WORLD CULTURES

World Cultures with Mrs Mawson

These past few weeks students have been learning about how different countries celebrate Easter. They discussed what their own Easter celebrations might look like and how some people don’t celebrate Easter at all.

Easter in France - Pâques

During Pâques, children are told the story of "the flying bells" (les cloches de Pâques) who come instead of the Easter Bunny. Church bells fall silent from Good Friday to Easter Sunday, symbolically flying to Rome before returning with chocolate treats for children. Castle students listened to the story told in French and rang and flew bells around the room to retell the story in their own way.

Easter in Greece - Pascha

Pascha is a very important time for the Orthodox Greek community. Eggs are boiled and dyed red on Holy Thursday and are used in a game called Tsougrisma, where people tap their eggs together. The person with the last uncracked egg is said to have good luck. Stillwell students enjoyed playing this game against each other and making and eating delicious Tzatziki (a Greek dip) with yiros flatbread. 

Holly students also made Tzatziki and then learnt about the Greek island of Chios and their annual “Rocket War”. On Holy Saturday night, two churches use homemade fireworks to try to ring the bell on their opposition’s bell tower. This creates a glowing display of golden streaks through the night sky, which Holly students recreated by rolling marbles in gold paint over black paper. 

Tsoureki is a sweet and buttery brioche bread, braided and sometimes adorned with red eggs. Castle students watched a video of this bread being made and had a go at braiding their own tsoureki using playdough.

Easter in Bermuda - Easter

All classes learnt about the island of Bermuda and the different activities the islanders and visitors participate in over the long weekend, including dancing in special traditional masks and outfits, eating codfish cakes in hot cross buns, and having sunrise church services on the beach.

Stillwell and Holly students made beautiful and colourful kites similar to those flown at the Good Friday KiteFest, whilst Castle students had a go at playing a game of marbles. 

French Language Club

I am pleased to announce that some Year 5/6 students have chosen to attend a weekly French language class during Thursday lunch play. During this time, we have been using the Workbook “On Y Va” to revise greetings and responses, introducing ourselves and others, and numbers to ten. This class will continue over the year and it has been a truly enjoyable experience for all involved.