The Lunar New Year---February 16, 2018

Kung Hee Fat Choy Room 8 'Ohana!  

Welcome to the Year of The Dog!  In a recent story we read in our Wonders Reading program, we read about a girl who was able to celebrate the New Year twice!  Twice? Huh?

Well, the story begins with how she first celebrated the New Year while in the United States of America.  To celebrate, they had a lot of festivities in her city, with many people watching a parade, and gathering to countdown the last seconds of the old year and welcome the new year with spectacular fireworks coloring the night sky!

She then went on a  plane, traveling to China!  In China, they celebrate the Lunar New Year!  It's not celebrated in just one day, but over several days! Fifteen days to be exact!  The Lunar new year lands on a different day each year, unlike the new year that is celebrated in the U.S., which is always on January 1.  So that is how she could celebrate the New Year TWICE!  

To read more about the rest of the story, check out the Wonders (Connect Ed.) online program!  Read about it in Unit 4, week 3!  

On February 16, we couldn't let the day go by without having some Chinese New Year festivities ourselves!  In another article we read in Scholastic News, it was about the Lunar New Year and lion dancing.   We viewed a video to show us how actual martial artists in China maneuvered around in lion costumes, entertaining and celebrating with many people along the streets of China-town.  Some of them were skillful acrobats, but that took years of training to do!  We could probably handle moving  the lion's head up and down, side to side, and even shimmying our way around the room!   Thanks to Mrs. Saito's recent donations of her son's lion head puppets, we were able to practice just in time for the up-coming 2nd grade manapua making event!

Enjoy these pictures of our very talented lion-dancers in the making!  Kung Hee Fat Choy!  
                                                                            Aloha, Mrs. Wong

                    Here comes the lion!  Get your lucky red-paper ready!  Feed him for Good Luck!
These RED envelopes are called "hongbao" in Mandarin and "lai see" in Cantonese. 

Can you just imagine how long it takes to learn how to jump
from one platform to another while being under a huge
lion costume?  That takes a lot of patience and hard work!

Moving around in the lion costume takes focus,
imagination, creativity, and even muscles!! 

The Year of the Dog is expected to bring peace
and calmness.  Let's hope it will!  

TASTE the Rainbow...

Aloha Room 8 'Ohana!

In mathematics, we are currently learning different strategies to add and subtract using a number line and also knowing our fact families.  In the NEXT up-coming module, we will be looking at graphs and knowing how to "read" and "get information" from a graph.  This is called data analysis.  In a recent math lesson, I decided to use a bit of Scientific Inquiry and Mathematics to have them generate a graph that could also be "enjoyed" only after they comprehended and analyzed the data!  Please enjoy the learning represented in our photo gallery...
                                                                                         Mahalo,
                                                                                         Mrs. Wong ;-)

The difference between our prediction and actual counts
varied amongst all students.  A few students predicted accurately! 

Sorting the different colors in the package of Skittles
sure helped to find the total quickly!

                                                       

It sure was hard to NOT eat the DATA while gathering information to report! 

Students predicted the right colors that were going to be included in their package of Skittles! 

"Hmmm.....maybe if I took just ONE green Skittle away that wouldn't hurt my
data?.......Nah, I better not!  Mrs. Wong may be watching!"  :) 

"I just need one more data finding to report and then I can finally TASTE the RAINBOW!"

Working together made learning lots of fun!  We helped each other  by confirming
our counting and analyzing our colorful data!  I think we're ready for Module 6 Mrs. Wong!

A Hundred Days SMARTER!

Aloha Room 8 'Ohana!

Last month, on January 24, we got to celebrate being 100 days smarter!!!  That IS something to celebrate!  It was so exciting to see the many different ways "100" could be represented!  Thank you for also sharing your CREATIVE masterpieces!  I LOVED hearing about what and/or who inspired you to make your project!  They were ALL very unique!  I hope you are enjoying 2nd grade as much as I am?  Let's continue celebrating more days to come and more LEARNING to do! :)

Blog Questions (due Friday, March 2, 2018):
1.  100 days of school has gone by.  What is one NEW thing/idea that you learned this year?    
      Explain---don't forget to give a detail and an example in your complete sentence!

2.  What was your 100-days of school project?  Describe how "100" was represented in your work?

                                                                              Mahalo and Aloha,
                                                                              Mrs. Wong

Here we are creating our "100-days of school" snack!

We are "100 days Smarter!"  YAY US!!!!

We are so proud of our creative masterpieces!

We can show how to represent 100 in many different ways!
Can you?

Our hard work deserves a round of applause!

Here's to more DAY ahead... Horray for School!
Good Job EVERYONE! 

Welcome Room 8 'Ohana!

Aloha Students!

If you are on the Room 8 'Ohana Classroom Blog, you got permission from your parents to post comments and have your work or picture posted.  From time to time, I will be posting an assignment for you to comment on.  Similar to Google Classroom.  You will have about a week to reply with a comment, but you need to follow strict directions when posting a comment.

First, this is a public Bog, so your classmates and their parents are able to access it.  I will monitor the postings from my email and I can DELETE and block users from using the blog if they choose to use it inappropriately.  That means you must have permission to post a comment and your comment must be appropriate and on subject.  I do NOT allow you to use the Blog as a tool to communicate to others as if it was an email.

Secondly, please check your spelling and grammar the BEST you can.  Always think of your TRIBE Agreements as you post your comments.  Show respect, give appreciations, no put-downs, communicate effectively, and use technology effectively and ethically.

Finally, be thoughtful with your comments.  You must use complete sentences, not just a word or phrase.  Answer the question(s) using details and examples.  Enjoy the Blog!  Mahalo, Mrs. Wong

QUESTION:  Being that this is a NEW YEAR, what is your GOAL (resolution) that you will try to achieve this year?  *Hint:  Remember what you wrote on your Scholastic assignment recently?