Happy Chinese Lunar New Year!

We had a very special celebration for this “Year of the Rooster”!  The biggest excitement was “waking” the Dragon and Lions for a parade with our Grade 5 Buddies!  The Dragon and Lions go on display outside the Library every year, but it has been a few years since they got to parade down the halls!  You can read about our wonderful Dragon on the Nestor Website. He was constructed by Nestor teachers back in 1998 and his wonderful body was made by Parent Volunteers in 1999 from material donated by every student in the school!  The big Lion was an older Nestor tradition and the little Lion was a gift from one of Mrs. B’s parents who brought it back from Hong Kong.

Our other excitement was a marvelous homemade Chinese lunch made by Lucas’s Dad and Fiona’s Dad (visiting from China!).  There were THREE kinds of dumplings and a delicious rice with all kinds of extra veggies and goodies in it!   They worked from early in the morning until lunch time to prepare it for us.  Lucas prepared a special Slide Show for us, to explain some of the traditions behind this special occasion.

A special THANK YOU to Kaylee’s Mom for providing this video!

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What was YOUR favourite part of celebrating Chinese New Year?

Yet again my class has been lucky enough to participate in the Yule Log craft.   In old times, it was an English tradition to bring in a gigantic log to burn for all of the 12 days of Christmas.  Kindling from this Yule Log was kept to light the fire of the next year’s log.  Our creations recreate the magic of a wondrous sparkly log hidden out in the forest.

My best friend, who was born in England, shared this tradition with me when my son was little. Many students have come back to tell me that they still have their original log, or have “recreated” their log, from their Grade 2 Christmas craft! Seventeen years ago (amazing!) I was lucky enough to have the Nussle family join my Grade 2 class.  It is hard to believe, but my dear “Christmas Lumberjack”, Mr. Nussle, has been supplying the logs every year since then!  Both his daughters are quite grown up!  The Yule Logs the students take home have a lot of history behind them!

Another Nestor  tradition is our special “Nestor Christmas Song – One Little Candle”  which was created by Nestor students and their Music teacher, Ms. Coffin, and which appeared on television by winning a contest by McDonald’s!  Enjoy this video, where the students sing our special song while working on their Yule Logs! It’s a double bonus!

Here we are in action!

Where did you put YOUR Yule Log?

It’s a spooky time trying to take attendance when none of my real students seem to be in the room!

The costumes were fantastic and our “Canada Food Guide Party” was Nutritious, Delicious, and Educational!  The Witches’ Brew was SPOOK-TACULAR, with the favorite ingredients being “Jack o’Lantern Sneeze Juice” and “Slippery Worms“.

What was YOUR favorite part of the Hallowe’en Party?

One of the highlights of the Hallowe’en Stations morning is the PAC Pumpkin Relays activity!  There are fun races like: “Pumpkin Bowling”, “Eyeball Balance Race”, and “Creepy Critter Pick-up”!

Here are a few shots of one of the activities!

Which race was YOUR favorite?