Fieldwork to Joyous Chinese Cultural Center

Today we visited the Joyous Chinese Cultural Center. We experienced many things from the Chinese culture there. We did some papercutting, made our own dumplings, used calligraphy to write some Chinese characters and did some Chinese dance/martial arts. We also ate a yummy lunch there that included the dumplings that we made. We loved meeting all of the Chinese teachers. We all learned so much. Thanks to our chaperones - they were so helpful to have on the trip today.

IA
Our IA next week is Music.

Homework
No homework for the weekend. Enjoy some great books with your child.

Writing Samples

We recently finished writing books about our families and soon we will begin writing books about families in China. We also did some prompted writing as a way for me to check how our writing is progressing. The prompts were very basic so that each child could focus on the mechanics of writing. The prompts included describing our shoes on one day and our hair on another day. We are working on remembering to have good spaces between words, using lowercase letters except for names and the beginning of a sentence, writing neatly, attempting to use end punctuation correctly, and listening carefully to hear all of the sounds in a word when we are spelling them. We also try to remember to use our spelling resources around the room to help us when writing words. Below are a few samples of our writing that made me smile. Click on each picture to see a larger version.

My hair is short. It naturally highlights in the sun. It turns red when it is really sunny. When the sun is normal it turns brown.

My hair is brown with a few gray hairs. My hair is short. It has a tail.

My hair is brown with some blonde strands. Normally is would be straight. Sometimes is would be wavy.

My hair is blonde. My hair goes down to my ears.

My hair is brown. I like my hair in a pony tail. My hair is straight. I have bangs.

My shoe is a size 2. It is a police car. It is very dirty and it has lights on the front and the middle. It says Sketchers on the bottom. My socks are smelly because my feet sweat.

My shoe is red. My feet are smelly. My shoe has laces. My shoe is dirty. My socks are smelly.

My shoe is blue and gray. It has invisible stripes. They are high tops.

My shoe is blue, green and black. It has laces and it says Geofoam. And it has soft padding on the bottom.

My dad is in a big company. My dad has lots of people in his company. He has 1,200.

My mom works at a clothes store. At my mom's store I help my mom count the money.

My dad likes golf. My mom likes to rest. My sister likes shopping. Holland likes her toes. I like to go to school.

I am Sam. Sam I am. I grow like a weed. I am really smart!

My dad is funny. The things that drive me crazy about my dad are: eat spicy food, watch scary movies and most of all...tricking us.

My dad likes to watch TV because he mostly watches the news. My mom likes to put on jewelry because she thinks that its pretty.

My sister throws a fit when my mom puts her coat on. My mom like to go on my dad's computer and look at Facebook.

My grandma likes washing clothes. And she makes the best pancakes. She likes puzzles and she likes Monopoly.

My mom likes serving and she likes Pete the Cat and she likes watching TV and she likes playing soccer.

I am sick. One day I was at a store. Every time I touched something I would put my fingers in my mouth. The next day I stayed in my bed. My tummy hurt for some reason so I laid down most of the day.

Homework
Reading ~ Read a good book or two.
Math ~ Home Link 4.13 Unit 5 Family Letter

Vowels in our Names

We have been learning about vowels and the sounds that they make. Today we made a chart showing the vowels in our first names. Vowels are very important because every word needs one. They are also very tricky because they each make at least two different sounds. Some of them make many sounds - the letter "a" is the trickiest because it can make so many different sounds. We will continue to take a look at vowels and how they work in words.

Homework
Reading ~ Read a good book or two.
Math ~ Home Link 4.12 Color by Number

Math Test on Thursday - including items on completing a part/part/total diagram, filling in a section of a number grid, counting a collection of coins, showing that same amount of money using fewer coins, completing a Frames and Arrows diagram, basic addition facts, telling time to the nearest 5 minute interval

Library
We have library tomorrow. Please help your child remember to return his or her library books.

Lanterns

We have been learning about one of the biggest holidays in China - Chinese New Year (they just call it New Year or Lunar New Year or Spring Festival). We learned that they celebrate by making and/or lighting lanterns during the last day of the two week holiday. Today we made our own version of a lantern and decorated it with some of the Chinese characters we have been learning.

Homework
Reading ~ Read a good book or two.
Math ~ Home Link 4.11 Domino Sums

Math Test on Thursday - including items on completing a part/part/total diagram, filling in a section of a number grid, counting a collection of coins, showing that same amount of money using fewer coins, completing a Frames and Arrows diagram, basic addition facts, telling time to the nearest 5 minute interval

Number Scrolls

Today in math we began working on number scrolls. We took a look at how scrolls are used in other cultures including China and then we began to make our own using numbers. We will see how far each of us can go with writing our numbers. We will continue to add pages as needed. When we are finished we will staple our scrolls to paper towel tubes to make the end pieces of the scrolls. Some of them will be very long! For now we will keep them rolled up inside paper towel tubes in our desk to work on at various times for the next several weeks. We will think about how using patterns on a number grid will help us with this task.

Homework
Reading ~ Read a good book or two.
Math ~ Home Link 4.10 Number Grids

Math Test on Thursday - including items on completing a part/part/total diagram, filling in a section of a number grid, counting a collection of coins, showing that same amount of money using fewer coins, completing a Frames and Arrows diagram, basic addition facts, telling time to the nearest 5 minute interval

Important Dates
12/5 Fieldwork to Joyous Chinese Cultural Center
12/19 Fieldwork to Pacific Ocean Market and King's Land Restaurant
12/22 - 1/5 Winter Break
2/26 Winter Voyage ~ Day 1 - not an overnight trip (Day 2 will be in April - also not an overnight trip)