A little Chinese Culture

I was in Sean's classroom on Feb. 3 as his teacher spent the day introducing them to the Chinese New Year. She is half Chinese, though she doesn't speak the language. She said her mom doesn't speak it because her grandparents didn't speak it in the home when her mom was growing up.
A real shame. Sean has had Chinese (Mandarin) language classes and knows a few words, but I'd love him to have more.

I was helping the students with weaving that day. I brought in a project I've used before and worked with some of the kids who didn't get to do it last time.
I had planned to be there for only about an hour, but the project takes some time to set up and more students wanted to work with it so I was there until after lunch.

My aunt Bennie donated a bag full of yarn, and Chuck and I gathered the sticks from his property that we used to hold the yarn in place. We use 12 strings of yarn and tie them around the stick. We could have used pencils, but the kids really like the sticks. Chuck cut them to size. They can either tuck each end into their front belt loops, or I use another piece of yarn as a belt to attach to each end of the stick so it is held around their waist. Then the loose ends are tied in a knot and attached to something sturdy to allow the yarn to stretch out taut. These kids LOVE hand work. I love that they have the freedom to do it, and I think it is beneficial on so many levels.

While I was helping a couple of students with the yarn, Ms. Diamond read a story about Chinese food and the customs used while eating at a Chinese restaurant. Then she randomly assigned students to groups by pulling names written on popsicle sticks from a box. She read a poem about a Chinese New Year celebration for them a couple of times and they were to organize a drama based on the words of the poem.

She gave them a few minutes to plan the drama and then each group performed as she read the poem again. They were all awesome. It was fun to watch.  Sean and another boy hopped around with their hands in the air. When each group finished their performance others asked questions or made comments about how to improve it.
Ms. Diamond asked Sean why they were running with their hands in the air and he said, "Oh, we were the guys inside the dragon making it move."

I had to go because I was starving, but they had a celebration at 1 p.m. that included Chinese food and each child got a red envelope. She said she still gets a red envelope from her mother for Chinese New Year.

When we got home Sean's friend Kyle came over for a while. I fixed pot stickers as part of the celebration to reinforce what he had learned that day. Kyle stayed and had some pot stickers and we talked about the Chinese New Year and all of the things Sean learned about it that day.