Hallelujah

Dear Caro,

My name is Derrik Parker. I live on the island of Oahu in Hawaii. I am 9 years old but I'm kind of tall for a 9 year old. I do not celebrate Halloween but I go to church for Hallelujah Night. Hallelujah Night is when you go to church and we play lots of games. In Oahu it is sometimes warm and sometimes very hot. Usually I don't really do anything over summer break. But I would love to go to the beach and party all day. I hope you like my letter.

Bye,Derrik

Halloween

Dear Friends,

Halloween in Delmar is fun. We go to haunted houses to have some fun.There is one really cool haunted house in Laurel. The house is painted black. You go inside and there are people with chainsaws WITHOUT THE BLADES. here are ghosts every where tring to scare you. In the end you go near the door and you pass a guy in a cage. He is dressed up as someone in jail. Then when we went past the guy came out of his cage then he comes up behind you and he hits you back lightly. My sister screamed.It was scary because you're not expecting it. It was a lot of fun.

Your Friend,
Erin keenan

Hello Friends,

We celebrate Halloween here in the U.S. by going around to diffrent Houses and say Trick or Treat and they give us candy. We also go to the high school and they hand out candy their. You also dress up in a costume. You can be a Bunny , a Witch , and much much more. For halloween I am going to where a Poddle Skirt (a skirt with a picture of a poddle on the bottom) and a pink top. I'm going to be a 50's girl. What do you do in your country to celebrate Halloween? Well I have to go. But, Please write me Back.

BYE, Kelly

Hi,

You wanted to know what we do for Halloween. Well we dress up in costumes and go around to houses in our neighborhood and knock on their door and say, "Trick or Treat." Then they give us candy and we go to the next house. At school we are allowed to dress up in costumes the day before Halloween. On the weekend of Halloween we have a Fall Fest at our school and we also where are costumes there.

:-) bye, James

Hi Tammerin,

I am Adam. I am 7 years old. I am a boy so my sister Heather who is 9 and her friend Courtney are here with me to write to you too. We live in Bluffton SC, USA. It is very near the island Hilton Head. It is in South Carolina, but by Georgia. It is on the Atlantic Ocean. We go to Georgia sometimes.

We found South Africa on the map. Where in South Africa are you? Our school has boys too. And we go home everyday. Our school is called Michael C. Riley. Adam does not go to that school. He is homeschooled.

We will have Halloween on Sunday. Do you have Halloween? We dress up in costumes so that noone knows who we are. And we try to scare people. We go trick or treating and get candy. What holiday do you have near? Do you play sports? We don't play on a team, but we are cheerleaders for the football team. Not soccer. It is a ball shaped like an pointy oval. Write back soon. Adam Miller, Heather Miller and Courtney Morris

dear erin

we do not really celebrate halloween in south africa but we celebrate Christmas,Easter and many more. please write back and we can "chat" more about the holidays our diff. countries celebrate

about myself my name is reabetswe you can call me reabe i am 13 yrs old i live in bloemfontein,south africa i would really want to be your friend

gotta go!
reabetswe

Hi,

Well for Halloween we dress up in costumes and go door to door saying trick or trick. When we say that to the people that open up the door when we knock they give us candy. At school we get to dress up the day before the weekend of Halloween. Over the weekend of Halloween we have a fall fest at are school we also where are costumes there. For Thanksgiving we have a turkey for dinner and three days off of school. Last year we went to visit my Grandparents during the break. For Christmas we hang up stockings on our fireplace and put up a pine tree in our family room. Then when we wake up in the morning they're presents around the pine tree and in our stockings. For

Valentines day we give out valentines to all of are classmates at school. We also get candy from school. For Easter we put out a basket and when we wake up there's candy in it. Also there is eggs in the backyard. Well talk to you later.

:-]
Bye, James

Dear Kidlinkers,

There is an organization called UNICEF. It helps kids who live in poor countries. UNICEF helps with medicine, shots and clean water. Our class trick or treated for UNCIEF last Halloween and we raise $146.00. We are raising money all year to help. Just $2.10 will help 30 toddlers from going blind! Donating money to a good cause is one way to make a difference NOW!

Your friend,
Meredith
The Galloway School

Thanksgiving

Dear Matshediso,

You wrote to me Brittany. I am really sorry I haven't written you back, but, I haven't been in kidlink for a while. You asked me more about myself. I am in the 6th grade and I am 11 years old. I have brown hair and greenish blueish eyes. I am 5'1'' and love to play soccer and softball.

I also want to tell you about Thanksgiving where we live. In my family we get the family on my mom's side together and we eat turkey. This Thanksgiving we will have it at my house. Every year we alternate. After we eat we select a name out of a hat. The names are for Christmas and who evers name you get you would have to get that person a gift, but, you couldn't tell the person you got out of the hat you got their name. Well I have to go. Write back as soon as posible.

Your friend,
Brittany

Dear Brittany,

Thank you for telling us all about Thanksgiving. A lot of the students in other countries might not know about Thanksgiving. It's a special American thing, isn't it? Can you tell us why you have Thanksgiving and what special food you eat? We'd all love to know!

We had a special event in England on Friday. It's called Guy Fawkes Night. Everyone has fireworks parties and we have big bonfires. It's a lot of fun! Why do we do this? About 400 years ago a man called Guy Fawkes tried to blow up our Parliament on 5th November. He didn't get away with it though, he was caught before he could light the gunpowder. You can read all about it here:

http://web.idirect.com/~redsonja/guy/index.html

Liz Exton
(kidwai helper)

Hi everybody,

I'm going to tell you about how I spend Thanksgiving in Delmar. On November 25; about 2:00 PM, I'm going to go to my Grandmother's house. First I talk to my family. Then I play football with my cousins. After that I eat dinner at a long table with my whole family. We eat food like turkey, corn, dressing and cranberry sauce. Last, we play video games in her game room.

Your friend,
Brennen

I am Natalie and I come from South Africa 1. I would really like to know when Thanksgiving is celebrated because here we do not celebrate thanksgiving.
2. Do you always eat turkey at Thanksgiving?3. Is Thanksgiving Dinner a family gathering?

Natalie Geldenhuis wrote:

> I am Natalie and I come from South Africa
> 1. I would really like to know when Thanksgiving is celebrated because here we do not celebrate thanksgiving.

Thanksgiving is celebrated on the fourth Thursday of November.

> 2. Do you always eat turkey at Thanksgiving?

My family normaly eats turkey on Thanksgiving.

> 3. Is Thanksgiving Dinner a family gathering?

Yes, it is but it is also a time for giving thanks.

Your Friend,
Eric Parkinson

Hi Natalie

> I am Natalie and I come from South Africa

I am Maranda and I come from Delmar Marlyland. I am 11 yars old and go to Delmar Elementary. Well Thanksgiving is on every 4 th Thursday of November.

> 1. I would really like to know when Thanksgiving is celebrated because here we do not celebrate thanksgiving.

> 2. Do you always eat turkey at Thanksgiving?

No ,we don't alawys eat turkey sometimes we have ham or ckicken for our feast, because turckey sometimes starts to get boring , or swometimes you have a choice like ham, and turckey.

> 3. Is Thanksgiving Dinner a family gathering?
Thanksgiving is a family gathering a least for my family. Well Bye!!!!! I hope you learned something.

your friend,
Maranda

Dear Everyone,

On Thanksgiving we go to grandma's house and play games with our family. Then we pray and bless the food. Everybody brings something. We have turkey, corn, rice, potato salad and sometimes cookies and cake.

From Martha in Hawaii

Hi Everybody,

I'm going to tell you how I spend Thanksgiving in Hawaii. The first thing I do is get the table ready for my whole family. After our jobs are done, my cousins and I play a game called Monopoly. Then we go outside and ride our bikes to the park. At 2:30 p.m. we come back home and have our Thanksgiving dinner.

Sincerely,
Shatonia

Hi Everyone,

As a family we celebrate Thanksgiving by going to church Thanksgiving morning. We sing and praise God and give testimonies. After we're done doing that we have a big feast. We look forward to Thanksgiving every year to hear all the testimonies because they make us feel good about what God is doing. When the people talk about their blessings, they start to cry and it makes you want to cry too. I wish that everybody celebrated Thanksgiving this way.

Sincerely,
Derrik

Hi Everybody!

It's me, Justin!!! In this letter I'm going to talk about how I'm going to spend my Thanksgiving. I'm going to wake up at 6:00 in the morning. After I wake up, my family and I will go to our church in Maili. We will stay for about 30 minutes. Then after a while we will be traveling around the island with our friends. After we go traveling around the island we will all go home and celebrate Thanksgiving.

Sincerely,
Justin of Makaha Elem. School

Hi!

My name is Pa`i. I spend Thanksgiving with my whole family. At first we all go our separate ways. Then when we are all back we have a family meeting. We talk about our work at school, jobs, and our physical life/daily life. Next we sit at our kitchen table and we say our prayers. After dinner I always have to wash the dishes and clean the table. Well, this is what I do on Thanksgiving. Talofa! (hello) Fase fua! (good-bye) I want to hear about how you spend Thanksgiving.

Sincerely,
Pa`i

Dear Brenner,

I am going to my Aunty Dee's house for Thanksgiving. Everybody is going to bring a type of food or juice. Then after we eat, we might play some games. Every year we take turns going to someone else's house for the holidays. Like now this year for Thanksgiving we are going to Aunty Dee's house.

Your friend,
Taylor

Thanksgiving

Thanksgiving at my house usually goes like this. Well Thanksgiving doesn't usually happen at my house .We usually bring my dog Lexie to De Ridder, Louisiana in our Suburban. We stay at my grand mother's house on my dad's side and have Thanksgiving there. Then go to my great grandmother's house for the day after Thanksgiving. Every 3 or 4 years. I sometimes get to see my cousins that live in Florida.

Lauren Ashleigh Anderson

In celebration of Thanksgiving, our class wrote poems about the Earth. We are learning the Native American side to the story and how much respect the Native Americans had for the earth. Here are some of our poems.

Things on the Earth

by Brittany

There are trees on the earth.
While animals are having birth.
On the earth. there's seas,
And the busy bees.
People are on the earth,
And I am one of them.
While the trees are growing limbs.
I love the earth and the earth loves me.

Connected

by Lauren

From the Willow in the forest,
to the Buffalo grass on the Prairie.
They are all connected.

I Am So Glad

by Julia G.

The earth is round,
And I'm so glad.
The sky is blue,
And I'm so glad.
The grass is green,
and I'm so glad of that.

The Earth

by Lee D.

The earth is round and beautiful.
The earth had different things.
Animals roam around the earth.
People live on the earth.
Animals are part of nature.

Christmas

Hi,

My name is Laura and I live in Shoreline, U.S.A. I am 11 years old and I am in the 6th grade. My favorite day of the year is Christmas. Where do you live? Do you celebrate Christmas? Every year my family goes to my grandparents house on Christmas Eve. Their we get to open up all are gifts under the Christmas Tree. In the Morning we eat a large meal with so much food you can hardly move when your done. The funnest part is playing with all my cousins. Please write back and tell me about yourself. Talk to you later!

*Laura* P.S. Does it snow where you live?

New Year

Hi Venna,

For New Year I am going to go out to my grandparents' house. My grandparents take me outside and we take a walk to a party outside. We go to places and watch shows. WE get our faces painted and watch puppet shows. We eat food. People sing and other people dance. We go to plays. You can find a lot of friends too. I do a lot so that is what I usually do on New Years. I never have traveled to another place.

Sincerely,
Corey

Hi everyone

Well there is a lot of living things where I live, which is South Africa. We have a zoo a few minutes away, filled with lions, girraffes, elephants and lots of other wild animals. We also have a nature reserve, in the middle of our town, called Naval Hill. Here all the animals don't live in cages. There are no cannibals there though. Anyway we also have lots of trees and plants. Hope to hear about all the living things in your town.

Love, Venna