Christmas Around The World

What school takes it’s students on an adventure around the world? Journey Academy! This week, our young heroes learned how other countries celebrate the birth of Jesus in their cultures. Heroes did this by splitting into small groups and researching the languages, traditions, clothing, and food that these countries use to celebrate. On Tuesday, we then took a field trip to Frederick Meijer Gardens where our heroes were able to see a Christmas Tree Exhibit with decorations from multiple countries.

After learning about Christmas traditions around the world, our heroes created a script to a play, where they will share their knowledge and celebrate the true meaning of Christmas at our Final Exhibition. They are VERY excited to share this with you!!

A few milestones our heroes will tackle this quest include:

• Selecting a country they wish to research (by November 27th)
• Researching their country and traditions used to celebrate Christmas (by November 29th), including:
  • A dish that is popular (and will be prepared for the Exhibition)
  • How that particular country’s traditions link to faith
  • The country’s flag
• Memorizing the lyrics to all songs (by December 1st)
• Writing  a script for the country presentation within the play (by December 4th)
• Having prepared all costumes and props (by December 8th)

In addition to learning about cultures and performing through this quest, our heroes will also support a refugee family through Bethany Christian services. We will be collecting gift  cards as admission to the play, which will be presented to a refugee family (1 for each Journey Academy studio).

In addition to beginning a new quest and traveling to Frederick Meijer Gardens, our heroes have had a full week. A few other events this week included:

• EMS heroes pooled their hero bucks (300 total) from last session together to buy an outdoor pizza party on Friday!
• ES heroes began a new Writer’s Workshop this week! They are now rewriting the original story of Jesus’ birth from a different perspective.
• Each hero has now set new session goals they wish to accomplish by our next Exhibition!

Discussion Questions This Week Included:

• Last session, you mastered an incredibly challenging stretch goal, held an amazing exhibition, and pushed yourself to the limit. How will you continue to challenge yourself this session?
• As we begin our Christmas Around The World Quest, what most excites you?
  • Researching different cultures
  • Performing
  • Designing props and costumes
• Should religion be taught in public schools?
• Is it better to be cautious or to take risks?
• Would you rather have $1000 to spend on yourself, or $1000 to spend on someone else?