First public appearance of the Catalan Tio in South Dakota

Nuestro Caga Tió -- de un i-phone 

Latest news from across the Atlantic:

"Poop log, poop turron, if you don’t poop well, I’ll hit you with a stick”

Students at Yankon High have just  adopted the Pooping Log tradition. This event represents a  milestone in history since no evidence has been found, until now, of Pooping Logs in the area.
Students at Yankton have had great fun with the ceremony and have
expressed great satisfaction with the presents they have received.

Últimas noticias del otro lado del Atlántico:

"Caga Tió, caga turró, si no et donaré un cop de bastó"

Los alumnos de Yankton High acaban de adoptar la tradición del Caga Tió. Este acontecimiento representa un hito histórico ya que no existe evidencia, hasta ahora, de que un Caga Tió apareciera por la zona.  Los alumnos de Yankton se han divertido con la ceremonia del Caga Tió y han expresado gran satisfacción por los regalos recibidos.

EL TIÓ

From left to right: Marina , Aïna , Anna , Fabian , Joel, Jordà, Raquel and Xiomara.

Here in Catalonia we have a very funny tradition. It is about a trunk that we hit with a stick while we sing a song: "Caga tió, caga turró d'avellanes i mató, caga força embolicat amb una bossa, caga bé, embolicat amb un paper. Caga tió sino et donarem un cop de bastó!!" 
Then we look under the trunk and we see that there are a lot of presents.The parents put  the presents under the trunk
while the kids aren't in the room.

Raquel Pi

Núria Sánchez

Aina Martí

Xiomara Romero

 

Viernes 13 ... Are you superstitious?

¡Ay, no! Tomorrow is Friday the 13th!!! In the United States, we believe that Friday the 13th brings bad luck.

Mrs. Kallis's students have a quiz in Spanish class. They want the quiz on Monday, but with BAD luck, the quiz is on Friday. Mrs. Kallis will not change the quiz.

Do students in Spain worry about tests and quizzes on Friday the 13th? Are there days in Spain that are unlucky?

¿Nos podéis enviar un poco de nieve? (2 ESO E)

Detalle del pesebre. (Foto: Adrián Seba, 2 ESO E)

Hola amigos,
We have just read your email about snow and cold. We don't have snow here but we would like to have some. You say you want to live here... why don't you come?
Hace 5 años que no nieva en la ciudad de Valls. A veces nieva en la montaña pero no aquí.

El Caganer

Aquí también se ponen luces para Navidad pero quizá no tantas.

El árbol de Navidad de casa de Adrián Seba (2 ESO E)

Una de las tradiciones más típicas de aquí  es  la representación del nacimiento o pesebre en las casas, comercios o iglesias. También se coloca el árbol de Navidad y sólo en Catalunya el tió. ¿Vosotros hacéis el pesebre? En el pesebre colocamos figuras de pastores, los reyes magos, ángeles y José, María y el niño Jesús. En Catalunya suele aparecer la figura de el Caganer. Os enviamos una foto para que veáis de qué se trata. En algunos sitios también se hacen pesebre vivientes, es decir, con personas que representan los diferentes personajes.

El pesebre de Adrián Seba (2ESO E)

We want to live with you in Valls!

Austin Donat's house. His e-pal is Andrei Grijincu. 

We do not want to be pen pals. We want to LIVE with you in Valls!!!! This morning when we came to school the temperature was -17C. AND it was windy. Because of the wind the temperature feels like -23C. It is too cold to live here anymore. We use the computer to see the temperature in Valls. It is warm. There is not much wind. We want to live in Valls.

Yesterday we had to get up early. Sra. Kallis and her husband were out of bed at 5:20 in the morning. There was 10 centimeters of snow everywhere. We had to remove the snow from the sidewalks and driveway. You cannot leave to go to school until the snow is removed from the sidewalks and driveways. It is cold and it is not fun. Last night the wind blew VERY hard. It blew the snow onto the sidewalks again. We had to remove the snow AGAIN. Today it will not snow. This makes us happy.

In December it is very cold and the sun sets early. Today it sets at 16:54. Many of us go home after school or work in the dark. We do not like the cold and the dark so we put up many, many Christmas lights. The lights make us happy. Here are some pictures of lights. Do you decorate your houses with lights? Do you have Christmas trees in your houses? 

Becky's tree. Her epals are Alejandro and Youssef.

BLACK FRIDAY...Does this ring a bell?

In a recent post, our key pals from South Dakota told us about BLACK FRIDAY, the Friday following Thanksgiving Day in the US (the fourth Thursday of November), often regarded as the beginning of the Christmas shopping season. 
A very popular department store in our country has recently launched its Black Friday Campaign.
Does it ring a bell for you?
Did you go shopping on Black Friday?
What do you think about the increasing adoption of American traditions by your own culture?
Can you think of any other traditions and festivities that have also been adopted from the US or other countries?

Learn more about South Dakota by our Social Studies Teacher: Josep Maria Miró

https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/147370876/2n.eso%20fitxes%20i%20exercicis/Dakota%20Sud/my_friend_from_south_dakota.html

Yankton High

The address of our school is 1801 Summit Street in Yankton, South Dakota, if you want to see us on Google Earth. http://www.ysd.k12.sd.us/yhs

All American students attend school from Kindergarten until the 12th grade. Generally, students in grades/levels 9 – 12 are considered to be high school students. Yankton High School is a public school. It is the only high school in Yankton.
The city of Yankton has 15,000 people. In our high school we have almost 900 students in the 9th – 12th grades. The photos I sent are generally students in the 10th  grade and most of them are 15 or 16 years old. 

PAM KALLIS, Teacher at Yankton High

Happy Thanksgiving!

Queridos amigos :

We have snow! Yesterday it snowed. It is very cold. The temperature today is -12 C. Do you have snow?  It is cold, but we are very happy. We have classes on Monday and Tuesday. On Wednesday, Thursday and Friday we do not have classes. We will celebrate Thanksgiving with our families.

Thanksgiving is an American holiday. It is the fourth Thursday of November. It is a day that we say “Thank you.” We say thanks to God, thanks to families and thanks to friends. Many of us will travel. We will travel in airplanes or cars to visit grandparents, aunts and uncles, cousins and others. We will eat. We like to eat.

    Many persons eat turkey for Thanksgiving. With the turkey we eat potatoes, corn and other vegetables, bread, and cranberries. Do you have cranberries in Spain? For dessert we eat pumpkin pie. It is delicious!!!!! Many persons eat lots of food and then they watch American football on television. Do you like American football?

      BLACK FRIDAY

Thanksgiving is also when many people start to prepare for Christmas. Many stores have bargains and special prices. It is a new tradition to go to the stores on Friday after Thanksgiving very, very early in the morning. The good prices are at 4:00!!! We call this Friday “Black Friday” because the stores sell many things. They earn money. It is a crazy tradition.

       We are happy that you are writing to us. We will write to you soon. We will write after we return from Thanksgiving vacation. 

About our school (2 ESO B)

           Hi, We are students of Narcis Oller in Valls. Valls is town in Catalonia. We are in secondary school and we are 27 students in our class (2 ESO B). We speak Catalan and Spanish and a bit of English. We are between 12-15 years old.•       We study 11 subjects: Catalan, English, Spanish, Natural Science, P.E, Social Studies, Maths, Get to know yourself, Technology and Art and an free election subject.We usually remain in the same class but we go to different classrooms for some subjects: Free election subjects, P.E, Science and Technology.Normally students have lunch at home but some students eat in the school canteen. Classes begin at 8.10 a.m and finish at 2.35 p.m.•       That’s all for now!•       Hope to hear from you•       We want to meet you soon!


STUDENTS OF 2 ESO B, Narcís Oller