Panda Bear Newsletter Feb.1-Feb.26

NO. 8 Panda Bear Newsletter Feb.1-Feb.26 (Winter break, Feb.12-19)

Language: 十二生肖的故事 (12 animals)
We talked about the story of the 12 zodiac animals. The story shared how people decided on the 12 animals for calculating the years. We introduced the most meaningful five traditional Chinese foods that we usually eat on Chinese New Year and the meaning of the phrases. ( 韭菜chives-长长久久，年糕sticky rice cake-步步高升，橘子orange-大吉大利，苹果apple-平平安安，鱼fish-年年有余)

Art: We made a paper lion the fight the “year” monster. We are going to decorate our own paper shell for our hermit crab.

Activities:
1. Playing 12 animals games. Children pretended to be an animal and run towards the goal. All children took turns participating in the game.
2. “Run and Run”: We put all the traditional Chinese food pictures on the chair. We walked around the chair with one child pretending to be the “year” monster in the center. We walked around saying “年兽来了，年兽来了，怎么办，怎么办?”? All people had to find a food pictures to avoid being caught by the monster.

Science: We have been sharing our new friends (classroom pet), hermit crabs. We talked about the organ functions, the food they eat, the most suitable environment and how they move around. How can we take care of our friends? The children love to share their thoughts on the hermit crabs. We also read books about hermit crabs to the children. If your child would like to share books about hermit crabs, they are welcome to bring them in.

In two weeks, we will end our second theme, amazing umbrella. This week, we will discuss what kind of plants and food look like an umbrella? Why do we think it looks like an umbrella? What are they for?