Sweden

This week’s cultural presentation for the elementary was about Sweden. Some of the things the students learned about included:

• Children dressing up for Easter similar to Trick or Treating on Halloween.
• Lordagsgodis is the tradition of eating candy, ice cream, and cake ONLY on Saturdays.
• Different types of Swedish crafts including felting, dala horse, cookie stamps.
• Allmansratten which means everyone has access to nature and can camp nearly anywhere.
• Fika is a relaxing coffee break with Swedish pastries.
• Swedish money is called the Krona.
• Some inventions/businesses from Sweden are Minecraft, Skype, Spotify, Ikea, GPS, seat belt, and the zipper.
• According to Swedish Law, every worker has the right to 4 consecutive weeks of holiday between June and August.
• Christmas is celebrated on December 24th in Sweden with smorgasbords, St. Lucia Day, and a Yule Goat.

Mrs. Wellnitz read “The Tomten”, a book about a little gnome that is dedicated to helping out on the farm. After the book, the students watched a short video about the history of Sweden, a crayfish party, the Royal Palace, and the Speed Lottery. In Sweden, it is a tradition to watch a Donald Duck cartoon on Christmas Eve so the presentation ended with a short Donald Duck cartoon.  The students received Swedish Apple Cookies for a snack when they returned to their classrooms.

After the presentation, the preschoolers enjoyed dancing to music by the Swedish group, Caramell.

Thank you to the Snow-Redfern Foundation for their generosity. It is through their project grant that makes this cultural program possible.