This 6-day week we celebrated Valentine's day by reading a book about the holiday for each grade level.
The 3rd and 4th gradesrs loved Zombie in Love by Kelly DiPucchio. The illustrations by Scott Campbell were amazing - everytime I read the book, I discovered something new. I ended up really liking How Spider saved Valentine's Day. The illustrations were simple but perfect for younger grades. Olive, my love was a wonderful book. It provided so many clever ways to discuss things such as, "What does it mean if someone has a big heart? If someone gives their heart to someone else, what does that mean?"
Zim2 donated a large box of "valentines/trading cards" advertising the video game "Luigi's Dark Mansion 2." The students loved receiving these sheets. I can't thank them enough for their generous donation.
For the Chinese New Year, we read My First Chinese New Year in most of the younger classes. That little book had great pictures of Chinatown New Year parades and those illustrations were a great way to show Chinese Lion Dancers and the Dragon that ends the parade.
| Chinese lion dancers - clip art |
| Chinese lion dancers on pedestals |
All classes discussed the Chinese zodiac and learned that this was The Year of the Snake.
Miss Jennifer and I discovered we were both born in years of the Snake.
After figuring out in what year the classes were born we tried to determine the "animal" sign the class was born under. Kindergarteners, for example, discovered they were born in the Year of the Pig. This was not a popular idea with them.
I found the best youtube video of a Chinese Lion Dancing competition in Hawai'i in 2007. This 9 minute video was a huge hit with every grade level.
Gung Hay Fat Choy (Happy New Year!)
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