This afternoon we had a guest Grade One teacher visit our classroom.  Ms. M is a Grade One/Two teacher in Switzerland and she is completing an educational program which includes visiting a school in Canada.  We located Switzerland on our globe and discovered that it doesn’t have a coastline!  Switzerland is surrounded by four other countries—ask us, we know!  “What time do you start school in Switzerland?” (Answer- 8:15...Oh my!)  “What time does the school day end?” (Answer 3:30–4:00)  We found this information interesting; children get a “break” every 45 minutes of the school day!  Everyone goes home for lunch and the lunchtime is an hour and a half. “What if you can’t go home for lunch?” (Answer- You eat in a cafeteria and your families “pay” for the service.)  “Do you have “play” time in Grade One?” (Answer- “No.  Not really…”)  The children begin to learn English in Grade Two and French in Grade Five.  Children come to school speaking several languages, depending on their parent’s language and country of origin. We learned a lot about a school day in Switzerland!  We want Ms. M to come back and spend more time with us!

Can you locate Switzerland on a map?  Which countries surround Switzerland?