Fall 2025

Festival of Lights

Friday, December 12th at 6:30pm

Noah Wallace School

Join us for this festive tradition! The 4th Grade Choir celebrates festivals of light from many traditions through music! Enjoy songs from around the globe, and join our sing-along too! Stay for good cheer, hot cocoa and cookies after the concert.

Holidays Around the World 

Friday, November 14th at 6:30pm
Irving A. Robbins Middle School

For the second year in a row we enjoyed an evening of fun with K.I.D. Club to see a production of "Holidays Around the World" performed by Bright Star Touring Theatre based in Asheville, NC. 

Two actors took us on an journey to show traditions and holidays celebrated throughout winter around the world. Students learned about holidays through family members portrayed by the actors through colorful costumes and wigs. Some featured are more common in USA including Hanukkah, Christmas and Kwanzaa. Others students learned about are popular in other parts of the world such as Junkanoo from the Caribbean and Hogmanay in Scotland. The show also included Saint Lucia Day, Lori, Lunar New Year, Winter Solsctice and more. 

Following the performance the actors stayed to answer many question from the audience about holidays they celebrate and different aspects of the traveling show. Thank you Kristen Wilder and Natalie Simpson for inviting us to join!

Submitted by Nishka Seetu Chitrakar (Grade 4/Mr. O'Donoghue) and Nerisha Seetu Chitrakar (Grade 3/Ms. Wilde) with a little help from their Mamu, Shitu Rajbhandari

While most of our friends are busy lighting pumpkin-spice candles and preparing for fall, our family is running around getting the house ready for Dashain, the 15-day festival celebrated by Nepalis all over the world. Our Mamu (mom) swears she can smell Dashain approaching — something about the mellow sun and the sky being bluer than usual. “Dashain is in the air!” she announces dramatically. But honestly, the only thing we smell is the goat meat she cooks in celebration. If Dashain is truely “in the air,” it smells a lot like khasi ko masu (goat meat).

Dashain celebrates the victory of good over evil. According to legend (or according to our grandfather, who tells it like a superhero origin story) Goddess Durga, called upon by the three supreme gods to save the world from the demon Mahishasur, battled him for nine days and finally defeated him on the tenth. 

The festival begins with sowing barley seeds in a pot of sand to invite Goddess Durga’s sacred energy into the home. The sprouting barley, or jamara, grows in a cold, dark corner of the house — basically the plant equivalent of being grounded — and its golden sprouts symbolize life, positivity, and all things good. Every day of Dashain has some cultural meaning, but the ninth day is hands-down our favorite. That’s when we get to worship our cars and bikes, because they’re considered life-supporting tools. Think of it as giving your vehicle a spa day so it moves us for the rest of the year.

And on the same day, our family worships us too — since we’re seen as representations of Goddess Durga in a ritual called Kumari puja. Honestly, it’s the one day we feel like mini-royalty: people give us gifts, offer special food, and treat us with the kind of respect we wish would last all year.

The tenth day, Tika, is the grand finale. Elders place a mixture of rice, yogurt, and vermilion on our foreheads, along with jamara — the ultimate symbol of blessings. Dressed in our brand-new clothes, we line up to receive blessings, love, and, let’s be honest, the money we’ve been waiting for since day one. Dashain is all about family, so our aunts and uncles come over to shower us with blessings.The house fills with laughter, candy wrappers, and stray strands of jamara scattered across the floor — little reminders of the celebration still lingering. Over it all, the loud, loving voices of our family in Nepal float through the phone, sending blessings across the distance and urging us to visit soon. And as we promise, “Maybe next year,” we can’t help but imagine what it would be like to truly smell Dashain in the air the way Mamu always does — the way she remembers it, the way she still carries it with her.

Submitted by Zohana Reisner (Grade 3/Mrs. Hess)

This fall my family and I went to the Pequot Museum for the second time. (We visited the first time in 2023.) Here are some of the things I remember. I remember going down an icy escalator to the "Ice Age." First you see a little room with facts about how thick the ice was in Connecticut and across the Northeast region. Then, you see a circular room with a life-size diorama inside. In the scene the Pequots are caribou hunting. They used the caribou for clothes, food, and tools. I got to touch a brain-tanned piece of caribou cloth. (Brain-tanned means rubbed with brain oil.) The Ice Age exhibit was very fun. 

Another part of the Pequot Museum is a diorama village showing life-size Pequot life from a couple centuries ago. This is the area where I learned the most. I learned how they would take out the trash onto a big mound called a midden. The trash was shellfish shells and leftover food and bones. Also I learned about the food they made like succotash and maize, which is basically corn. I saw how they fished in canoes made out of hollowed out trees or logs. I learned that the Pequot houses called wigwams were filled with everything that they owned and what they weren't using at the time. They spent most of their time outside, but slept in their wigwams on sleeping benches covered with deer skins and furs from around the village. There is also a longhouse where the storyteller of the village would tell everyone in the village a story. The Village was one of my favorite parts in the whole museum!

The museum was fun and I recommend you go too!  It teaches you about Pequot culture. It's fun! It's kid friendly! And there are things to touch too. You can learn and see about farming, clothing, and more. You can even go inside more than one Wigwam and listen to stories and listen to the facts and see a real Three Sister's Garden. You will be happy that you went!!!

Simsbury Celebrates

Multiple locations

Saturday, November 29, 2025 from 5pm-8:30pm

Free

Events include short presentations from "The Nutcracker", Live Nativity, Celebration of Hanukkah, Sing-a-longs and more!

Click here for more info

19th Annual Candlelight Tours: Christmas in Connecticut at Stanley Whitman House

37 High Street, Farmington, CT

Saturday, December 13, 2025 from 12pm-4pm

$25 / Ticket reservations

Click here for more info

Winter Wonderland Second Saturdays for Families

Wadsworth Atheneum Museum of Art, 600 Main Street, Hartford, CT

Saturday, December 13, 2025 - 12pm – 2pm

Free

Deck the halls and create decorations inspired by winter celebrations from around the world. Join our friends from the Japan Society of Greater Hartford and the Mandell Jewish Community Center of Greater Hartford to learn about the customs and traditions of the winter solstice. Then enjoy the Hartt School Community Division’s special performance of snippets from the Nutcracker. Activities noon–2pm, free admission all day.

Click here for more info

Kwanzaa Celebration

hosted by Queen Ann Nzinga Center at Raymond Hill School, 345 Linwood St. New Britain, CT

Sunday, December 14, 2025 - 4pm (doors open at 3:30pm)

$15 - Ticket reservations

Join us for our annual Kwanzaa celebration. Featuring live music, performances and more!

Click here for more info

Hanukkah Storytime

Bristol Public Library, 5 High Street, Bristol, CT

Tuesday, December 23, 2025 - 10am

Free - Registration required

Click here for more info

Kwanzaa Thinking & Doing Day Kujichagalia!

Hosted by Kamora’s Cultural Corner at Keney Park Pond, 323 Edgewood Street, Hartford, CT

Saturday, December 27, 2025 - 1pm-5pm

Free - Registration required

Click here for more info

Your contributions are what make this newsletter rich and engaging!  Thank you to everyone who helped create this newsletter, especially our student writers! IDEA+ encourages every member of the community to consider sharing so that it keeps growing strong.  Going forward, we hope to have even more student voices represented and would love any pictures, stories, recipes your child may want to submit.