I La Paz Newsletter, December 2015

Dec, 2015

England was connected to mainland Europe for the first time since the Ice Age as engineers digging a railway tunnel under the English Channel broke through the last rock layer.

The Channel Tunnel is an undersea tunnel that links northern France to Folkestone in the United Kingdom. Although the idea of an undersea tunnel was first brought up as early as 1751, construction of the Channel Tunnel did not begin until 1988 and was open for travel in 1994.

Today the tunnel, built by Eurotunnel, carries high-speed passenger trains and freight trains.

Interesting Channel Tunnel Facts: • The Channel Tunnel is a 31.4 miles long.

• It took 13,000 workers, technicians and engineers to build the tunnel.

• The material used to build the tunnel was mainly Chalk Marl.

Chalk Marl is approximately 100 million years old and was being created when the dinosaurs still walked the earth.

• It is a marine deposit made up of small fossils and has a high clay content which makes it impervious to water.

• Because of the earth that was removed from undersea to build the tunnel, the UK has increased its size by 90 acres.

• It takes 35 minutes to go from France to the UK in this tunnel.

KINDER The Night Christmas

Before

Author: Clement C. Moore, Jan Brett Who’s that peeking out of the sleigh?

As St. Nick and eight tiny reindeer descend through a brilliant night sky onto the roof of a Victorian house in a snowy New England village, the famous Christmas poem begins.

Two mischievous stowaways from the North Pole enthusiastically explore the sacks of gifts on the roof while St. Nick, unaware, journeys down the chimney... until the toys spill down onto the lawn and he suddenly turns!

Lower Primary The Nanny Piggins Guide to Conquering Christmas Author: R.A. Spratt

Watch out Santa, Nanny Piggins is coming to town this Christmas!This is not a survival guide to Christmas. This is a guide to conquering the Yuletide season! That’s right, it is time to take a stand - don’t suffer through another year of brussels sprouts, gift-wrapped socks and slobbery kisses from great aunts who forget to put their teeth in. Take control of your Christmas and put the happy back in your holiday, using the handy hints, games and inspiring stories within this book.

PYP 101 Christmas Jokes for Kids Author: IP Grinning

IP Grinning presents... ‘101 Christmas Jokes for Kids’, a fun, funny, and often cheesy joke book.

101 Christmas Jokes for Kids for Kids is a wonderful, natural way for children to improve their reading. They are able to practice their reading skills whilst enjoying themselves.

Joke books for kids have the added benefit of improving memories, and importantly, instilling confidence. Children are given a great reason to talk in front of groups and with practice are able to feel comfortable doing it.

MYP Kringle

Author: Tony Abbott Unlike the traditional Santa Claus myth, Kringle is a coming-of-age story about an orphan who becomes a force for good in a dark and violent time. It is a tale of fantasy, of goblins, elves, and flying reindeer — and of a boy from the humblest beginnings who fulfills his destiny.

Our tale begins in 500 A.D., when goblins kidnapped human children and set them to work in underground mines. Kringle is one such child.... until he discovers his mission — to free children from enslavement. His legend lives on today, as he travels the earth every Christmas Eve to quell the goblins once more.

CHARLES DICKENS His own story is one of rags to riches.

He was born in Portsmouth on 7th February 1812, to John and Elizabeth Dickens. The good fortune of being sent to school at the age of nine was short lived because his father, inspiration for the character of Mr Micawber in “David Copperfield”, was imprisoned for bad debt. The entire family, apart from Charles, were sent to Marshalsea along with their patriarch.

Charles was sent to work in Warren´s blacking factory and endured appalling conditions as well as loneliness and despair.

After three years he was returned to school, but the experience was never forgotten and became fictionalised in two of his better known novels “David Copperfield and Great Expectations”.

Like many others, he began his literary career as a journalist. His own father became a reporter and Charles began with the journals “The Mirror of Parliament” and “The True Sun”.

Then in 1833 he became parliamentary journalist for The Morning Chronicle. With new contacts in the press he was able to publish a series of sketches under the pseudonym “Boz”. In April 1836, he married Catherine Hogarth, daughter of George Hogarth who edited “Sketches by Boz”.

Within the same month came the publication of the highly successful “Pickwick Papers”, and from that point on there was no looking back for Dickens.

As well as a huge list of novels, he published an autobiography, edited weekly periodicals including “Household Words” and “All Year Round”, wrote travel books and administered charitable organisations.

He was also a theatre enthusiast, wrote plays and performed before queen Victoria in 1851. His energy was inexhaustible and he spent much time abroad, for example lecturing against slavery in the United States.

He was estranged from his wife in 1858 after the birth of their ten children. He died of a stroke in 1870. He is buried at Westminster Abbey.

Christmas Yoga Poses

Bare Tree Branches Stand on one leg and lift the other one making a triangle shape with your knee.

Stretch your arms out like the bare branches of a tree in the Winter.

Snowflake Stand with your feet wide apart and stretch your arms. No two snowflakes are alike.

One of the Three Kings Kneel down on one knee and stretch out your arms to offer your gifts of gold, frankincense or myrrh.

Easy Holiday Pancake Recipe for Picky Eaters

Choose a pancake them, kids 6 and over can help make the pancakes with parent supervision.

What you need: Pancake mix Eggs Vegetable oil Milk Red food coloring Green food coloring Plastic squeeze bottles Make pancake mix according to directions on package. Prepare batter using directions for 2 cups pancake mix. Divide batter into containers.

For reindeer, mix 1/2 cup batter and 5 drops red food coloring. For green batter, use ½ cup mix and 4 drops green food coloring. Leave remaining batter as is.

Pour each color batter into a squeeze bottle. Heat griddle to medium heat.

For reindeer, make a dot for eye then add plain batter on top of eye to form a 2 inch circle. Add a red nose and a red collar.

To form antlers, make a thin line touching head and then make a small branch coming from first part of antler. Antlers will spread, so only make a fairly thin antler.

After reading about Charles Dickens we hope that we have inspired you to keep a Christmas Journal.

Take a look at this wonderful Journal tool and start writing today and who knows maybe in 200 years time educators and children alike will still be reading and talking about your literature.

Happy writing and remember “Fantasy is a necessary ingredient in living� as said by Dr Seuss.

The purpose of this article is to invite you to be part of our club. Public Speaking provides opportunities to practice speaking skills and drama. It promotes learning, will improve confidence and students learn to express themselves in a clear and articulate way.

There are several advantages that our students use in this club. One of these is to communicate to audiences with confidence and clarity. Increases our ability to read and share knowledge with others.

By participating in public speaking you are increasing your skills of communication with others, making you more confident and through making general conversation, you get to understand better what other people are thinking but above all else this is an opportunity to grow your leadership skills.

In our Club, we included debates which promotes awareness and develops our process of critical thinking and increases specific language skills and strategies.

Through our oral presentations we improve, vocabulary, phonetics, reading comprehension, and of course drama skills among others.

More opportunities are growing in public speaking and the effect in the classrooms is essential for preparing students for their future. Learning to master public speaking early is a great way for students to perform better in school as well as offering them greater opportunities to practice language in a fun and varied way.

These are some comments of students who are participating in our club: Emily Danae Mann Melchor “ I have to learn more and practice public Speaking because I want to study in Canada and my grades this year are improving”.

Brenda Guevara Gutierrez “ I am here because I want to travel to Washington and make new friends easily. I feel very good in this club and I am good at acting and I am gaining self confidence. I am preparing for the Arthur´s Christmas play. We are enjoying it”.

Annette Celeste Mavillard García “At the beginning, when I joined this club, I felt fear, but nevertheless, time passes and I am learning new things despite being shy. I now feel motivated and confident to perform“.

Alan Robles Cortes “ I am in this club because I need to obtain fluency and accuracy. In this club ,I am practicing my English having debates, presenting oral presentations, discussing about articles and much more. I can express myself and it doesn´t matter if I have an error or mistake. I am gaining more confidence when I speak in front of the class”.

Alejandra Diosdado “I am in this club because I want to improve and increase my vocabulary, pronunciation, become more fluent. One of my goals is to travel to United States so the club helps me to practice. This club is a way of having fun and I love acting. This is the second time I am taking it and I am going to present my second play. I feel happy to be part of it “.

If you would like to join call into Miss Amy’s classroom for more information

We invite you to be part of this newsletter by sending us all your recipes, articles and mind games to: colibri@ilp.edu.mx Where we are waiting to be enthralled.

Together we Educate!