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.

This week went by pretty quickly for me. The kids were wonderful, and everything in the program seems to be moving along smoothly. We had both PTMs and the PTA this week. During the Parent Teacher Meetings, we were able to discuss a student’s progress, and any difficulties the students are having, both socially and academically. Parents had a lot of ideas and suggestions that we will look into implementing. I’m not sure if many of you are aware, but I get just as nervous at Parent Teacher Meetings as the parents do. I really enjoy working with every single student in the program, and whenever I talk to parents, I am always afraid I will say something that sounds more negative than I meant. The students are doing great, and we have become the envy of the whole school. I hope that I convey that with each meeting. In Canada and America, Parents Meetings are strictly business, the room teacher (Ban-jo-ren) shows parents what the student has done, discusses the positives and negatives of each child, and how to help them. Each parent has about 15 minutes. So far we have done that, but we have also had time to share fun stories about the children as well, and the parents have had a chance to talk to a few of the child’s teachers.

We held our second monthly PTA (Parent Teacher Association) meeting in the classroom this month. We discussed the Upcoming charity Bazaar, Lunches, Halloween, Thanksgiving, World Fair, and the Job Fair. The bazaar and Halloween seems to be very confidently handled by our PTA, and I look forward to seeing what they have put together. We discussed the Parent Lunches: Commonly called the “Mommy Lunches” but to call it that seems to not include fathers from cooking, which I don’t want to do. They have some ideas about what they want to prepare, which seems good. We are still preparing a play for Thanksgiving next month.

This past week we started lunch time etiquette classes. We moved the children’s lunches from the school cafeteria to the school cooking room. (Same room the parent lunches are made in.) Of course we get a lot of non-APS observers during this time, but the purpose of this was that during the lunch period we are teaching the children western table manners. Each day we introduce a new aspect. Last week we learned what a place-mat was, and how it should properly be used, we learned not to put your elbows on the table, we learned that you had to finish your main course before you can ask for second helpings of anything, or have your desert. We learned that it is polite to keep your voice low during a proper dining experience. We also learned how to tidy up the table.

On Tuesday we went to Heng Chun Senior Citizen Center nearby. Once there we talked to the people there. The children sang their songs very well. They danced well. When there was difficulty with the sound at one point we sang “I love you” acapella (with voice only, no music). We did sing the song again later when the music was working. The children then gave some Chong Yang cards they had made out to the residents of the center, and then they gave out some warm socks. The children had a very good time, as did I. The Senior Citizen trip is related to the topic I chose for Show & Tell this week, which was “My grandparents.” It is very common for young people around the world to take advantage of the fact that they have older members of the community there, and not realize how important or interesting these people can be.

Children began to borrow books from the class library this week. They are each allowed 1 book at a time, and they can only borrow it for 1 week at a time. Most of the students chose a book to borrow. Even some of the children who stayed in the school borrowed books to read. Students are welcome to send me videos of them reading any of the borrowed English stories, but I don’t want them to feel pressured to do this. It is my feeling that in Grade 1 stresses like extra homework and responsibilities be slowly added to the children’s lives so they have the time to adapt and understand what they are doing and why.

We have started having the children help clean the room, no shoes on the library carpet is part of this. We talked to them about outward appearance, and impressions. They learned that if a guest comes to our room and sees a lot of dirt and garbage around they will have a negative impression of the class. Same goes for Uniforms, and public actions. I let them know that it’s ok to play and have fun in private time, but certain times are Public times (Flag raising, and other ceremonies) that they need to show that they are respectful. The kids have been very good at following this. This coming week, we are adding sweeping the floor to our chores list.

On Friday at lunch I introduced the children to the game “UNO”. We will be doing it again this week. Some of the children were already aware of this game, and helped to teach the others. Uno is a card game that can be found easily to play at home. The word “UNO” is actually a Spanish word that means “one”. The concept is really simple: match the colour or the number of the card placed down by the last person in a circle. If you have only one card you say “Uno”. If you have no card that can be played you must pick up a card. First person to have no cards is the winner.

This week the children had a moment to play Halloween games on their tablet computers in class. Some students chose later to try the Schoolbo program. If you have this program at home, you can log in.

Choose “School account” at the opening. Then the School code they are asking for is “BD938FM”. The student list will open. Make sure the children chose their own name only. The first password is Black- Bee. This can be changed easily after they have logged in successfully. We will be doing this later this week as well.

This coming week the children have a trip to the Military Museum for the 80^th anniversary of “The Long March”. I am interested to learn about this, but I will research some stories to tell the children during class. The children also have a school-wide grade 1 poetry recital competition on Thursday. They have been practicing poems with Ms. Qian, and it seems to me that they are doing great. Unfortunately in this subject I am not the best judge, as I cannot understand the poems, nor know how they should be pronounced. But I am a great judge of my students and I know they will put their best foot forward in this, and do great.