Winnie Bears – December 7-January 15, 2010

Dear Winnie Bear Families,

新年快乐！Happy New Year! =) I hope everyone had a fantastic vacation.

Before break, we spent some time talking about the different winter holidays, such as Christmas (圣诞节), Kwanzaa (宽札节), and Hanukkah (光明节). We put up a Christmas tree and made ornaments as well as other winter holiday crafts. At the Christmas party, the children performed “Jingle Bells” in Chinese.
雪花随风飘，花露在奔跑，圣诞老公公，驾着美丽雪橇，穿过了原野，渡过了小桥，老公公背着大礼物要送给小朋友。叮叮当，叮叮当，铃儿响叮当，今晚坐在雪橇上，我们都很快乐。

After coming back from break, we spent some time reviewing and continued our unit on “My Family.”

Language: Vocabulary
Below is a list of theme specific vocabulary words that have been introduced:
1. Mother – 妈妈 （mama）
2. Father – 爸爸 （baba）
3. Older Brother – 哥哥 （gege）
4. Older Sister – 姐姐 （jiejie）
5. Younger Brother – 弟弟 （didi）
6. Younger Sister – 妹妹 （meimei）

Reading: Stories
We read many books by Todd Parr, involving families and family members. We discussed the many different family dynamics and family compositions.

Mathematics: Shapes
We played BINGO to reinforce the concept of shapes. Some of the shapes introduced were: circle (圆形-yuan xing), triangle (三角形-san jiao xing), square (正方形-zheng fang xing), rectangle (长方形-chang fang xing), oval (椭圆形-tuo yuan xing), and hexagon (六角形-liu jiao xing).

Music: 家
We learned a new song called “家.”
我家门前有小河，后面有山坡
山坡上面野花多，野花红仪火。

Body Movement:
We have been doing body movements such as morning stretches and exercises.

Art: “My Family” Book
We have been making a book of us with different members of our immediate and extended family. We also made a picture that showed the people in our immediate family.

Social/Emotional:
We spent some time this week discussing acceptance and what it means to be a friend. We talked about how, although we may look different on the outside, we are all the same. We also talked about what it feels like to have someone say that they are not your friend anymore and how we should treat our friends. We wrapped up by having each child draw a picture of them with a friend.

Next week, we will continue our second unit, and talk about extended family members.

Thanks,
Katherine
1/15/10