Today we continued our Holidays Around the World project. We reviewed Christmas and the four facts that Danny had written on his bubble map from last week. Danny worked on coloring a Christmas tree on his bubble map. Next, we began learning about Hanukkah. We read a fact sheet from our project kit and a non-fiction book by Lisa Herrington entitled, Hanukkah. We then completed the bubble map in which Danny wrote: menorah, eight days and nights, nine candles, and dreidel game (and he drew an illustration). We watched a video to see how the dreidel is played. Danny was very focused to meticulously cut out a menorah, working gingerly around each protruding candle. We discussed the menorah as he cut with the reminders that they light a candle each sundown for eight nights using the helper candle that is in the middle to light the others. We will finish up our study on Hanukkah tomorrow. We continued reading the Vacation Under the Volcano historical fiction book. We began with a review and I was blown away that Danny remembered that the “soothsayer” gave the warnings of bad things to come! In chapter 5, the kids try to watch the gladiators fight in the amphitheater and also find the house of Brutus. After searching the villa for the books, they locate a room full of rolled papyrus, which was the form for books back in ancient Roman times. We compared books of the present to books of the past, making reference frequently to past and present while describing the differences of our flat, covered books to the rolled papyrus scrolls of long ago. In chapter 6, we found that the end is near! The children discover that the volcano that destroys Pompeii erupts at the exact time and date that they are there! We discussed the meaning of the word “erupted”. Additionally, we talked about how in modern day we use a watch or clock to tell time, but the kids in the book, in the past, used a sundial to tell time. We talked about how a sundial works.