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Land’s End Knitting Charity….

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Lands’ End Invites Customers To Knit A Charity Hat For Chilly Sailors

Lands’ End is calling on customers to grab their knitting needles, cast-on and help sailors cast-off in a cosy new hat.

Sep 17, 2009 – The home shopping clothing specialist has teamed up with the Sailors’ Society and is aiming to provide hundreds of knitted hats for the merchant seafarer charity’s Woolly Hat Campaign 2010.

The retailer has put together a free ‘knit-a-hat’ kit; providing customers with everything they need to create wonderful woolly hats. The new hats will warm the cockles of merchant sailors’ hearts – as well as their heads – as they battle the elements to ship our consumer goods around the world.

The kit contains Lands’ End’s exciting new feelgood yarn – a specially sourced blend that knits into wonderfully warm and cosy clothing. Enough of the feelgood yarn has been put aside to enable the business and its loyal customers to hit their target of 1,500 hats to be distributed to sailors during Woolly Hat Week – February 7-13th 2010.

Lands’ End UK Managing Director Tim Curtis said: “We’re proud to pledge our support to the Sailors’ Society as it works to enrich the quality of seafarers’ lives in the UK and around the world and we’re sure our customers have all the necessary skills to get knitting and make a difference.

“Sailors and sailing is close to our hearts at Lands’ End – our US founder Gary Comer was a world-class sailor and our business grew out of its roots as a yachting equipment retailer into the global clothing brand it is today.”

Jan Webber, Director of Fundraising and Marketing at the Sailors’ Society, said: “We’re delighted to be working with Lands’ End. Many people forget that without the seafarer, everyday essentials that we take for granted would not reach our shores. These people often spend many months at sea in harsh conditions, sometimes not even speaking the same language as their colleagues.

“A simple act of gratitude can mean the world to someone far from home and family; by knitting a woolly hat you are spreading the work of the Sailors’ Society and directly benefiting the seafarer at the same time.”

For more details, contact Rachel in the Lands’ End Press Office on 0870 600 3870

www.sailors-society.org or visit www.landsend.co.uk/feelgood

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Learn about China for Kids

China is such a big country with such a long history we can’t possibly cover it all in one blog post, but let’s get to the basics of the People’s Republic of China for kids.

China Basics

  • China is a country in East Asia and is the second-most populous nation in the world, with a population of more than 1.4 billion people. That’s 17.4 percent of the world’s population.
  • Its area is 3.7 million square miles, or almost 9.6 million square kilometers, which makes it the third largest nation by land area. It borders 14 countries: North Korea, Russia, Mongolia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Afghanistan, India, Pakistan, Nepal, Bhutan, Myanmar, Laos and Vietnam. It also borders Hong Kong and Macao, which are considered special administrative regions. Its land border is the longest of any country at 13,954 miles, or 22,457 km. It also has a 9,000 mile/14,500 km border on the Pacific Ocean. 
  • China has been inhabited by humans since the Paleolithic Era and is considered one of the cradles of civilization.
  • Gunpowder and paper, among many other things, were invented in China.
  • The country has been the People’s Republic of China since 1949 when Communists took control of the country. It is a one party socialist republic, where the leader of the Communist Party is the president.
  • Beijing is the capital but Shanghai is the largest city by population (and Chongqing is the largest by physical size).
  • The nation is 91 percent ethnically Han Chinese, and about 33 percent of the people are Buddhist.
  • Because it is so large it has many different climates, including deserts, subtropical forests, mountains, coastal and river environments, grasslands and plateaus.

Chinese National Symbols

The Chinese flag is red with a large gold star and four smaller gold stars in the upper left corner. The flag was adopted in 1949. Red represents the revolution, and the large star stands for the Chinese Communist Party. The smaller starts are for the unity of different classes of Chinese people.

The national anthem, “March of the Volunteers,” became the official national anthem in 1978. The lyrics were part of a poem written in 1934 about armies that opposed the Japanese invasion of Manchuria.

There are many symbols of Chinese heritage including the Great Wall of China, Tiananmen Square and the terracotta warriors.

Chinese dragons and pandas are also considered symbols of the country, and the panda is the national animal. Plum blossoms and chrysanthemums are popular flowers. Unofficially, the red-crowned crane or Manchurian crane is the national bird.

Chinese Learning Activities for Kids

There are so many options for activities related to China, but here are a few things to get you started.

Pack More into Life has a great China unit study broken down into three days that includes crafts, food, music, folktales and more.

Mr. Donn has a great set of informative pages about ancient China, including an introduction to Confucius, Taoism, Buddhism, the major dynasties, oracle bones, cultural achievenemts and more.

Learn more about the Great Wall of China, the terracotta soldiers, and the giant panda. You can even throw a panda party with help from Red Ted Art. Or have kids build their own Great Wall of China with this activity from How Wee Learn.

Play Mahjong online or learn the basic rules of mahjong (not very basic!).

Learn about the lunar new year, make dragon crafts and snake crafts for the year of the snake (2025).

Check out more activities at Activity Village and Teachers Pay Teachers.

It’s hard to say what the national dish of China might be because it’s so large and diverse, but one you can make at home is Hot Pot. Check out the recipe from The Woks of Life. Listen to some traditional Chinese music while you eat!