Pine Garden Newsletter – November 30 – December 11, 2009

Greeting Pine Garden families,

The Pine Garden biweekly review and planners are listed below:

Language/ Geography/ History/ Art
After Thanksgiving, we were discussing how our families celebrate this holiday, and how different families have their own way to spend time with people who are important to them. We learned how to greet people by Thanksgiving holiday. (感恩节快乐／Happy Thanksgiving) And we got to know most of Thanksgiving food we had through discussion, such as 火鸡／turkey, 南瓜派／pumpkin pie, 薯泥／mashed potato, 豆子／green beans, 面包／bread, 玉米／corn, 火锅／hot pot. For the writing class, we learn how to write 感恩节/Thanksgiving, and 雨/the rain, 不(bu4)/no/negative, 长(zhang3)/grow 做/to be/ do/make, 乐/ happy/joyful, from both our inquiry and the rhythm that we have been reading. Also, for 2nd graders, the students have to know how to write about all the Thanksgiving food.

Math
While we were improving our practical skills of addition and subtraction, the students seemed to need to be more familiar with how to divide 10 into two numbers, such as 3+7, 6+4, 2+8 etc.. So, we kept practicing the skill through drawings, games and magic tricks. We will bring home the game to share with family next week.

During these couple of weeks, our 2nd graders have been learning the formula for multiplication, and we were practicing 3’s by playing snow flakes.

Social Studies/ PES/ Art
In the week of end of November, we finally figured out what kind of food we had for Thanksgiving and tried to draw them, and then discussed this with the class. We learned how to say and write most of the Thanksgiving food names through playing a game called 记忆游戏/ memory game (very similar to UNO game). We found out all the dishes through discussion and recognized we all had very different food for Thanksgiving under cultural perspectives. And we talked about how to look after people who don’t have family or food to celebrate holidays. Since we brought food to donate to the food bank of Alameda, we talked about where the food would go to the family who needs it. Also, this year, the Hanukkah holiday was in between November and December, our class learned about how Jewish people would celebrate this eight-day-long fest. Luckily, Teacher Lisa Jean is an expert in this holiday, so we’ve learned lots cultural practice, customs, and music from her. We learned how to say and write 光明节/ Hanukkah, 烛台/ Hanukkiah/menorah, 陀螺/ dreidels. In this week, we are learning the holiday celebrated by African American people called 宽扎节/ Kwanzaa.

P.E./ Statistics
Our class had been practicing jump rope for three PE class. According to our record, all of the students are now able to use jump rope well. We started to learn and practice some ball skills, such as padding, catching,and throwing.
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Music
We’ve learned and been practicing ” 问候/ Greeting song,” and we are sing a new song ” 哈哈笑/ laughing out loud.”