On Monday this past week we took the children to Chang Ying Park nearby to have a relaxed class. While at the park we practiced some of our Poetry. The children have been learning some Chinese Poetry with the help of Ms. Qian. It was quite a sight to see. The children then had a moment to look around and enjoy the view of the park before we started the Art project. The art teachers, Ms.Cao, and Ms. Gu, had prepared a big chalk tree on the ground and asked the children to populate it with leaves, animals, more branches and other signs of life. The children had a wonderful time.

上周一我们带着孩子们去了学校附近的常营公园并且在那里上了一节很放松的户外课。在公园里，我们诵读了很多学过的诗歌。在钱老师的教育下，孩子们学习了大学，孩子们诵读时的场景真是蔚为壮观。在美术课之前，孩子们还有机会四周漫步，欣赏公园美景。教美术课的曹老师和谷老师，在地面上为孩子们精心准备了一棵”粉笔树”，要求孩子们用粉笔画出树叶，动物，树枝和其他生命物体来装点这棵树。孩子们度过了非常快乐的时光。

On Tuesday our class competed in a grade 1 dance contest. The children had been practicing the 2 dances in their spare time and had worked hard on it. I love watching the class dance and try fun things, it is wonderful to see.

周二，我们班参加了一年级组的广播操比赛。在孩子们的业余时间已经在校练习了两套广播体操，每个小朋友都认真而努力。看着他们认真的样子，我由衷的感到欢喜。

On Friday we had a lot of things happen. Because of the air quality there was no outdoor exercise, HOWEVER, our class has a backup plan for these days. It’s called the “Zippy Shake.” The Zippy shake is a program that allows the children to dance along with their characters from the Skoolbo learning App. The characters from the app teach the children different dances. APS loved it, they thought it was wonderful.

上周五发生了很多的事情。因为空气质量的原因我们没有户外活动。尽管如此，我们班对此做出了预案。活动被称之为”Zippy Shake”。Zippy Shake是从Skoolbo learning App里下载下来的，APP里的主人公教会孩子们各种舞蹈。孩子们非常喜欢，他们觉得这些舞蹈精彩至极。

Friday was also Veteran’s day in America, (Called Remembrance day in Canada). On this day we take a moment to remember the soldiers that died for our countries. Every November 11^th at 11:11am, everyone stops what they are doing for 1 minute of silence. The children and I were late by 2 minutes starting, but we still observed this. The significance is on November 11^th at 11:11am 1918 World War 1 finished.

上周五，也是一个纪念日。是美国人和加拿大人专门用来纪念退伍军人的日子。在这天，我们会花时间来纪念为我们国家牺牲的士兵们。每年的11月11日，上午11点11分，所有人都会停下手中的工作为战士们默哀一分钟。我们班的孩子因为准备工作而把纪念时间推迟了两分钟。这个时间点意味着第一次世界大战是在1918年11月11日上午11：11分结束的。

Friday was our first “Mummy & Daddy Lunch.” As we had a father come and help cook the food. Apparently he just assisted, but it is nice to see fathers getting involved in the kitchen too. We also celebrated Daniel’s Birthday (November 6^th), and Claire’s Birthday (November 11^th) by having cake after our parent lunch. I presented the children with notebooks signed by all the teachers in the program.

上周五也是我们首次”爸妈厨房”，有一位爸爸来帮助烹饪食物，很显然，他只是来为女士们帮忙的。不过仍然很开心爸爸们开始参与其中。11月6日是Daniel

的生日，11月11日是Claire的生日，周五午餐后，我们共同为这两位小朋友举行了生日庆祝会，同时也送上了老师们的祝福和礼物：带着所有任课老师签名的精美笔记本。

Let me begin with an update from last week. Last week we had our School wide Charity Bazaar, and it was a smashing success. So much so because of our PTA involvement, and I cannot stress how important this was. Any time the parents are involved the children get really excited and are very proud of their parents. Because of their involvement, and the help of our students (Some of which I noticed were behind the counter selling things, some were buying.) we earned over 6700rmb, which means we did a few awesome things. First thing we did: APS class earned more than EVERY other grade 1 class combined. That is just amazing. We came in 3^rd place for the most money earned for charity, and were only about 20 RMB below the 2^nd place (Our American Middle School).

On Monday we had an amazingly fun Halloween Party. The Children and parents had wonderful costumes. We started off by having the Smart Kids join us, and they tried to sing the “Monsters go RRR” song, which was followed by a Smart Kids Costume Contest. Unfortunately, they could not stay long enough to play any of the games.

When the Kindergarten kids left we continued with the Haunted House, the Pumpkin Bowling, the Candy Toss, and of course the Mummy Wrap. Each of the games had a small pin as a prize, and of course, Candy. After the children played each game, the parents got to join the game with their child for a try. I think the kids had the most fun trying to make their parents into Mummies. Of course eventually the party had to end. And slowly the children went home with their family, tired out and full of sweets.

During the middle of the week, the children were preparing for a school wide dancercise contest. All the grade 1 classes at Zhong De are going to compete with each other. They all have the same tune and dance, but the question is, which class has learned it best. The contest was to be on Thursday, but due to the smog, it was postponed. So this week we still have time to practice. The kids do love the song, that they dance to, it’s a quite a catchy tune.

On Friday we had our 2^nd Parent’s Lunch. A delicious batch of Halloween themed Dumplings was made. They had Orange, and green, and white and pink dumplings all prepared for the children and soup and vegetables as well. The parents served the children as they sat, which was really sweet of them.

After the lunch I took the opportunity to catch some of the students up on some work they had missed. While I was busy with that the kids read and played games on the carpet as the air quality outside was not great and I didn’t want them to get sick.

This week we had our final Parent teacher Meetings of the semester. I got some good feedback from parents, and learned where they stood on some issues. I learned how they felt about the program, and their child’s place in the program. Some I expected, some I did not. Either way I now have a better understanding of the children, as I can see how their home-life is affecting their class-life, and learned some of their hopes and dreams.

One of the things I have reassured some of the parents that would start is extra vocabulary practice at home. What this means is the children look at their picture dictionary and listen to me say the words over WeChat. They are not expected to read them back to me by WeChat or any other means. The purpose is to expose them to more words, and build up their vocabulary. The children have already built up some excellent listening skills in class. Speaking skills and Writing skills take more effort to learn that reading and listening skills in an immersion class. We are getting there, and despite some worries, most of the children are right where I expected them to be.

We showed the children how to handle a test, how they are written, and discussed what the purpose of tests was this week. We reviewed our vocabulary and grammar from the American tests. I took this time to also compile the children’s classwork grades. Be aware that if there is any problems with a child’s grades I will contact you directly, and privately with some solutions of how to improve the grades. In America and Canada when we talk about grades, we mean activities that either show or give practice to their skills. This grade is not just some arbitrary letter.

On Tuesday the children made Halloween masks to decorate the Halloween party with. Some of them are absolutely beautiful.

This week on Wednesday we took the children to the Military Museum to see the new display commemorating the Long March. This was a very important part of Chinese history, and this week celebrated the 80^th anniversary of its completion. The children got to see a lot of artifacts of Chinese history. They saw old Radios, guns, and paintings of the trip. The children might be too young to understand exactly how harsh the trip was on the soldiers, but they did have their eyes open to some of the difficulties. In the end of the trip we came upon a painting of a celebration showing the end of their march. It was really good to see.

On the same trip we stopped by a local park to enjoy the scenery. We were lucky enough to see some traditional dancing done by some senior citizens at the park. The kids then looked around the park for animals and types of leaves. We wanted them to explore a bit and see what they could find.

On Thursday the children stood up in front of the school and recited poetry. The kids practiced going up and showed no sign of being scared. They were very brave and performed wonderfully. I was told this was a grade one poetry competition, but I am not sure if there was a winner declared by the school. In my mind the APS students were the winner.

On Friday, Zhong De had its Annual Charity Bazaar. We had a lot of volunteers helping with the Bazaar and it looked awesome. Our class’s theme was internationalization. We sold out of almost everything we had to sell. I took a few students around to look at the Bazaar. Keeping 4 different students that have different interests together is not easy, and some of them traded off to stay with other parents of our class. It was unfortunate that our Partner Program the AMS (American Middle School) was out of town during the event, but their booth was manned by volunteers from the teaching staff and the Bilingual Middle school. I am glad that their earlier preparation was useful. The reason they were unfortunately absent was due to the difficulty of predicting air quality and temperatures long term.

This week we start off with a bang as the kids Celebrate Halloween, and I am excited to see their costumes tomorrow.