Gung Hay Phat Choy!

What a month to celebrate!  Our class did discoveries about China and Chinese New Year!  We found out about the lucky color red and made our own prosperity hangers during centers time.  We practiced creating chinese characters to spell Gung Hay Phat Choy and chinese numbers.  We created placemats and laminated them to prepare for our chinese food cafe.  During group time, we made a survey about our favorite chinese food dishes, then we created our own list during transactional writing time, to prepare for what we would order from the restaurant.  We practiced using the phone number from the menu during centers time, then the following day, we followed up with the phone call to the restaurant and the children ordered items off their list and read it to Jo at the restaurant.  The children made plans for how the restaurant should look and we helped to set the table with cloth table cloths, candles in the center of the table, chinese music from YouTube and of course the beautiful table cloths.  The food was organized buffet style, and the children are demonstrating patience and waiting their turn to serve themselves.

We also continued our fundraising efforts for raising money for "Free the Children".  The children helped to count how many cube links make 2, 5, 10, 20 dollars.  Then we added all of the cube links to find out how much we raised.  We added the new total onto our thermometer.  The children are proud of their problem solving efforts.  Together with the school, we are sorting, counting and recycling redeemable juice containers from the children's lunches.  So far we have raised 640.90 as a school!  Elm Street students certainly know how to help!