Mini-Olympics

Last week the school they held a mini-Olympics of sorts. It lasted for two days, and led up to Dia das crianças, Children's Day. This year Children's Day coincidentally landed on the same day as a religious holiday, so they had the day off school in addition to receiving gifts, a Children's Day tradition.

These are shots from the opening ceremonies of the mini-Olympics. (There were no closing ceremonies that I know of.) This was also the first school assembly that has taken place since we've been here.

Here was the procession of all the flags of the Brazilian states. You can read more about the 26 estados do Brasil here.

Here they sang the Brazilian National Anthem. You can hear what it sounds like and see some beautiful Brazilian sights on this clip. (The kiddos don't know the words yet, but Sam was just humming along with the melody as we watched this!)

And here was the school flag as the students sang the alma mater.


There was even a torch that a few students ran in with,


and then on to light the cauldron! Which in this case was filled with sparklers. :o)