Week 20, Letter Gg, star word 'go', and CHINESE NEW YEAR Celebrations!

Yep, that's the view out the front windows at the school on Tuesday...pretty cool!

Here are some of the great Chinese New Year Books we have in  our classroom collection...check them out at your favorite library sometime!

 

  

We began our week on Tuesday due to the blizzard.

We played catch up all week!

If anyone ever tells you teachers like snow days,

don't you believe it!

Ugghhh! I plan thoughtful, informative, interesting lessons.

It is so hard to decide what to cut....the kids will miss out on something, and that makes me sad....
Well, okay, I do enjoy snuggling up with my own kiddos when the wind howls and the snow blows.
But I really do feel bad when we get behind...
Safety first...the kids' well being should be everyone's top concern.
Thanks!

So here we are with the last of our beach projects.

Morning Challenges included:

starfish number ordering from 20

Fish ABC Order...

Fish Bowl Numeral/Tens Frame/Number Word Match...

We had 2 guest speakers talk with us about life in China!
Dexter's Mom and Dad shared many interesting facts about the Chinese Culture with us.  Thank you so much!

Here they are showing us China on the map...

This is Dexter's name in Chinese Calligraphy...

They gave each of us a lovely bookmark with 
Chinese writing on it!
Thank you, again!

Oh!  These were so tasty!
They made for us a batch of traditional almond cookies..
MMMMMM!

Sorry, Gina, I cut your head off...
The kiddos had a painting project or two to do with Gina.
We are playing catch up all the time!  Ugghhh!

Painty hands with Mrs. O!

Here is another cute beach project that I cannot resist...
The crabby hand prints!

One of the pictures we painted with Gina was this

crayon resist deep sea divers!

The other crayon resist was 
A House For Hermit Crab...

Both journal pages had us thinking about all of the sea life we learned about during our beach unit...

Cute cute cute!
The crabs are nice, too!

We only had Centers ONCE this week!
Yikes!
This center was comparing the Chinese Culture to American Culture.  We discovered many differences and similarities!

At this station we wrote the names of the Chinese Zodiac Animals!

Here we are counting by 10's using our lucky leises ....red envelopes given as gifts to children in China...

The brain break station was a sticker scene
featuring all 12 of the animals in the Chinese Zodiac.
This is the year of the horse!

Our new read the room activity was to find all the 
Chinese New Year Animals and count them on from 10....
a strategy we've been working on :
just saying 10 as we point to the tens frame, 
and counting on from there to get the correct answer.

Oh Dear!  Looks who's cooking Chinese Noodles!

We all got a new pair of chopsticks and practiced how to use them.
Some kids found other ways to get the noodles into their mouths!

Here are the adorable pandas we made with Mrs. Olson
(Mrs.Kalmes' sub) 
Adorable!!!!

Here's the project we made with Mrs. Pilger...
We learned how to read and write a few words in Chinese!
Such a beautiful written language!

Next was our Dragon Parade!

We slithered in and out of classes wishing everyone 
"Gung Hay Fat Choy!"
Happy Chinese New Year!

This little fella is so proud of his traditional shirt from China!


Here's a little 30 sec movie of the Dragon Parade
while in Mr. Harper's room...

Meanwhile back in the hallway...

and in our classroom...fun, hands-on learning at 
the Chinese New Year station!

We had Chinese New Year Morning Challenges this week:
ABC Order on Lucky Leises...

Counting by 10's on these lucky leises...

Panda Numeric Order...

Everyone got to take home their own lucky leise!

I believe they might have even found a Chinese coin or two tucked inside!

We found enough paper/wood fans left over from 
Kindergarten Plus Days (for those who had kids here a few years ago...our arts and crafts day!)

We painted cherry blossoms on them, then practiced our fan moves!

Wow what a busy week that was!

Now for next week, 
February 3-7

Fitness Fever begins this week! We kick off the month with a 10 minute school wide walk, then every Friday until March!

Join us if you'd like..we begin at 8:25.

Be sure to keep track of your homework for Mrs. Stokke. 

Reading: Letter Ff, star word 'and', vowel short i, blending words

Math: Measurement

Theme: Ground Hogs and wrapping up Chinese New 

Social Studies: Transportation

Science: Winter Weather 

Big News: The P.L.A.Y. Group...Parents for Lewiston-Altura Youthmeeting is rescheduled for Monday, February 3 at 6:30. Child care and snacks are provided...PLEASE COME!