An Australian Christmas

Yesterday I spent over half an hour with the first graders at CAJ. I thought some of you might be interested in what we did. 


Firstly I asked them to be detectives while watching a short slideshow of photos from our own Australian Christmases, to discover some differences. They did a great job. Here are some of the photos I showed them:

Yep, beach holidays.

Summer camps for kids. We helped out on this one for middle schoolers.

This is what happens when you help out on camps (this is molasses among other things).

This is an end-of-the-school-year party, which, of course becomes
a Christmas party because it is December.

BBQ

Getting together with family.

It's hot! This got some gasps, because men don't usually
go shirtless in Japan.

Outdoor carols by candlelight.

Actually this was a huge presentation by a local church in our area.
Live camels and everything.

Followed by fireworks.

Backyard cricket, often on Christmas afternoon.

And if you're lucky enough, find some water to play in. This is
a creek on the property my brother and sister-in-law were working on at the time.

The photos were fun. I haven't shown you the best ones, because they are of our kids, who were recognised by the Grade Ones, to their amusement.


Then I read and explained the book, Aussie Jingle Bells, to them. Here's a Youtube clip by the author. I showed this to them after I explained words like singlet, thongs, ute, swaggie (that one was hard), and "shoot through".

Do you want explanations too?


Singlet is a sleeveless t-shirt. Essential for hot, summer days.
Thongs in Australia are flip-flops.
A ute is a pick-up truck in the US. People sit in the front and the back is an open tray/tray with sides.
Swaggie, short for swagman is difficult to explain briefly because it goes back a ways in Australian history. Basically a transient worker who carries his swag/bedroll on his back. Here's Wikipedia's entry.
Esky is a cooler that you keep food/drink in.
Holden. You know this, surely? An Australian brand of car.
Kelpie is an Australian sheep dog.
Beaut is Aussie slang for amazing, great, or even beautiful.
Shoot through is to escape or depart quickly.


After all that information gathering, I asked them to design a stamp. Australia Post releases special Christmas stamps every year (I'd forgotten this). So I set the kids loose to design their own and many did a great job. I think one of my favourites was Santa in a t-shirt and shorts with burnt arms. This activity was so easy, because it required no extra preparation on my part, love that kind of activity!


So, there you go. Australian Christmas. It's almost enough to make me feel homesick!