On the last day of the Term 2, we celebrated the Dragon Boat
Day at school this afternoon by making zong- zi/粽子
(Glutinous Rice Dumplings) under the Grandma Wu’s instructions.  She gave a professional step by step demonstration
to all the students and the parents.  Her
skills and experience made making zong-zi seem easy and kept her audience busy.
 With the little ones, we only watched
the demo, and had the privilege to taste the pre-cooked zong-zi with our
parents! What fun!!

Before we made our way to the hall for the zong-zi tasting,
we had a bit of fun on making “candy zong-zi” in our own room.  We used the Newspaper and cellophane to be the
pretend bamboo leaves, and all sorts of lollies to be the fillings.  I invited parents joining us to have fun with
their children as well lending a helping hand to the kids since it could be
tricky & fiddly for those little hands to tie up zong-zi with strings.  Everyone had made one candy zong-zi to take
home.  Thanks to my teacher friend Joanne
shared this CUTE idea with me!  I hope my
little friends made the connection when they saw Grandma Wu showing them how to
make the REAL zong-zi after!

We were busy colouring Long-zhou /龍舟(dragon
boat)  for making the head piece to wear  for the Dragon Boat Racing on the 2^nd
half of the 2^nd session.  Somehow
all the children were carried away and got into a play mode.  Some children became really chatty. They
talked and played, laughed then shout while the rest of class were doing their
work quietly!  Finally I pulled my face
down, and Jo-Jo asked me, you are angry aren’t you?  And Milla said, let’s make Sarah happy!   (Ha! I must’ve looked grumpy!)  It was really unusual that class in such
chaos, I wondered if kids could sense the festival mood in the air from the
hall!

All the children finally had their head piece assembled; we
headed down to the hall for the racing game. 
With Ms Anies’s class, the kids were in 2 lines, and they just needed to
run their way around the chair in front of them… I think all kids had a ball.  Thanks very much to Ms Anies invited our
class to join them for this fun activity.

In our 1^st session, we reviewed our bopomo, and
Chinese numbers 1~10 with singing, reciting and doing some worksheets.  Kids could recite 1~10 in Chinese, but it was
a challenge to mach the Chinese Characters. 
We shall continue to practise and improve it next Term.  With such tight schedule today, I had to
apologize to Justin & Ethan that we didn’t have time for the
Show&Tell.  I knew they both had
brought along some fantastic stuff to share with everyone!

 A big thank you to
Cora, Lester & Leanne’s Mummy, made a delicious sponge cake to share with class.  With the help from Catherine, Kahlil’s Mummy,
children enjoyed the cake in the garden at the 1^st recess.  I loved kids’ innocent reaction when they saw
the cake.  Instantly they asked around,
whose birthday is it?!  We had fun sing happy
birthday song, and then tried the Chinese version too.  While these were all happening in the recess
time, we resumed to our 2^nd session upstairs, kids pulled out their
snacks and told me, we haven’t had our snack time yet!! 

One custom of the Dragon Boat Festival is, trying to make
the hard-boiled egg to stand up on one end at NOON.  If it succeeds it would bring you luck!!  I prepared 10 hard-boiled eggs for our
children to try their luck too, although we missed the right time!  Milla, Jo-Jo and Leanne were the lucky girls
today!!  Some kids actually wanted to eat
the eggs rather than trying to stand the eggs up!!

This was the last class of the Term 2.  I wish everyone a great break!  See you all on July 21!!

各位親愛的家長, 今天大家都包了粽子,
也應該都托了我們小朋友的福,當場有機會品嚐到吳媽媽的經湛手藝!機會真的一年只有一次哪!
我們班也都包了糖果粽,我想吃糖果的控制權就交給爸媽了,但重點是希望小朋友粽子對粽子有點概念.
如果您的小朋友今年是第一次接觸到粽子, 不懂或不愛吃也沒關係.來年他們就知道更多端午節的相關習俗!去年我女兒不太吃粽子,
今年吃的開心極了!

我們小朋友今天畫了3 艘龍舟!!(我也覺得有點多!
這是我的錯,因為我並沒搞清楚Anies老師的意思, 以為兩艘都要畫…
Anyway,小朋友可能會一輩子忘不了”龍”舟^^) 其中1艘是立體的,2艘是為了賽龍舟的頭飾,但有可能幾為小朋友來不及黏上第2艘,
就出發了.

我們覆習了ㄅㄆㄇ還有中文書寫的一二三. 讓小朋友做小老師,拿指揮棒唱ㄅㄆㄇ,
每個小朋友都很喜歡! 一到十, 十到一反覆念, 但認字形仍有大困難.下學期將按步練習書寫認字.因
時間緊湊,有一些該覆習的也沒時間做. 這我都會放在下學期的第一堂課做.

端午節正午要立蛋. 雖然時間不對,但我還是煮了熟蛋讓小朋友試著立蛋.哈,果真有3個小女生成功..
小男生把玩著蛋, 可能較沒耐心, 反而問我可不可吃蛋!今天小朋友都很high,(不知道為什麼哩?)
所以秩序真的很差, 整個教室總是亂哄哄的!  謝謝麗燕和文財的媽媽為班上做了個蛋糕, 小朋友非常開心!!只可惜我沒吃到…

時間真的過的好快,第2學期今天結束了.希望大家有個愉快的假期.  7月21日見嘍!!

We had 3 little friends absent this afternoon, but
it seemed a lot quieter somehow.  Especially with the late arrival of some
children, we had to start a bit later than usual. It would be nice if everyone
could get to school on time which I know it might be a bit hard as lots of us
traveling a long way to get to school. The trafic could be bad from time to time!

The school is going to celebrate the Dragon
Boat Day Festival next Sat by making 粽子/Zong
Zi.  I thought I better making sure my
all kids know about “Dragon” since we had quite a few new kids in class that
had missed out the topic in Term 1.  This
was also to prepare next week’s Dragon Boat Festival teaching plan, and another
good reason to learn as it is the Year of Dragon. 

I started class with the Dragon craft, and some kids had done it at the start of the Year.  I chose it just out of my own interest to
find out how kids had matured in last few months, and how it might be shown in
their artwork.   It was a gorgeous dragon
to make but it was such a tedious job. Tracing their hands, colouring them,
cutting the patterns out, paste them together to form a dragon.  Children enjoyed colouring their own hands,
making different patterns as they were chatting along with their mates.  And all Dragon were very different!!  However Jo-Jo, Kahlil and Philianan the 3
little friends absent today were all part of our new crew! 

As part of the plan, we reviewed the Dragon/龍
by my Taiwanese 2012 Dragon stamps booklet that has got a 3D dragon on one page.
The Dragon did impress all the kids, and they all touched it for good-luck! I
made up the later part, but all the children touched the dragon with excitement
and a big smile.  Also I showed them a
Chinese calendar that’s full of lovely of dragon images on the different
objects from all the different dynasties. 
We admired the pictures together and talked about it.  I am sure kids know the difference about
DINOSAUR/ 恐龍(kong3
long2) and DRAGON/ 龍(long2)now.  As they both are long2/ 龍in
Chinese. 

I was going to show kids the videos about the
story of “the Dragon Boat Day”, but the broadband didn’t work.  ^^..  
So I played part of the DVD – The Emperor’s Treasure Chests, that I
purchased from the Palace Museum in Taipei early this Year.  It’s such an interesting and detailed
introduction of the Emperor Qian Long’s mini toy boxes, I chose English sound
track instead of Chinese simply just for kids’ pleasure only.  Most kids sat still in front of the pc, but a
couple of them found it hard to concentrate, maybe because it wasn’t animation?

We practised the 1~10 in Chinese today before
they started the Joint-the-Dots. 
Children should have a rough idea about the square Chinese letters of
those ten numbers, and know how to recite them. 
Also I printed their Chinese names out and asked them to draw a picture
of themselves next to their names.  It
was so personal & unique! I like it.

I had them to build a Lego house of their own
when they finish their own portrait. Eventually everyone joined the group and
making their own houses.  We then had the
Show&Tell time together as well showing the Lego houses built by our little
designers!  Before I called it a day, I
read a picture book by Anthony Browne called Bear Goes to Town, and kids just
loved it!

Milla, 蜜菈
is the Chinese name I give her, they both sound very similar.  Milla is such a delight to have in class.  She surprised me with the colours she learned
from weeks before, not many of them but she remembered them all!  She showed great interests in learning Chinese.  She is so friendly with everyone.  She loves PINK!

美娥跟同學的互動很溫和,
專心的时後很專心,非常喜歡寫字畫畫,她的畫都很有想法;但在團體活動中也容易分心,常拿起身邊可以拿到的東西玩,
或開始和同學聊天.
是個很有主見的一個孩子.

麗燕個性較穩重,
也很大而化之,
跟大家都好相處.  當她進來坐到蜜菈旁邊時,兩個女孩就和氣地交談起來,感覺很棒.
也很專心聽課,
有大姐風範.

文財很溫馴,
不太說話,  就用大眼睛聽和說和看.
除非我點他回答,
不然幾乎一聲都不吭.
但他卻無聲的在進步…   今天帶了黃色的ben10
超人來show&tell,
當大家齊聲跟他說謝謝的时後,
他露出了緬腆的微笑.

小五今天很棒,
雖然上課前跌了一跤傷了小指,可並不影響上課情緒.3個小時都笑咪咪的,
除了銘楷離開去party時有些不捨,但很快就忘了離別的惆悵.
沒有銘楷相伴,
似乎也不影響上課的專心度.

銘楷真是演技派的!開場時,手中拿著嘔吐袋臉色蒼白,害我都擔心起來.
爸爸告訴我他已經嘔吐袋拿了兩個星期了!會出其意,我告訴爸爸,我知道了!!
直到爸爸離開前銘楷都病厭厭的,不願意活動.
爸爸一離開,我把他左手中的嘔吐袋拿下來,擺在他桌前左上方,又把他右手中的超人玩具放在嘔吐袋旁邊,告訴他:我在這裡,我會照顧你,現在你先畫畫吧!
我拉起他的手來描起他的手形..
不一會兒他就談笑風生起來!
根本就忘了嘔吐袋的存在…^^

宇澤今天也是開心果一個!
天真中文夾雜著道地的英文,
太適合他可愛的混血臉孔!
太多的對另人宛爾的對話我卻只記得第一個,他用很多顏色塗滿他的手形,我稱讚他,好漂亮的彩虹顏色的手喔!
他喜孜孜地問我,妳也喜歡彩虹的手嗎?
 但宇澤的注意力似乎不長,有時很快就分心了,給他一點時間再把他拉回來.
大家在做Lego
house 的時候,他也玩但沒做成房子.
當我跟大家說就要開始Show&Tell
嘍!

他環顧四周,只聽他說,I
better make a Lego house… 這才肯動手!

馮宇一直都給我像個小大人的感覺.
時而童心未泯!
上課的時候超認真的,反應也很快,認真到皺著眉頭聽課!但”兒童”畢竟是他的真正身分,
瘋起來的時候就原形畢露了!
可喜的是,
我的威嚴仍可把他壓下來..
是個講理的小孩.
話說今天他的書包落在家,所以沒點心可吃…第一堂下課只聽他振振有詞跟身邊同學說,
你們要分享你們的餅乾給我,因為我媽媽把我的書包放在家了…
ha ha

*********請在藍色小方格中輸入中文, 下方九宮格便會展示出正確書寫筆順*******

*********type a word in the blue square to see the correct stroke-order*************

---

************中文配對遊戲/matching games****************

以上兩免費筆順工具及遊戲均採自-連同學的華語數位教學部落格.
^^感謝連老師!

3 hours went fast this afternoon, I felt like I didn’t
quite actually give out enough to fill the children up before they say
adios.  Unfortunately I erased my
Teaching Plan at the start of the class by mistake, what a disaster!  However I got the map in mind, with the
materials on hand hopefully I didn’t think I lose it too much.  But the broadband went funny this arvo, that
disappointed kids a bit, and me too, as I couldn’t quite get the result I
wanted from it.  However kids did enjoy
every bits of it. Thanks again to Louis providing our class the wireless
broadband for the use.

We started with drawings as usual awaiting the rest of
class to show up; then it was the BoPoMo section when ready.  Reinforcing the 37 alphabets by reciting
them, plus singing the song together, kids were keen!  Again and again, girls then boys, then
altogether.. Some of them were quite good actually, thanks to Mummies or
Daddies home playing the video for the children; and they had present confidence
in this section.  If your child hasn’t
quite got it yet, please don’t rush him/her into it, they will catch up in time
when they are ready! 

Then went on to the Han-Zi animation films-A little
bird (which we only watched half of it, then the internet connection was no
good.) The internet came active again at the 1^st recess; I played a
couple of short cartoons-Pororo that already translated into Mandarin which
kept children stayed in class engaged!

At one point I saw Melissa & Louis both sitting
behind the children, helping me out by hand drawing the alphabets for class. I
felt really awful, as if I was a slave driver.. :<   Yet we are so lucky to have parent helpers
like that.

We shared a picture book brought in by William, the
underground 100 story house.  It surely
was another fantastic story book by the Japanese writer, 岩井俊雄.  It’s the squeal of The 100 story house that
we had read last Sat.  Children were very
interested in the wonderful illustration on each page.  Pity there were 11 kids (plus me 12) sharing
1 picture book, it was hard to maintain kids at their best the whole time, and
the story seemed going on forever.  And
yet when the recess bell rang, some children insisted to finish the last 2 pages!
 And some were ready for their snacks.

After the story, I had the kids to design & draw
their own houses upon their own wishs. Most of them did, and a couple decided
to work on the Bopomo sheets.  We had a
circle time for the Show&Tell, and the rest also had the chances to share
the art works they had made in class.  They
also asked to bring their artwork home for showing Mum & Dad.

Ethan was not well today. This was very first time he
didn’t make it to the Chinese Class.  Lester and Leanne still needed a little more
time to recover from their cold.  :<

We had a new friend today, Nadia, a friend of Milla’s.  She tried her best to imitate the Bopomo pronunciation
and sing the song together with everyone, and the fact that she made the effort
of saying it, I was very impressed!  It’s
a good start for a little girl learning a foreign language.

Milla was fantastic today.  She really tried to say her Mandarin, and
full of enthusiasm.  She did really well
when singing the Bopomo song, and got the 37 orders correctly on the chart.  I think the maturity helps her a lot.  She is ready for challenge.

Jo-Jo was doing great too. She was always pleasant and
so feminine, and knowing what she wanted to do. 
She enjoyed working on the Bopomo sheets, and did a great job at
Show&Tell with the Barbie doll she brought in along.

Kahlil was a little quiet at the start, but soon he was
fully woken up from his afternoon sleep,… 
until the 3^rd hour he started to show a little unsettled.  When coloured his airplane, he was the only one
in class did both sides, and did it symmetrically!  He also did well at the Bopomo section! Well
done.

Justin was a bit lost without Ethan’s presence, yet he
quickly regained her confidence with Kahlil’s company in class.  He was a little shy as usual, but he made sure
you know he needs your attention. He also had the habit to put things into his
mouth to chew.  He was fully engaged with
the activity when designing his
Underground Party.  Great job.

Angus was full of fun. 
He was easily distracted when doing group work, but he could do a great
job on his own if he wanted to.  宇澤想像力很豐富,雖然不怎麼愛寫愛畫,今天的”房子自由設計” 做得很棒, 很有宇澤的風格!!
後來寫字時, 他跟助教老師說幫他一起寫….
哈哈,好好笑J 很可愛

美娥很乖巧,不會大聲說話,但也很有主見, 今天ㄅㄆㄇ讀得很好. 畫畫寫字都很用心..平常group
work時容易分心,但今天不錯. 跟姐姐感情好,每堂休息時間都要去找姐姐, 姐姐也很懂事, 上課了就把妹妹帶回來!

愛雯下午很不一樣, 不停咬東西,髮夾,筆套,衣服上的帶子..
是情緒不安?爸爸來接她時才知道她不舒服.  她的注音符號學得不錯. 一般也都很踴躍發言, 今天卻話不太多. 故事讀完後面的房子設計她卻不太有想法, 也許真的累了.

今天很謝謝馮宇的故事書,更難得的是,我請他不要透露故事內容,所以其他小朋友有機會去發現書中所有的驚奇! 對一個4歲的小男孩是件不容易的事,但他真的做到了, 展現成熟的一面!他設計的房子全程secrecy,用手遮住不讓人看,哈哈… 最後下課時, 我一把被一位家長抓住, 沒機會問他到底他的主題是什麼…

因為有幾位家長不懂中文, 只好請我們2種語言都能懂的家長包涵一下用英文做我的教學日記, 他們肯定也很想知道他們孩子在課堂上學了些什麼. 英文也是我的第2 語言, 所以不足的地方請多指教.  下午珉妃的媽媽來告訴我, 珉妃跟媽媽說想快快長大好到我的班級來上課….
聽了好窩心! 小珉妃真的是個人見人愛的機伶娃娃! 說起話來卻像小大人,超級可愛..
最後把家當搬回車上時遇到玉尹和爸爸,姐姐們朝他們的車走去, 小小玉尹在耍寶^^
跟以往文靜形象大不同! 哈哈, 好可愛真的!
Anies 老師應該教得不錯, 小娃娃開開心心回家!