·         On March 17, millions of people across the United States celebrate in the Irish tradition known as St. Patrick's Day. The holiday has been around for hundreds of years, and while the history of the holiday may be less of the focus today, it is still an important element. Understanding the history of St. Patrick's day can help a child appreciate it more and see why this holiday is still celebrated today through parades, colors and meals. Modern interpretations of the holiday feature the color green, shamrocks, leprechauns and pots of gold at the end of rainbows. To celebrate this day with children, have them dress in green clothes, play fun games and sing silly songs.

St. Patrick

·         The holiday is named after a religious figure who actually was never born in Ireland. At a young age, St. Patrick was kidnapped by pirates and forced into Ireland. He escaped his job as a slave and lived on the rich, green Ireland shores. He later left Ireland, became religious and returned to spread the faith of Christianity. He lived there for 30 more years, where he spread knowledge and writing through the Irish people. March 17 is the day he was rumored to die, and that was chosen as the official St. Patrick's Day.

System of education in Great Britain

 

Here are some videos which I found very useful for my lessons of Countrystudy. This week we speak about System of education in England and I thought that  it would be more interesting for students to watch a video than to read a plain text.
Thanks to British Council for great videos!

Hello December

Today is the first day of December. Let's look at this month from some unusual points. I hope you'll like this information. 

December was the tenth month in the Roman calendar before the addition of July and August. The Anglo-Saxons called this month ‘Haligmonath’ (Holy Month) or ‘Wintermonath’. Above all we now associate December with the Christian festival of Christmas which celebrates the birth of Christ. This Christian celebration gradually took the place of the ancient pagan festival of ‘Yuletide’ when holly, ivy, spruce, mistletoe and yule logs were used in the celebrations. Many of these traditions became associated with Christmas and have persisted until the present day.

England

Great Britain is a part of the United Kingdom. Britain lies towards the northwest of Continental Europe. It is a big island encircled by around 1,000 small islands. It is located only 35 km from France. It includes Scotland, Wales and England. England is the largest of all of these. 
Tyne, Thames, Severn and Humber are significant rivers flowing through the country. 
It is the native land of great minds like Darwin, Shakespeare, Newton and the Beatles. It is also home to the world’s biggest foreign exchange market, the inventor of the hovercraft,  JK Rowling - the author of the Harry Potter books and the world’s richest football club - Manchester United. 
Continue reading for some more fascinating, interesting and fun facts about Great Britain.