Chun Jie Kuai Le! Happy Chinese New Year! Wednesday, February 3, the Explorers had a guest—Mrs. Hannah Fong, music/drama teacher from Shenyang, China. Mrs. Fong, who happens to be Mrs. Endres’ daughter, came to share about Chinese culture to support our culture unit. Mrs. Fong helped the class practice the four tones of the Chinese language, write numbers from 1-10 in Chinese characters (and use the hand signs for these numbers as the Chinese use only one hand to count), and use chopsticks to eat popcorn. She taught us about traditional Chinese clothing used for celebrations. We saw slides on how Chinese New Year is celebrated with fireworks, dumplings, noodles, and red envelopes with money gifts. To follow-up Mrs. Fong’s visit, Mrs. Endres will be reading the book, Ruby’s Wish, about a Chinese girl in the early 1930’s who wanted to go to college more than anything in the world at a time when girls only got married. The book shares Ruby’s feelings about the color red and the differences in how girls and boys were treated in her rich grandfather’s house. (He had 100 grandchildren!) Spoiler alert: It has a happy ending. Another book that we will share is Hannah is My Name. This book is about a Chinese girl named Hannah who immigrates to California and her family’s struggle to get a green card so they can stay in this land of opportunity. The book depicts a modern day Chinese family who work hard in a Chinese restaurant to help make ends meet as they hope to elude deportation. Hannah’s joy of being an almost-American and her family’s patriotism will spark thankfulness in all of us that we live in this great land. Our class will also look at a chart from Scholastic News that explains the different animals that represent each new Chinese year. Next week we will also study about the culture of Nepal with the book Namaste about a Sherpa girl who explains what it is like to live so close to Mt. Everest. Mrs. Endres will also share a shawl made from yak fur that Mrs. Fong brought back from her recent trek for six days in the Himalayas. Slides and video clips from that country will also be shared. After these two cultural experiences, the Explorers will be introduced to our country of study, Austria, birthplace of Mrs. Endres’ mother. We will learn about Austrian culture as we research for our country report and prepare for the third grade culture fest at the end of the month. The study will surely include photos, clothing, food, and games from that country. Perhaps a picture of Mrs. Endres with her long braids and dirndl will surface and/or a special visit with Oma (Mrs. Endres’ mother).
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Pizza Fractions After studying fractions of shapes, lines, and sets, Explorers were introduced to equivalent fractions the first week of February. The week began with recognizing fractions that make one whole or one-half. Students then learned to create equivalent fractions using fraction tiles and using multiplication. To reinforce that different numerators/denominators (fractions) could indeed be equivalent, a day was spent working with pizza. Students shared the Jerry Pallotta book, Pizza Fractions, watched two short pizza fraction video clips, used pizza fraction puzzle pieces, created a pizza equivalent fraction chart in their math journals, and helped divide two cookie pizzas to create equivalent fractions. Yummo! *See Photo Gallery for pictures. |
AuthorHello! My name is Heidi…I love my family, the Lord, and chai tea lattes! I’m a wife to an amazing husband, mama to four wonderful kids, new Grammy to a cute baby boy, and a chubby 3rd grade teacher. (I've eaten too many birthday cupcakes!) I love people, learning, and creating. Thanks for stopping by! May you be blessed today as you bless others. Archives
March 2020
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