Sunday, January 29, 2017

GUNG HAY FAT CHOY!


Dear Parents,

We had a great time celebrating the Chinese New Year.  We started the unit by listening to stories about how New Years is celebrated in China.  We also learned about their customs and traditions.  Some of the stories we read were:  The Dancing Dragon, by Marcia Vaughan, and My First Chinese New Year, by Karen Katz.







According to the Chinese Zodiac,  2017 is the year of the Red Fire Rooster which is celebrated starting from January 28, 2017 to February 15, 2017.  Roosters rank 10th position in the Chinese Zodiac.  People born in a year of the rooster are very observant, hardworking, resourceful, courageous, and talented.  Roosters are very confident in themselves. 



Chinese New Year is a time when families get together to celebrate. In the days coming up to the New Year every family buys presents, decorations, food, new clothes, and have their hair cut.  Houses are cleaned from top to bottom.  The aim is to sweep out any bad luck from the old year and clear the way for good luck.  People greet each other by saying " Gung Hay Fat Choy"!,  which means Happy New Year.

We prepared for the New Year's celebration by making red glittery fans.  We also made red drums.  The children painted plates and decorated them with Chinese stickers, gold glitter and bells.  We added a dowel to each one of them to use as the handle.  The drum was made to re-create a traditional Chinese instrument called Bolang Gu, or a pellet drum.  The instrument is used in Chinese ritual music and is a child's toy as well. 








On Friday, we had a fabulous school-wide celebration.  Yuting read the children a story called Bringing in the New Year, by Grace Lin,  and sang and danced to a New Year song. She also brought in lanterns, a traditional girl's outfit, and a Chinese calligraphy kit for the children to experience the Chinese culture. 













Dressed in red for the Chinese New Year


Annie, Eleanor's mother, made made delicious vegetable dumplings and brought in tangerines and apples, which the children enjoyed at snack time.

The children learned how to say "Congratulations" and "Happy New Year" in Mandarin (gon chi) before receiving a red envelope with an ancient Chinese coin inside.

Thank you to Yuting and Annie for making the Chinese New Year celebration a wonderful fun and learning experience for the children.

Love,
Ms. Bonne and Ms. Barbara

Saturday, January 21, 2017

WINTER WONDERLAND!

Dear Parents,
We continued our winter theme by cutting out snowflakes and creating the most adorable styrofoam snow people.  First the children glued a styrofoam ball on top of a cup and then dressed him/her with scarves, hats, buttons, and yarn. The children had so much fun creating their snow people that the other children could hardly wait their turn.



The highlight of the week was a visit from Lucky Bob, the magician.  He put on a phenomenal show.  The children were giggling through out the 45 minute performance, and that is quite an accomplishment for a group of 3-5 year old children!  I am not sure who laughed more, the teachers or the children.






We ended our week by making snow globes,  The children were given three pieces of clay which they rolled into balls and pushed them together to make a snowman.  After baking the clay, the children then decorated them with markers and finally put them into a clear container filled with water, white glitter, and plastic beads. The children were so surprised when they realized after shaking the jar that it actually looked like a snow storm.  They were so excited with them, they didn't want to put them down all day.







Other fun areas in class:




Next week we look forward to celebrating the Chinese New Year.

Love,
Ms. Bonne and Ms. Barbara





Sunday, January 15, 2017

OUR SNOW FAMILIES!

Dear Parents, 

 We continued our winter unit by reading Snowflakes, by Lois Elhert.  The children then created their own snow people.  Some of the children made snow girls, snow moms, snow dads, snow cats, snow brothers, and even a snow dog.  Each child traced and cut out three circles, glued them together and then added eyes, hair, legs, arms, and hats. They all looked so adorable on our classroom bulletin board.

We also learned about mixing colors.  First we filled eye dropper with red, yellow, and blue food coloring,  then we squeezed drops onto coffee filters.  Not only did the colors mix and make a new array of colors but we now know that mixing red and yellow makes orange,  blue and yellow makes green and red and blue makes purple.  What a fun learning experience it was!


 The highlight of the week was our ice cream party.  The reason we had a party was because we filled the gem jar.  Ask your child about it.  I am not sure which was more fun, eating the ice cream or making it.
















Our letter of the week was "P." We practiced writing it and then came up with a list of "P" words such as: popcorn, potatoes, pumpkin, pig, papa, princess, and paper.

Other fun areas in the classroom:
Helping a friend get dressed
Leading the children in Eurythmics
Class




                                      
             




Love,
Ms. Bonne and Ms. Barbara