We just got celebrating the beloved Christmas, but this year I had the opportunity to also focus on my personal favorite, Veteran's Day! We were able to have family members that are veterans to come visit us, share their experience, and we were able to share a little song of gratitude with them. We were so grateful for their time, and making the day so much more meaningful. I've posted some videos of our Veterans' Day Poppy Song, and our Christmas Sing-A-Long performance. Hope you enjoy!
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There is so much to catch up on! This year has already started off with a bang, and I have been loving every minute. This year has been a bit different with having to teach both English and Chinese, however, I have loved the learning opportunities of teaching a child how to read and write. The past couple of months we have had lots of visitors. Parents helping in centers, Meet the Masters, Humane Society, Parents to talk about their jobs in the community, Halloween parties, and witch readings. I can never do my job without the help of the parents and the community. Thank you all for your time! I'm still in shock how quickly this year went by! Going through photos of the year, I was reminded of so many wonderful memories I made with each child. This group came each day with excitement to learn and the tenacity to keep trying even when things got hard. It was a great year of growth for me as I discovered new ways to integrate technology, discovered new artists to help inspire our monthly art projects, and experimented more with STEM inspired lessons. There were so many days I went home and thought, I LOVE MY JOB! I know the summer is a worry, for me and you, of losing all the language that was learned. Please continue with Mandarin Matrix. I will add books through the summer. To practice with the writing, use my web page to be directed to the characters we learned this year. When you click on each character, it will provide an animation of the stroke order. Finally, I will post a link to sign up for a free account to a website called Quizlet. This is also a great resource because it provides flashcards, games, and practice for the characters we've learned. They've been specifically designed by me. You can also download and play on any device. Quizlet Link: https://quizlet.com/join/UQQ5zKDF7 Here are a few pics from our last day of first grade. I hope you enjoy and that you have a fantastic summer! It was our second year of our spring play, The Very Hungry Caterpillar! This year I decided to integrate more Chinese for the non-immersion students as well. We had a fantastic time and it was so fun to see everyone involved in our DLI program! I'm still in shock our year is coming to an end! This is my favorite part of the year as their language is blooming and they are making more connections in their learning. This is what keeps me going August through December. I know this program brings amazing results and I feel so lucky to be a part of it all! This year I've been trying to experiment more with art and STEM integration. It's tricky to manage and provide language for them to use while experimenting, but our float or sink challenge was a success! It was a great way to end our water unit, and to investigate how many pennies their tin foil boat could hold without sinking. I love to integrate art as much as possible! I came across the artist, Ellsworth Kelly and I knew he was the perfect inspiration for an introduction to our geometry unit. His love for shapes and bright colors were a perfect match and the kids loved it! I think this one of my most favorite units of the year! It incorporates so much of the language we have learned during the year! Their task is to create an actual monster out of various materials, and they were also required to write a story as well about the monster they created. It gets the kids engaged and the language flowing! This last week we had our school art show and the students were able to display their final product of our water unit! I was able to work with our art integration specialist to reinforce our water unit I had previously taught in Chinese. They were exposed to new artists and art techniques while learning about our earth's water. They did a fantastic job, and we our so lucky to have our art teacher, Ms. Widner!On Friday, we had our APEX fun run fundraiser! The kids did a fantastic job and they all ran their little hearts out! Thank you for all the donations and support. It was so fantastic to see parents come to volunteer and to cheer us on. Spring Lane parents know how to rock it! |