Plum Garden February Planner
Plum Garden February planner 2/3-2/23
Language: How exciting! We are ready for the new Chinese lesson, lesson four “Draw a picture / 画画。” 友 (friend), 四 (four), 可 (can), 有 (have), 地 (ground, land), 朋 (peer, friend), 草 (grass), and 张 (a piece, Chinese last name) are the new vocabularies in the new lesson. We have learned 31 characters so far since September. The children have been working very hard to build sentences during the past few weeks. Now, they are more comfortable to use different words and phrases to construct sentences. 张 (a piece) is our first Chinese classification word. In this lesson, the children will start exploring how to use Chinese classification words (Quantifiers) in sentences. Therefore, we will be continuing to learn new vocabulary that relate to our inquiries “Animals undergoing hibernation and Celebrating the Chinese Lunar New Year” in the next two weeks.
Math: From “more” and “less” we will move on to what is “greater than” “less than” and “equal to”. The children will use a dice to find the ‘equal to’ and ‘greater and less than’ numbers. From using the paper clips and the 1-inch block for measuring, we are learning how to use the ruler to measure and compare “longer” and “shorter” within the 12 animals in the Chinese zodiac. The children will continue to recognize and count with numbers from 1-30 and write numbers from 1-30. We will make the February calendar. By practicing how to count the days at school, we are getting ready for the 100th day of school. In the next two weeks, the children will continue to use two-sided bean counters to find combinations in 6’s.
Science: The children’s Jade plants are ready to plant in the pots and to be sent home with the children. In Taiwan, it is also known as a money tree. We hope it brings good luck and extra money to your family. We learned from the animals’ hibernation, animals in the mitten, and the 12 animals in Chinese zodiac that we have discovered which animal will hibernate or is active during in the winter. We will draw a picture to summarize what we have learned about regarding weather and animal hibernation and how they affect each other. The children will learn how landforms and animals are affected by weather changes. The daily temperature observation is still going on. Starting this week, we will be practicing how to do a weather report like a meteorologist.
Art: We will finish the mitten project for the winter animals undergoing hibernation then we need to prepare the Lunar New Year classroom decorations; we will be making couplets, firecrackers, and doing a lot of paper cutting. The students will learn how to write Chinese calligraphy from the couplet activity. The children will make the ladybug bag in preparation for Valentine’s Day.
Social Studies and PSE: The Plum Garden is embellished with the red color of firecrackers, red envelopes, lanterns, couplets, and lucky foods. We have started of the Chinese Lunar New Year unit with learning about the 12 animals in the Chinese zodiac. The Plum Gardeners will learn how to prepare for the Chinese Lunar New Year—We will clean, sweep, and decorate the classroom. We have so many things to learn about the Chinese Lunar New Year celebration. The children will learn about:
• Why we celebrate the Lunar New Year?
• What the meaning of Chinese Lunar New Years is and how it arrived.
• Why families get together on Chinese Lunar New Years Eve?
• Chinese Lunar New Year traditions, food, and customs.
• Lucky words, phrases, and greetings.
• What the meanings of lucky words and phrases are.
This month is Black history month. We will talk about a few great African Americans who made an impact on our daily lives. We will also learn about the story of President Lincoln and Washington since 2/12 is Lincoln’s Birthday and 2/15 is Washington’s Birthday.
Singing: We will continue to practice “Changeable Weather / 多变的气候 and Greetings Wang Xiaoer / 给王小二拜年.”