1/26-27 ARRIVED AT KANAZAWA, JP!

Reflection:
Jan 26. Mon. Rainy.
A warm welcome from three Japanese teachers and three KU students greeted us at the airport. It was a rainy and cold day (for us...). The weather was bad but our spirits were high. After one hour of driving, we arrived at the hotel and had a very nice reception dinner with so many teachers--principle of the high school, teachers from the high school, and professors from the university. The dinner was lovely. We were seated between teachers and all the teachers tried to make small talks with us. The topics ranged from education to 巧連智. LOL so much fun.

Jan 27. Tue. Snowy.
Our first time at AHS. A Chinese third grader introduced the campus for us. We were amazed by how clean their school was--take off your shoes and put on slippers before you leave! The umbrellas were neatly stored in rows; the heavy coats were hanged at the back of the classrooms; the restrooms were so dry...And strange thing is that you don't get hot water here. 
Our first interaction with the Japanese students was Tony's Taiwan Hour. The students looked interested but most of them were too shy to speak (same thing in TW). Some of them asked their classmates next to them if they could not understand, and some nodded their heads a lot. 
Lunch with Class C, one of the three classes (first grade), was fun. Each of us had to sit with one group (about 7 ppl), and we chatted about school life, Taiwan, how much freedom they enjoy at their school, etc. 
At night, when all of us were about to pass out (discussing Taiwan Hour), it started to snow!!!! Honestly, snow looked like shaved ice and tasted like water...

MATCHA CHOCO COOKIES

今天做的是雙色抹茶巧克力餅乾！
抹茶和巧克力兩個完全是最愛！！！

參考食譜改編請看這。
我喜歡吃的到的巧克力，所以改編了食譜。

CINNAMON ROLL WITH APPLE FILLINGS (BREAD MACHINE)

今天的食譜是輕鬆簡單的肉桂捲，用麵包機揉麵團和發酵。
我非常喜歡肉桂的香味！有一種很舒服、冬天節慶的味道。

綜合了以下兩個食譜的版本：
麵團
蘋果陷

1/17 WINTER STORY TIME: ARCTIC AND ANTARCTIC ANIMALS

I haven't tried an animal theme with penguin, polar bear, and walrus yet. As I browse through the library collections, I found these two picturebooks very special respectively.

Picturebooks:
1. Where's Walrus?
This is a wordless picturebook. At the beginning, the walrus was in the zoo. Later on, he escaped from the zoo and went to all different kinds of places and disguised himself as part of the environment. The zookeeper looked for him all over the place and finally found him in a diving contest. The walrus was found and he was taken back to the zoo with a new identity--diving performer.a

2. Penguin and the Cupcake
This humorous book really got me and the mothers, but I'm not sure if the kids got it...The penguin wanted to find cupcakes in the north pole. He traveled all the way up to north pole and met two animal, a walrus and a polar bear. Throughout the book, the walrus and polar bear came out and spoke a few lines to complain and argue with the penguin, which I thought was really funny (but the kids were like...oh, what, huh). Anyways, the penguin found no cupcakes until he disappointedly got on the plane and a kind old granny handed him a box of cupcakes. The ending was funny too! As the penguin ate the cupcakes, he saw a flyer of pizza...on search for PIZZA for the next time!

Warm-up activities:
Who Lives in the Arctic?
I printed this out and introduced to the kids along with real animal pictures. A lot of animals are new to the kids, even to me as well. It was a special learning experience.

Arts and Crafts:
At first I wanted to do this 3D penguin (SO CUTE!!!), but I gave up because it would be too hard for preschoolers. I ended up preparing different color papers and they could cut out one shape eg. triangle. Cut a bigger and a smaller one to layer. It's easy, creative, and fun!
Check this out: https://www.pinterest.com/pin/480266747737236317/

Draw the background of the card first.

Give out color papers for the penguin bodies.

 

 

2014 MEMORIES

1/10 STORYTELLING: SOLVING CASES/ DOGS

The very first storytelling in 2015 started with two interesting books. Both are about solving cases. It's a good way to build up kids' curiosity throughout the read-aloud and probably a good way to introduce mystery fiction.
Picturebooks:
1. The Strange Case of the Missing Sheep 
2. The Case of the Missing Donut 

Today's topic is about solving cases and dogs. This combination sounds a bit weird but I explained to the kids that there was one animal that appeared in both stories. And they got it immediately: it's the DOG! So...be creative, right?

The first 20min were spent on a little warm-up activity, "I Spy with My Little Eye" with this amazingly beautiful pdf file. At the beginning, I asked the kids to look for different items in the picture, and they had to circle them out. For example, "I spy with my little eye...a cat!" When they got used to it, I let them give instruction by themselves in turns. Sometimes there were more than one of the same item, so they could compare what they found with others. At last, I wrapped up the game by asking them to locate a sheep. 2015 is sheep year (my year!) and sheep is also the main character in the first book: The Strange Case of the Missing Sheep. What a wonderful connection :P

The second picturebook made everyone crave for donuts...

For arts and crafts, I picked this cute puppy card. The template has all components for the card but I chose only the tongue and the ears. By doing so, the kids could decide how they want their dogs' faces look like and not restricted to the colors and shapes. The results came out fantastic and artistic!

Cutting the tongues (red) and ears (yellow).

Parents' DIY or the Kids'?

He's so ready.

Some kids were too shy...

How cute is that!