Ok, this blogging thing is a lot harder then I thought it would be. Here's why:
1) Taking photos without kids in it when there's always kids around.
2) There just isn't enough time in the day.
3) I have been living on my iPhone and not on my laptop, which makes blogging way more difficult.
Enough with the excuses. Here's what we are up to in the classroom...
Blues in the School
This is the second year in a row we've had this group come into our school. They have several Blues musicians come into the grades 2-5 classrooms and they have mini lessons for each group. I have to say that this year I was a little disappointed with lessons. Almost all the lessons were exactly the same as last year's lessons. For our older kids, this was way too repetitious. It was also less interactive compared to last year, most of the time the kids spent sitting and listening to someone talk. It would have been nice to have them move around, listen to the music, and play instruments if possible. Even with those complaints I have to say I do appreciate what this group does.
Chinese New Year
Being Chinese American I always love to celebrate Chinese New Year in my classroom. It's a chance for students to understand the cultural differences and to respect those differences. It always pains me to hear a student say something like, "that's a Chinese cut". I'm always like, "Really, did the Chinese invent that cut? Why would you say that?". Of course they never have an answer. During this time of the year, I get to show them what it really means to be Chinese. They always enjoy this time of year.
The Friday before Chinese New Year we did our craft stations. Students rotated to 5 different stations. At one station they made a bamboo watercolor painting with me, at another station they tried to solve a variety of tangrams, at another station they made panda masks out of paper plates, at another station they learned Chinese phrases from a CD while coloring in picture, and the final station was coloring a sheet that would later be turned into a three dimensional lantern. Of course I couldn't do this without an army of volunteers. I had 6 of them so they could help man the stations. This year the stations felt very crowded and it also felt like we were climbing over each other. Not as smooth as I would have liked.
On Monday, Chinese New Year, we had a special guest speaker talk to us about her travels to China. Our special guest was a great grandmother of one of my students. She did a fabulous job. We also made won tons in class. I had a small group help me cook the filling, which was made possible because my principal watched my math class for me. Then we had the whole class learn how to fold won tons. Then we cooked it up and I had also purchased Chow mein and potstickers, which a parent dropped off. To add to our meal we had made rice and torn up some oranges. Of course, a Chinese meal isn't complete without a fortune cookie and some lucky candy. Overall it's a spendy meal, but it's so worth it. I added up the cost of the meal and it came out to only around $2.50 per child, which doesn't sound bad but times that by 28 students and it wipes out my non-existent classroom budget.
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| They also had to learn how to use chopsticks. |
Valentine's Day at Skateworld
Yes, that's how I feel about Valentine's Day! Just kidding. It actually was a smooth day for us. We went to SkateWorld from 9-11:30, ate lunch in the classroom, recess, 30 min. of reading groups (the only academic thing most of us did that day), then it was the Valentine's exchange with pancakes (I know it's an odd combination but it works), and then we did a Valentine's Bingo.
It's funny how students will not remember to get you something for Teacher's Appreciation Day or the last day of school, but I always get showered with gifts for Valentine's Day. My husband also did good showering me with gifts that day :).
Now you are all caught up!
