Cultures Around the World: France & Ethiopia

Each country in the world is unique. They each have their own food, language, clothes, art, and music. Through this study, the students not only are learning facts about each country but they are getting to experience aspects of their cultures through the activities we set up in the classroom. Here are just a few photos as we learn about cultures around the world.

France

We looked at Claude Monet's famous paintings of bridges. We used finger paints to try to mimic his style. 

We also learned a French song, Frere Jacques, on ukuleles we checked out from Wright Memorial Library!

We also discussed the history of the Eiffel Tower--originally, the French people hated it and wanted it taken down. But eventually they grew to love it!

The students used guided drawing with oil pastels to create their own drawing of the Eiffel tower with cityscape in the background.

Here is a 3D this student worked so hard to cut out and assemble!

What is culture without food?! The French are known for their pastries! 

Students used play dough to create croissants, cinnamon rolls, crepes, and baguettes. They even sprinkled real cinnamon on top to get the full pâtisserie effect.

We even traveled to France for our snack! Students ate grapes, cheese, and mini baguettes (pretzel twists).

Ethiopia

The students were encouraged to bring in artifacts from each of the countries we would be studying. Here is a mask from Africa.

We, then, created our own African masks!

We learned about an African game called, mancala, and the students created their own using egg cartons.

Once students finished their work, they got to play mancala against their peers. They had such a great time!

To celebrate the food, the students ate bananas. (Their most important export is actually coffee...but we weren't about to let them try that!)

Speaking of coffee, the kids each made a picture frame decorated with coffee beans and grounds.

Inside the frames are their African animal water color silhouette paintings.

The students made Ethiopian drums out of canisters and then used them to help perform an African song call A-Ram-Sam-Sam.

In Ethiopia, they use a grass called teff to create their special flatbread called injera. The students rolled out play-dough and sprinkled atop some African spices. 

The students learned SO much about each of the countries and they LOVED getting to show you their learning during our Spring Performance! There were three kids at each display waiting for visitors to come by and ask them questions about their country. They were so proud of their work!

Stay tuned as we venture to more countries!

Pesach, a Baby Lamb, and Loaves of Love

Pesach

Each year, Rabbi Simon comes up with ways to make learning about Pesach (Passover) fun. And this year was no exception! The students used their iPads to answer multiple choice questions from the board.

In between questions, the older students would teach the school about different aspects of Pesach.

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Baby Lamb

Sweet little Alli came to school with Mr. Brisco yesterday. If you don't already know, Mr. Brisco owns a sheep farm. Alli is a lamb born 7 days ago. She is a twin, however, for some reason, the mother is not allowing Alli to nurse so Mr. Brisco brought her to school to bottle feed her throughout the day. 

(And, yes, she is wearing a diaper!)

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Loaves of Love

The second half of the primary class went to Chabad to participate in Loaves of Love. They made oatmeal chocolate chip cookies as well as chocolate chip cookies. 

The students took turns adding ingredients and stirring the mixtures.

Next, they formed them into balls and put them on the cookie sheets.

Any leftover chocolate chips were up for grabs!

Students made sweet cards to accompany the baked goods.

As always, such a fun and delicious experience! Thank you Loaves of Love allowing us to contribute to such a wonderful program!

The Human Body

We had just a couple weeks before we began learning about cultures around the world so we decided to spend some time learning about the human body! As it is with all of our units of study, we didn't just learn surface level content--we went deep. Bone deep!

We began our study by learning about our skeleton. We learned that our skeleton, made up of 206 bones, is the framework that gives our bodies shape and allows us to move. 

Mrs. Hoy even brought in real bones from the butcher for us to examine! She boiled most of the bones to kill off the germs so the students could look closely at them. 

However, she kept the biggest bone as-is so the students could really see and feel the layers (Don't worry, it was sealed in a bag!)

We talked about the well-known bones (i.e. skull, ribs, pelvis, spine, femur, etc.) and students cut out, put together, and labeled their own skeletons. 

Next, we talked a little bit about joints and muscles. We learned that our bones are able to move because muscles are attached to them and our different bones connect to one another through joints.

We moved onto the circulatory system. We learned that blood flows through veins and arteries to take important nutrients and oxygen to every part of our bodies. We learned that the heart has four chambers--right atrium, right ventricle, left atrium, left ventricle. Blood returns to the heart and gets pumped to the lungs for more oxygen and then back out to the body. 

The students got to experiment using stethoscopes to hear each other's heartbeats before and after exercise! We got our hearts a-pumpin'!

Next up, the rest of the organs! Well, not all of them! We aren't in medical school after all! But we learned the major ones--brain, lungs, liver, stomach, large intestine, and small intestine. We also talked about the parts of the brain called the cerebrum, cerebellum, and medulla oblongata. We discussed how the brain stem connects the brain to the spinal cord and brings the messages from the brain to the body. 

To understand how the lungs work, each student received a water bottle with the bottom cut off. We stretched a balloon across the opening to simulate the diaphragm. Then, students put another balloon on the end of a straw and stuck it down into the bottle and sealed the opening with clay. By pulling on the bottom balloon (diaphragm), it pulls in air through the straw (trachea) and into the inside balloon (lungs). 

Then, onto the digestive system! What better way to learn about the digestive system than by recreating it from start to finish?! Yes, that's right, we made poop! :)

First, our we mashed up food to mimic our teeth, saliva, and tongue breaking up our food. 

Then, our "chewed" food went down the esophagus and into the stomach.

While in the "stomach", the food mixed with acid (vinegar). 

The students helped the acid get to work breaking down the food.

The food was very liquidy at this point and it transferred to the small intestine (a stocking).

Since much of the nutrient absorption happens in the large intestine, we wrapped the stocking in a large towel to soak up as much liquid as possible. 

Last, its time for the food to exit the body in the form of POOP! 

Their reactions were priceless!! 

To wrap up our human body unit, we addressed an important part of keeping our bodies healthy: nutrition! 

The bodies the students were putting together in the beginning of this post will be on display for our May 4th performance so be sure to take a look!