What a Wonderful Window: March 2006

Winter in Norway

Winter in Norway.

Pupils at 5th, 6th and 7th class are Cross Country skiing nearby the school. The weather is wonderful!

St. Patrick's Day (Ireland)

Some of the Childrens' Art Work

St. Joseph's Day (Italy)

St. Joseph is the patron Saint of Bagheria. We celebrate his feast day on 19th March. It is also the "father day" because St.Joseph was father of Jesus. It is a public holiday and all the schools are closed. During the Mess priest blessed bread and everybody brought a little piece of that bread
in their home. In the evening Churchs were illuminated, there was parades in our towns and children flew like Angels.

The Potatoe and the Knife (Portugal)

This is the story of a potatoe which was planted in de beginning of Spring – name – Batatinha.
When it born other many potatoes were also born, among them, two potatoes named Tonhó and Ramas.
During the night, they came out of the earth and they went playing, looking at the stars and having an adventure.
In a very stary night, whith plenty of moonlight, they met Sábias, and old potatoe, which introduced itself:
- Good night, young potatoes. I am Sábias!
- Hello! to you – they replied.
- I am Batatinha, the main character of this story.
- I am Tonhó.
- I am Ramas.
From that night on they went several times to visit Sábias.
On certain night they asked Sábias to tell them a terrible story.
- Ok. Do you know? Everything happened a long time ago. As you know man always gets us from earth during the mounth of June, he puts us in a bag and there we go on a traicer to the store. Do you know there is a Knife? ( Sábias asked making a monster face ). - Of course knives don' t exist ( trying to calm them ). But it's said that he peels us and cuts us into slices.
The potatoes were terrified and they went home decided to discover if the story was true.
When June arrived and according to the story, some one put them in a bag and took them into a store.
Some days later, they arrived to the kitchen and they saw the terrible Knife.
The cooker began peeling, enthing and choosing the potatoes, Tonhó, Ramas, Batatinha and Sábias were chosen to be grains for the next year.

Moral of the story – Hope is the last thing to die.
(Daniel B., class 6th E, Escola EB 2/3 Dr. Carlos Pinto ferreira, Junqueira, Portugal)

St. Patrick's Day (Ireland)

St. Patrick is the patron Saint of Ireland. We celebrate his feast day tomorrow 17th March. It is a public holiday and all the schools are closed. There are parades in all our towns and everybody dresses up in green - a little like your Mardi Gras and wears shamrock. The shamrock is a small green plant with three leaves and St. Patrick used it to explain the Blessed Trinity.