Monday, January 30, 2012
Saturday, January 28, 2012
Ballet and Bella's b-day party
Thursday, January 26, 2012
Tuesday, January 24, 2012
Monday, January 23, 2012
school update: Dragons and Amaryllis flowers
Dragons and Amaryllis flowers 01/27/2012
This week began with the Green Room celebrating the Chinese New Year. Ming Ming's mom, Isha, came in to do a special art project with us. Because it is the year of the dragon she helped the students make dragon hand puppets. With long tails and big mouths the kids had a blast zooming their dragons through the room and were clearly very proud of their creations. Don't forget to check out the pictures page for a few examples of their work. Isha also helped us act out a folk tale which told the story of how the Chinese year's came to be named after certain animals. The children enjoyed taking on the roles of the animals and treasured the headbands which Isha made with their animal symbols.
We also learned to count to 10 in Chinese which has inspired a new class passion - counting to 10 in a variety of languages. At the beginning of the week we discovered we could already do English, Hebrew, Spanish, and French. With Isha's help we added Chinese and then at the end of the week Bella's family taught us Swahili, German, and Kisei. If your family speaks a language that we haven't listed here, we'd love for you to help us learn to count in it!
We spent the rest of the week examining and learning about our new amaryllis bulb. Examining the bulb the children made predictions about what they thought would grow out of such a unique looking specimen. They began learning about the parts of the amaryllis flower, a process which they will continue next week.Though the end of January may seem like an odd time to be learning about growing plants, we are getting ready for the holiday of Tu B'Shevat, which is the holiday of the trees. This year the holiday falls on Wednesday, February 8. Next week we'll begin talking more about trees.
--Hannah and Emily
Sunday, January 22, 2012
新年快樂! Entering the year of Dragon!
爸爸給婆婆拜年
This is my first time really celebrating Chinese New Year in America. Objectively, it is mainly because Popo is here, and also that there is a Chinatown in Chicago that we can find ingredients approximating what we get in China. It is great that we marked the Chinese new year with such festivity, but it also feels strangely settled, like I am here for good. Student days are characteristically marked with lack. Home is elsewhere and so are holidays - which we typically celebrated elsewhere or not at all. Not celebrating Chinese new year is a way of telling myself that I am not home. Celebrating it is a sign that I am trying to find a sense of home here, I guess.
I know that there is still a lot of uncertainty ahead, but for 2012, Chicago is home.
This is my first time really celebrating Chinese New Year in America. Objectively, it is mainly because Popo is here, and also that there is a Chinatown in Chicago that we can find ingredients approximating what we get in China. It is great that we marked the Chinese new year with such festivity, but it also feels strangely settled, like I am here for good. Student days are characteristically marked with lack. Home is elsewhere and so are holidays - which we typically celebrated elsewhere or not at all. Not celebrating Chinese new year is a way of telling myself that I am not home. Celebrating it is a sign that I am trying to find a sense of home here, I guess.
I know that there is still a lot of uncertainty ahead, but for 2012, Chicago is home.
Saturday, January 21, 2012
New Year Party 1
snow ball fight
with Xiao Hu and Oscar
Friday, January 20, 2012
Celebrating Anup!
Our friend, Anup, got her PhD today! The sad part of the story is that she is leaving us for Europe right away.
Wednesday, January 18, 2012
after 4 days of fever, ballet class at FRC
Ming Ming had high fever during four days. When we finally took her to the doctors on Tuesday (Monday was public holiday), the doctor announced another case of ear infection. She was miserable for four full days, and on Wednesday, finally we took her out a bit to the ballet class. She was so happy to be around kids again.
Saturday, January 14, 2012
Thursday, January 12, 2012
Thank you MoMo and KauKau!
and it finally snowed!
our courtyard
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