February 5, 2019 Tuesday

Happy Chinese New Year!  It begins on the first day of the Lunar New Year which can fall in January or February.  This year it is February 5.  A special thank you to Eunkyong Lee for being our special guest today.  She came to talk about the Chinese New Year celebration and to share a fun craft with us.  We made special drums with the symbol of the Korean flag on them.  The symbol is for balance. You will also see pictured on the flag four trigrams to represent the four elements of sky, fire, water, and earth. We learned that you do a special cleaning of your house before the new year to sweep out the old year and any bad luck.  It is tradition to dress in Red and to exchange red envelopes with friends and family filled with money to wish them good fortune in the new year!

We even had our own Chinese Dragon parade where everyone got a chance to lead.  Some friends chose to march with their drums to the festive music!  What fun!  Everyone did a fine job of cooperating in movement for the dragon.  We used hula hoops to hold up the fabric to march under.  It was tricky for sure!

After some time outdoors in this unseasonably warm weather, we came in for a feast of Chinese Food to end our celebration. Our snack today was grapes, cheese and veggies straws.  Our morning workshop tables were alphabet punches, counting bears, and a drawing table.  Our post office was open for business, and our mail carriers were busy sorting and delivering mail this morning.  We practiced our songs for the special Valentine's Day Ice Cream Social.  

A note from Miss Carissa
Due to a number of conflicts and illness our PAB (Parent Advisory Board) MEETING TOMORROW HAS BEEN POSTPONED. We are planning to reschedule for next week (hopefully Monday). Please stand by for an email update when a day and time is finalized. Email me or Jamie if you have a suggested day/time.

Thursday, Feb 7th we are going on a field trip to the Post Office! Meet at the Thames St. Post Office at 10 am. We will take a special behind the scenes tour and mail our Valentines. Please complete and return your permission slip so we can have a head count to tell our friends at the Post Office how many to expect. EDS is CLOSED for this outing and we encourage ride sharing :)