. They taught us a lot of things about New Zealand. We learned about what children wear and how big the caves are. They also taught us a song. Here is a video of us practicing the song. Be careful, it can get stuck in your head.

We have been studying New Zealand since January. We have learned about the land, the culture, the animals, and lots of other things. This week is Global Focus Week and the whole Lower School celebrates. We have seen kelp forests in K-1, we have smelled great food in 2-3, and there is a Marae in EC. We were excited to start Global Focus Week too. The teachers came into school on the weekend and decorated everything. There are trees in the classroom, sheep on the walls, and decorations on the doorways. They also brought in lots and lots of food. Here is what we thought about our first day: SC - Martha and John came from New Zealand to talk with us about going into caves and white water rafting. CD - I liked cooking the lentil coconut soup. HH - I liked learning about the Marae. It was funny that in the past the women would stand in the front of visitors when they came. If there was an attack the women would die and the men would run away. ESR - We watched a video about glow w...