The highlights of this week was Bonenkai, a celebration of the end of the year to say good bye to all the bad things that happened and hello to all the good things that are coming. We also enjoyed art. Later today, we will read to Ms. Braxton's class about the Qin and/or Han Dynasty. Tomorrow, we will read to the kindergarteners in Frau Schroeder's class.  We enjoyed gym.  It snowed a little bit earlier this week and some kids had a small ice ball fight.

We are looking forward to Christmas, New Year's, winter break, a white Christmas, snow, snowball fights, being with family, building a giant snowman, building a snow fort, being with friends, sledding down the snow hill, snowboarding, skiing, ice-skating!

Highlights the week of 12/10

The highlights of this week...  We knitted and continue to knit.  We played soccer in gym.  We played soccer in recess too.  We also played two square and four square at recess.  We added stuff to our stain painting in Art.  We are finishing up our realistic fiction writing.

In social studies, we learned about Chinese Architecture. Direction is important because South facing buildings gets lots of sun.  The wind comes from the North so the Chinese try to build the back of the building to the North. You may noticed that the roofs are curved.  One of the reasons is to keep away the bad spirits and curve off rain.

Here are some of the houses we made based on ancient Chinese Architectural Principals.

Next week, we will ...

Highlights of the Week and Thoughts

The highlights of this week are gym, watching Kiki's Delivery Service, Audrey's Birthday.  We will also make scarves in Keiko Sensei's class.  We also enjoyed social studies.  We also wrote realistic fiction.  We also made a cool bag.  Yesterday, we had our marble jar party in Keiko Sensei's classroom and got to eat popcorn - two whole bowls of it with butter!

Lastly, we finished our studies of the Han Dynasty by looking at the Silk Road - a trade route that started in the peace of the Han Dynasty.  We studied goods traded in and out of China.

Last week, we finished up the Qin Dynasty Mural.

Teahouses and Tea

One of the popular spots in Chengdu is Kuan Zhai Xiang Zi, which means "wide and narrow alley".  The area consists of three Chinese style parallel alleys.  You can see beautiful Qing dynasty houses along the alleys.   The Kuan-Zhai alleys became a comprehensive commercial walking street after renovations in 2008, and it continues to feature distinctive elements of Sichuan culture.

Sichuan is famous for its tea culture. The people here enjoy having a tea with friends at tea houses. These alleys have many tea houses.

 It's a painted wooden door on a tea house.

 Here is Starbucks in a Qing dynasty building! This is the most beautiful Starbucks I have ever seen!!

 We decided to have tea in this area with our Chinese friend, Shi Tao. People at tea houses enjoy playing cards and mahjong. It’s a very relaxing life style.

 We ordered "flower tea". As you can see, this is tea with white flower petals floating. It's delicious!