Discovering Holiday Traditions from Down Under

LED have been getting into the festive spirit this past week writing letters to Santa, reading Christmas stories and making Christmas decorations for the class. 

Our continent of focus this term has been Australia, and it was a perfect opportunity to explore holiday traditions from down under! We learnt about how the Aussies celebrate Christmas, and what makes their Christmas different from a more ‘traditional Christmas’ in Cayman and other countries in North America. Students learnt that because Australia is in the Southern Hemisphere, Christmas takes place in the summertime for them.  So instead of building snowmen or going sledding, for example, Australians build sandmen and go surfing around Christmas! They usually have a BBQ as their traditional Christmas dinner, and they’ve even adapted the song ‘Jingle Bells’ to fit their culture and climate! The children were especially amused by the tale that Santa uses kangaroos to pull his sleigh over Australia, offering his trusty reindeer a break. The children also learnt that Australia is 16 hours ahead of North America, so while we are all sleeping on Christmas Eve, Australians have already been visited by Santa and are opening presents and celebrating Christmas Day! 

Last Friday, we made Anzac biscuits, a traditional Australian cookie. Preparing this treat was a great way to incorporate a Math lesson into our baking, as the children had to abstractly divide fraction-based measurements in the recipe to obtain the right measurement for our group size. The children then had a relaxing 30 minutes after lunch, eating their Anzac biscuits and watching the classic Christmas short film, ‘The Snowman’. It was a festive and fun way to draw the first term to a close.    

We wish everyone a joyful Christmas and Happy Holidays! We look forward to seeing you all in January 2022!