Happy Easter!!

Let's have fun and sing this nice song with our children to celebrate Easter! 

Our Easter activities at school!

Easter time!!

Coloba, Julia, Pablo B y Suyash con sus cestitas de Pascua y los huevos de chocolate :D

Así de bonitas quedaron sus cestitas de Pascua :D

Celebrate Easter cooking TORRIJAS!!

Hello!! Today I'm going to show you how you can cook delicious TORRIJAS.
Torrijas are a delicious dessert that you can find all around Spain during Easter. 
You can also suggest your students to cook them with their family, following your instructions ;)

• Torrijas recipe:

Ingredients:

• 1 l of milk
• a bar of bread ( cut it on slices)
• six soup spoons of sugar
• olive oil to fry
• 2 eggs
• honey
• cinnamon

Preparation time: 1 hour

Difficulty: Easy

Preparation:

Cut a large loaf of bread for 'torrijas' in fairly thick slices (you can also use special ready sliced bread).Mix the milk and sugar in a deep bowl. Beat the eggs in a separate dish. Dip the slices of bread in the sugared milk and eggs and fry in a pan with boiling oil until golden brown. Then drain well.

Place the 'torrijas' on a serving dish and pour honey over them. It is also traditional to add the sugared milk to the serving dish so that the 'torrijas' soak it up and become more spongy.

Now, they're ready to be eaten!!

Enjoy your meal!!! ;)

Kisses and hugs,

Daniela A. Ayala M.

Homework (for my students) : Using your computer,click on the internet http://wordreference.com , then le'ts look for all the words which are highlighted in this message and write them in your English notebook.Finally, try to write your own recipe and send it to me by email ;)

P.S: You can also add photos, as me, in this example!

Kisses,

Teacher DANIELA.

Easter History: Things you always wanted to know :)

Hello!! Today we start a new month: APRIL, and you know what? This is my favourite month because my birthday and wedding aniversary are celebrated on APRIL :-).


I've found interesting information about Easter. I'll be very happy if you comment something at the end of the post. If you don't have time to write, please choose a star.
Happy Easter everybody,
with love,
Daniela A. Ayala M.






The Origins of Easter


The name Easter comes from Eastre, an ancient Anglo-Saxon goddess, originally of the dawn. In pagan times an annual spring festival was held in her honor. Some Easter customs have come from this and other pre-Christian spring festivals. Others come from the Passover feast of the Jews, observed in memory of their deliverance from Egypt. The resurrection of Jesus took place during the Passover. In the early days of Christianity Easter and the Passover were closely associated.

Prior to A.D. 325, Easter was celebrated on different days of the week, including Friday, Saturday, and Sunday. In that year, the Council of Nicaea was convened by emperor Constantine. They issued the Easter Rule which places Easter on the first Sunday after the first full moon on or after the vernal equinox (first day of Spring). Therefore, Easter must be celebrated on a Sunday between the dates of March 22 and April 25.


Lent
Preceding Easter Sunday is the 40-day penitential season of Lent, beginning on Ash Wednesday and concluding at midnight on Holy Saturday. Lent is a season of prayer, abstinence, and fasting. This is observed in memory of the 40 days' fast of Christ in the desert. Lent is observed for six weeks and four days by the Western Christian churches that include Saturday and Sunday into the total. In Eastern Orthodox churches Lent is 50 days since they do not count Saturdays or Sundays.

Shrove Tuesday, the day before the beginning of Lent, was designed as a way to "get it all out" before the sacrifices of Lent began. Known the world over as Mardi Gras (Fat Tuesday) or Carnival. It is celebrated in many cities, the most famous American city being New Orleans, LA.

Ash Wednesday, the first day of Lent, gets its name from the practice, mainly in the Roman Catholic church, of putting ashes on the foreheads of the faithful to remind them that man is but dust.

Holy Week
Palm Sunday: This is held on the Sunday before Easter Sunday. It recalls Jesus' triumphant entry into Jerusalem one week before his execution.
Holy Monday: commemorates Jesus' cleansing of the temple, when he assaulted money changers and overturned their tables. Some believe that this triggered his arrest and crucifixion.
Holy Tuesday: recalls Jesus' description to his disciples on the Mount of Olives of the destruction of Jerusalem.
Holy Wednesday: (once called Spy Wednesday) recalls Judas' decision to betray Jesus in exchange for 30 pieces of silver.
Maundy Thursday: commemorates the Last Supper, Jesus' agony in the garden and his arrest.
Good Friday: recalls Jesus' death on the cross. The origin of the word "good" has been lost. Some claim that it is a corruption of "God" and that the early Christians called this day "God's Friday." Others claim that "good" refers to the blessings of humanity that Christians believe arose as a result of Jesus' execution.
Holy Saturday: (a.k.a. Easter Eve) is the final day of Holy Week and of Lent.
Easter Sunday: commemorates Jesus' resurrection. In the early church, converts were baptized into church membership on this day after a lengthy period of instruction. This tradition continues today in some churches.
Symbols
Many Easter symbols and customs come from the Old World.

The Cross
The Cross is the symbol of the Crucifixion, as opposed to the Resurrection. However, at the Council of Nicaea, in A.D. 325, Constantine decreed that the Cross was the official symbol of Christianity. The Cross is not only a symbol of Easter, but it is more widely used, especially by the Catholic Church, as a year-round symbol of their faith.

Easter Lilly
The white lily symbolizes the Resurrection. Yet, lillies have long been revered by pagans of various lands as a holy symbol associated with reproduction. It was considered a phallic symbol!

The Easter Bunny
The Easter Bunny also originated with the pagan festival of Eastre. The goddess, Eastre, was worshipped by the Anglo-Saxons through her earthly symbol, the rabbit.

The Germans brought the symbol of the Easter rabbit to America. It was widely ignored by other Christians until shortly after the Civil War. Easter itself was not widely celebrated in America until after that time.

The Easter Egg
The exchange of eggs in the springtime is a custom that was centuries old when Easter was first celebrated by Christians. The egg was a symbol of rebirth in most cultures. Eggs were often wrapped in gold leaf or, if you were a peasant, colored brightly by boiling them with the leaves or petals of certain flowers.

Today, children hunt colored eggs and place them in Easter baskets along with the modern version of real Easter eggs -- plastic eggs filled with chocolate candy.

Happy Easter!


PS: I got this info from www.care2.com 


SEND AN EASTER CARD

Easter coloring pages

Children love coloring, and as Easter is coming, I've been looking for some pictures to be coloured.
Here you've got the info:

http://www.free-coloring-pages.com/easter/index.html
http://www.thekidzpage.com/colouring_menus/virtualcrayons/index.html

CELEBRATING EASTER!!: Some Crafts and games to do

Easter bunny is coming 

Jump with him.

Easter bunny is smiling

look at him.

Jump, jump, jump,

1,2,3

Turn around,

and touch your knees.

Hi there!! This time I've decided to say hello in that funny way ;-) Do you like  the song?, It's been created by myself, as the great majority of songs I use in my English lessons.

I think it's more interesting to adapt what we already know, with our own thoughts and ideas.

Doing so, we feel more confident and happy with our work, as it's yours.

Well, Let's talk about Easter then! :-P I love it and every year it arrives I remember my early days celebrating this holiday with my family. 

Today, I have some nice videos for your, that can be used in your English lessons.

Have a look at them and tell me what you think about them, all right?

Enjoy this week!

Love,

Daniela A. Ayala M.

I think we can adapt this idea, creating Easter eggs with small balloons ;)



We can use the mimic she apply here and the music too. I'm going to change the lyrics :P



There's a classic music and song for this presentation, do you know what I'm talking about?

Dave, the donkey. An Easter Story.

Easter is coming too!! SO..Why not telling our children a beautiful story about Easter?
Here you've got an example.

Cheers,
Daniela Ayala M.

Dave the Donkey by Andrew McDonough