Last Tuesday we continued our year long partnership with the fourth graders. We celebrated the Chinese culture with food, crafts, singing, games and stories. The fourth graders from Mrs.Straka’s class were our tour guides. Each student was responsible to guide a group of 2-4 Kindergarten students through five centers.

The Craft Center and Lantern Instructions

Each child created a lantern with a picture of a bird, animal or fish on it. The lanterns are used in China for the Lantern festival which is 10 days after the Chinese New Year and marks the end of the New Year celebration. Lanterns are used to symbolize lighting your way to a brighter future.

Each child listened to the story Cleversticks by Bernard Ashley. The little boy in the story was so sad because his friends could do things that he couldn’t do. He soon discovered that he could delight his friends with his ability to use chopsticks!

We continued a traveling suitcase which will house a reflective piece of writing for each student about the country of study.
Today we drew pictures and wrote about what we have learned about China. We liked the cookies, making the flag and playing a bean game with chopsticks.

The fourth graders taught us a new game, Fan Tan, using beans and chopsticks. We divided beans between us equally.

The Music Center
The fourth graders had recorded the music of Cherry Blossoms, Sakura, in their Music classes.  While the children rotated
throughout the centers, the music which was prerecorded was playing for all to listen to.
 

SAKURA(CHERRY BLOSSOMS)((a Japanese old song. The writer is unknown))   Cherry blossoms, cherry blossoms In fields, mountains, villages we see them all around Are they mist or clouds? They are giving forth a sweet scent in the morning sun Cherry blossoms, cherry blossoms in full bloom Cherry blossoms, cherry blossoms In March skies we see them all around Are they mist or clouds? A sweet scent is coming out Now, let us go and see them!

We enjoyed fortune cookies and a rice snack mix. The fortune cookies were a big hit. We were delighted to see traditional clothing, coins, pictures and books from China.

We looked at the flag of China and colored a red background with 1 large yellow star and 4 small yellow stars.

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