Newsletter| January, 2019
Theme: Winter activities and Orca Whale
Well, it is hard to believe that 2019 is already upon us. December was filled with lots of holiday fun and joys. This month, we will continue our WINTER theme and we also are going to learn about ORCA WHALE.
English Activities
There are 4 seasons and 12 months in one year. What months are in winter? What do animals do in the winter season and why?
What is snow? Snow is really ice shaped into tiny crystals. Most of the time the snowflake is made up of many of these tiny ice crystals stuck together. Like raindrops, snowflakes begin as water vapor in a cloud. When a cloud is very cold this water vapor changes into ice crystals.
What makes ice melt faster? salt or sugar?
I am going to design my paper mitten by drawing lots of different lines on it.
Whales are very large and very, very cool marine mammals found across all the world’s oceans. There are two broad types of whales: baleen whales and toothed whales.
Blue whale is the world's largest animal. It is as long as three school buses in a row!
Singing time! Slippery fish slippery fish, swimming in the water......
Despite orcas are called killer whales, they actually belong to the dolphin family Delphinidae. They’re the only species in their genus, but their closest relatives are dolphin species from around Australia and South East Asia like the Irrawaddy dolphin.
So orcas are dolphins not whales.
There are 50 states in our country. Do you know their names and where are they located?
Sound of week time! Do you know any word begin with the sound "d"?
Shown-N-Tell time! "U" is for "underwear".
Chinese Activities
What's the new sentence we are going to learn?
"这是我的——爸爸| 妈妈| 哥哥| 姐姐......" / " This is my —— father/ mother/ brother/ sister......"
"你几岁了？/ How old are you?"
"我四岁了！/ I am 4 years old."
We are learning a poem of Winter—— “两个黄鹂鸣翠柳，一行白鹭上青天。窗含西岭千秋雪，门泊东吴万里船。”
These are all the Chinese consonants. We learn each sound with a little rhyme—— "爱听广播b b b，脸盆泼水p p p，两个门洞m m m......"
Do you remember the consonants we have learned?
Learning Chinese Pinyin seems like singing in different tones—— “ā ā ā，鸡和鸭；á á á，狼和羊；ǎ ǎ ǎ，狗和马；à à à，兔和象。”
I'm working at spelling.
After Christmas break, we are in a new month—— January！My dear friends, do you know that Chinese Lunar New Year is coming soon!
Let's check what's the Chinese zodiac sign of 2019? Oh, it's the year of the Pig!
Do you know why and how the Chinese people celebrate the Lunar New Year?
Long time ago, there was a ferocious monster named “Nian” with sharp teeth and horns......
Special Event
Chinese Lunar New Year
In China, lunar new year is being called chunjie (春节), or the Spring Festival. People welcome spring and what it brings along: planting and harvests, new beginnings and fresh starts.
Let's check the Lunar calendar, there're lots of preparation to do before the new year comes.
“小孩小孩你别馋，过了腊八就是年。腊八粥喝几天，叽里咕噜二十三。二十三糖瓜黏，二十四扫房子......”
According to the Lunar calendar, today is the day for sweeping and dust!
We are the team to take care of the classroom. I can wipe window, you can wipe chairs and, she can wipe shelves.
Well done!
Let's wash all the drawers in the classroom.
Yeah, we've swept away all the bad luck and ready for the new year!
Before new year comes, people will prepare nian huo (年货), or New Year’s products. The Chinese stock up on cooking supplies, snacks, gifts, new clothes and more.
I'm writing the character “福Fu”, which means good fortune or happiness.
The work Ms. Dawn showed us is called 春联/ Spring Festival Couplets. Couplets are typically pasted on doorways as a part of the festival's decoration to express people's good wishes.
Look at my writing! I want to bring all of the good luck for my family with my hand-writing couplets.
Chinese New Year foods have special meanings behind them. Tangyuan (汤圆) sounds like tuanyuan (团圆), which means reunion. Nian gao (年糕) is a type of rice cake. It symbolizes success each and every year.
“祝你年年高升！/ We wish you success every year!”
Let's decorate our own Lucky Bag福袋 for red envelopes.
What do we dress up for Chinese new year?
The dress Ms. Dawn wear is from Tang Dynasty.
Ms. jasmine dress in a special costume from Han Dynasty which is called 汉服HanFu.
Look at Ms. Kiki 's beautiful dress！ It's called 旗服QiFu and it comes from Qing Dynasty.
Would you like to try it on?
Yes, we are!
There are lots of traditional Chinese games we can play in New Year time.
The game Ms. Dawn shared with us is called 投壶 touhu. It's a game during feast in which the winner was decided by the number of arrows thrown into a distant pot.
Yeah! I win one!
It's the time for New Year Visit! Let's sent the best new year greetings to everyone!
"恭喜恭喜，祝你新年快乐，平平安安！”
We've received a lot of red envelopes from teachers and all the families.
There are many yummy deserts for Chinese new year feast.
"Ms. Dawn, can i have one 招财进宝(sweet fry dumplings)?"
"Ms. Dawn, I would love to try one 年年高升/ 年糕 (sweet rice cake).”
What a happy day!
Character Development of Month
"Patience"
“Values are the things you believe in. They guide the way you think, you speak, you behave. They also help you to live your life in a meaningful way.”
What is Patience?
Patience is “waiting without getting upset.” Some things just take time—— like waiting turn, not complain when I don’t get my way, accept what cannot be changed, use my time wisely, learning new things, try and try again......
I'm walking on the crooked line with a bean bag on my head. It really needs a lot of patience to keep the bean bag steady on my head while i'm walking.
Can you blow the pompom ball to the end of the line?
Be patience! I believe you can do it!
Sewing button is a challenging work, but I love to try it.
Do you think I can build a car with these tiny beads?
Of course,I can. I have lots of patience!
"There are two 'faiths' which can uphold humans: faith in God and faith in oneself. And these two faiths should exist side by side: the first belongs to one's inner life, the second to one's life in society."
—— Maria Montessori