Karneval

This week was the start of Karneval! (think of the same celebration as the Rio Karneval).  Our area of Germany celebrates this festival in all it's glory, and so of course we had a day of Karneval fancy dress on Friday.  This was my outfit, that I made the night before.  I was (obviously) a Parrot, although I did get called the Roly Poly bird from Roald Dahl's Enormous Crocodile story (I'm OK with that), and a chicken (definitely less OK with that one!).

This week has been a very hectic one.  Out of the 3 Year 6 teachers, two were off for the entire week.  While this was hard work for myself and the other TA who took over the classes, it was incredibly stressful for the 1 teacher left to deal with all the issues of year 6, parents evening on Wednesday and Ancient China day on Friday (which was one of the teachers who was off's idea, but he went off sick before he could prepare anything, but of course after the kids had been told it was happening).  Ancient China day was due to Chinese new year taking place next week, and China being the History topic for Year 6 this half term.  We talked about China, and Chinese new year, and swapped stories of those who have been there, then made Chinese fire-crackers, money envelopes and lucky decorations, as Chinese children do during the new year celebrations.  Then we had a party with Chinese food in the afternoon.  It was really hard work, but the kids enjoyed it.  

After school had finished was the Karneval Disco.  This was for all our kids in year 3-6.  It was much like the Halloween disco, with the hall decorated, and a stall for sweets and glow sticks.  In the style of Karneval teachers took it in turns to go onto the stage and throw handfuls of sweets into the crowd, which was pretty fun.  Tidy up was much easier than the Halloween disco because we actually had bins this time, so all the rubbish wasn't thrown on the floor!  It was such a long week, but Matt and I still managed to go to a Karneval house party on Friday after work.

On Saturday and Sunday people go out in fancy dress and use Karneval as an excuse to start drinking at 9 am.  This, and the huge crowds didn't appeal to either of us at all, so we have just had a quiet weekend in.  A friend came over yesterday to watch the rugby and have fajitas, which was nice.  Tomorrow we are off to our cottage in the Rhine Valley.  The weather has turned very mild and sunny, so our holiday will be wonderful in the beautiful valley.  I can't wait!