18 Oct 2011 – A Fun Talk for Katy’s Class

Irmo Elementary is under construction and most classes are conducted in portables. Was asked by Mrs Paddock (Katy’s home room teacher) to give a talk to Katy’s class and with Katy’s approval the talk was done with great pleasure!

http://amylamsg.com/2011/09/27/irmo-elementary-school/

Halloween is around the corner and a good time to introduce the origins of All Souls’ Day and Jack-0-Lantern to this gifted class. Info provided by the site below lead an interesting research to this topic. Nearly a quarter of the class has Irish background and thus a good way to inform them that the origins of Halloween actually dates back to the Celtic festival of Samhain (pronounced sow-in). Also known as AllHallowTide, GhostFestival, DiaDeLosMuertos, Totensonntag, Hop-tu-Naa, CalanGaeaf, Allantide, etc is a day for remembering those departed from this world.

http://www.history.com/topics/halloween

Slide show of different cultures to honour the deceased love-ones was presented to let them understand how Halloween evolved. This is also the class mentioned in previous posting where students were sent to Australia for time-out! Thought it might also be good to show them a pix of my most memorable war memorial in Canberra which is the capital of time-out! Many have mistaken Sydney to be the capital!! Hopefully they will now remember Canberra 🙂

Thank you Katy, my eldest grandchild for this opportunity to meet her teacher and class-mates. Appreciations to Mrs Paddock for allowing me to talk to this 4th grade gifted class.

Death leaves a heartache no one can heal, love leaves a memory no one can steal – from a headstone in Ireland