Christmas

Billions of people from all around the world celebrate the holiday Christmas! Christmas day is December 25th. While Christians celebrate Christmas Day as the anniversary of the birth of Jesus of Nazareth, many people who are not religious also celebrate Christmas. Christmas is celebrated through various exciting traditions and activities. While every family has a different way of celebrating Christmas, many customs are shared between families. Popular ways of celebrating Christmas include exchanging gifts, decorating Christmas trees, attending church, sharing meals with friends and family, and of course waiting for Santa Claus to arrive! Let's take a look at some of these popular ways to celebrate Christmas in the United States of America. 

On Christmas people often give their friends and families gifts. Although Christmas is not truly about material things, it can be great fun to pick something out for someone you care about. A great part of the tradition of giving gifts is getting to wrap the presents in colorful and festive wrapping paper and put them under a Christmas tree. 

Many families decorate their homes with a Christmas tree. In a lot of places in the United States, you can go pick out and cut down your Christmas tree yourself. Families then bring the tree home to decorate it. To decorate a Christmas tree, first, you put on the lights. Then, you put on the garland. Next, you put on the ornaments, and finally, you put a tree topper on the top of the tree. Some typical tree toppers are stars or angels. Christmas trees light up a home with Christmas spirit. 
What are the steps to decorating a Christmas tree? 
First, _________________________
Then, _________________________
Next, _________________________
And finally, ____________________

Singing Christmas carols is a great way to spread Christmas cheer! People often listen to Christmas carols and Christmas music for the whole month of December. In the United States, there are many classic Christmas songs that you can expect to hear as soon as it is December. Below I have added a few links to some of our most popular and traditional Christmas songs! 

Rudolph The Red Nose Reindeer

Jingle Bells

Santa Claus is Coming to Town

The Night Before Christmas

On the night before Christmas, or Christmas eve, there are also many Christmas traditions. On Christmas eve people hang stockings by the fireplace, leave a letter for Santa, leave cookies and milk for Santa (at my house we always left carrots for the reindeer too), and maybe watch a Christmas movie! On Christmas eve, children go to bed anxious to see if Santa Claus will visit them overnight and leave presents for them. Below is a classic poem about Christmas eve. 

Twas The Night Before Christmas

Fill out this template to write your own letter to Santa! 

Another popular thing for people to do around Christmas time is to decorate their homes! Here are some photos my mom sent me this year of how she decorated our house for Christmas. 

My mom loves snowmen decorations. 

My mom decorated our front lawn with Christmas lights. 

This is my cat Sebastian sleeping in front of our Christmas tree. 

This is my cat Harley helping my mom wrap presents. 

Christmas Vocabulary 

Jesus of Nazareth

exchanging gifts

decorating Christmas trees

church

Santa Claus

Christmas tree lights

garland 

ornaments 

tree topper 

Christmas carols

reindeer

bells 

Christmas eve 

Christmas cookies 

a letter to Santa Claus 

stockings 

I hope you had a nice time learning about how Christmas is celebrated in the United States (or in my family at least), and that you all have an absolutely beautiful Christmas. Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!

Yosemite National Park

The Landscape of Yosemite National Park

Out of all the landscapes of the world, it is no question that Yosemite is an impressive one! Yosemite National Park is in California’s Sierra Nevada mountains! Yosemite is well known for its giant, ancient sequoia trees, and for Tunnel View, the iconic vista of towering Bridalveil Fall and the granite cliffs of El Capitan and Half Dome. 

Here is Yosemite on a map of California! 

The geologic story of Yosemite National Park can be considered in two parts:

 

(1) deposition and deformation of the metamorphic rocks and emplacement of the granitic rocks during the Paleozoic and Mesozoic times 

(2) and later uplift, erosion, and glaciation of the rocks during the Cenozoic era to form today's landscape.

In Yosemite National Park there is a large valley called Yosemite valley! As we know, Mountain landscapes have mountain ranges, mountains, ravines, and valleys. Because Yosemite has all these landforms it is a mountain landscape! Can you look at my pictures from Yosemite National park and identify any of the landforms you have learned about? 

follow this link to learn more about the rocks in Yosemite National Park!

Two of the most famous mountains in Yosemite National park are Half Dome and El Capitan! 

Although most of Yosemite National park is a natural landscape, the park has man-made landscapes too. Roads have been paved in the valley to make the natural wonders more accessible to people wanting to visit. Because camping is a very popular activity to do in Yosemite, a little camping village called Half Dome village was built to make life more comfortable for park guests and rangers. The village has gift shops, an information center, and a grocery store! Look at the photos below and distinguish which is a natural landscape of Yosemite and which is a man-made landscape. 

 Landscapes 

Look around you, what do you see? Everything around you is a landscape! Landscapes can be natural and man-made. Natural landscapes are areas that have not been transformed by human activity. Man-made landscapes have been transformed by human activity. There are various reasons why humans may transform a natural landscape to be a man-made landscape: people may farm the land for food or build on the land for shelters. People may also create roads and railways for transport.

 In the picture above there are examples of everything I have just mentioned, can you find examples of natural and man-made landscapes, farmed land, houses (shelters), and roads in this landscape picture? 

Try this interactive worksheet on the differences between man-made and natural landscapes!

Rural vs. Urban Landscapes

Rural landscapes are typical of the countryside. Rural landscapes have fewer inhabitants than urban landscapes. Rural landscapes can be categorized by big open spaces, fields, pastures, and perhaps an agricultural presence: open spaces are ideal for farming. What do you see in this rural landscape? 

Urban landscapes are found in towns and cities. Urban landscapes typically include houses or apartment buildings and shops, they can also include factories. More people tend to live in urban landscapes because all the amenities necessary for a comfortable life are close by. There are also motorways in urban landscapes. Sevilla is an example of an urban landscape! What do you see in this urban landscape? 

Inland vs. Coastal landscapes

Inland landscapes are far away from the coast. They have landforms such as mountains, hills, valleys, rivers, and plains! 

This diagram of an inland landscape has a few more features labeled so you can learn even more about the characteristics of inland landscapes! 

Practice labeling the landforms of an inland landscape here!

Coastal landscapes are next to the sea or coast! Coastlines can be straight or irregular. They have landforms such as beaches, cliffs, headlands, and bays. 

Here is a picture of the coastal landscape of Half Moon Bay, California (where I am from).
Can you identify a few of the coastal landforms in this picture?

Practice labeling the landforms of a coastal landscape here!

Try this interactive worksheet to see how well you can identify different landscapes!

What is a relief? A relief is the difference between the highest and the lowest elevations in an area. A relief can be flat or mountainous! 

Mountain landscapes have mountain ranges, mountains, ravines, and valleys. 

Flat landscapes have plains and plateaus.

A plain is an area of low, flat land. There are also coastal plains.

A plateau is a high plain, often inland. The Meseta in the center of Spain is a big plateau.

What is your favorite landscape? Which of the landscapes we have just learned about have you visited?