圣诞节快乐！

圣诞节快乐！ Merry Christmas!
You may be wondering...how do you say Santa Clause in Chinese? Well, this is a very important question! Here it is 圣诞老人 sheng4 dan4 lao3 ren2. That's right. You got it. Remember, practice makes perfect.

2nd graders - Please don't forget to work on your vocabulary writing. Here is the list. Go ahead! Dazzle your visiting grandparents and cousins with your lovely Chinese characters
小 xiao3 small
大 da4 big
男 nan2 man
不 bu4 no
百 bai3 100
千 qian1 1000
茶 cha2 tea

3rd graders - I have included some super duper Chinese words for the Winter Break. Here you go...
中国 zhong1 guo2 China
门 men4 door
下 xia4 down
上 shang4 up
天 tian1 sky
你 ni3 you
好 hao3 good

Winter Concert & Chinese Singing

Ni Hao Chinese Learners! How lovely, lovely the K-2 Chinese students sing. It was like little angels had entered our gym and sang a darling Chinese song. The children have been singing their little hearts out since September learning this tongue twisting song. To remember all those Chinese words took a lot of brain power! It was nice to see all the students and teachers dressed up in their Christmas clothes and nice shoes. The concert was beautiful and the gymnasium looked magical. I was certainly proud of my little students!

2nd graders learned Yoga today in Chinese class. Yes, yes. Yoga is not traditionally Chinese. But you can certainly do yoga poses that look like Chinese characters! Want to try it? Try positioning your body to look like these characters.

大

小

Did you figure something out? Come by my classroom and show me your "Chinese Yoga"!

Happy holidays and remember...practice what you know.

2nd Grade Vocabulary List

2nd Grade Vocabulary List.
Try practicing the following vocabulary at home!
Practice makes perfect!

田 field
刀 knife
不 no
百 100
千 1,000
男 man
茶 tea
大 big


Can you find a word inside the word to the right? Look carefully and you will see one of your vocabulary words hidden inside the word. This lovely word means Beauty!

Student Request

Lot's of the Keiki Chinese have been asking for a picture of my dog. Well fans, here it is. Mushu Dragon looking up at me with eyes that say "time for a cookie". Mushu Dragon had a lovely Thanksgiving and even had a few table scraps. Life is good.

I hope all the Keiki Chinese have had a nice vacation with their family. See you tomorrow at school!

写汉字

2nd graders have been learning to write using traditional Chinese notebooks just like the ones Chinese grade schoolers use. Students have done a great job learning to write numbers and even complicated words such as stone 石 and mountain 山. Practice makes perfect! Students take time to write every single time they visit the Chinese classroom. Wow! Just think how good they will be in a few years!

3rd grade Keiki French students dropped by the Chinese room yesterday. Keiki French sang a lovely French song and shared a little about French festivals. Keiki Chinese sang Ni Wa Wa and played instruments. Keiki Chinese even shared a little about Kung Fu (one of our favorite subjects!).

Abigail and Cole have beautiful singing voices. The children have been practicing for the Winter Concert. Moreover, singing is a very good method for learning a language. Hey! Kids have even learned how to say "please don't talk". One little friend make a funny joke and said, "Laoshi, please don't talk" in Chinese. The class all giggled and even I had to give a nice belly laugh. What sweet children we have and how fun it is to learn and sing!

Happy Thanksgiving to you! Remember...practice what you know.

LJA Triathlon Club Haleiwa Triathlon 11-14-10

Le Jardin Academy had some very special guests this week. Our school was visited by the Kagoshima Fisheries Senior High School in Japan. Our LJA High School students got to experience a thrilling karate demonstration as well as learn about the Kagoshima Fisheries Senior High School and the vessel the students live, learn, and work on. These students are working diligently to become engineers, ship captains, and much more in the technical marine biology field. Our very own Chinese Level I student, 花大姐, speaks fluent Japanese and served as a tour guide and translator during the event. Mr. Allan and the Headmast of Kagoshima Fisheries High School visited the Chinese Department after the presentation and refreshments. The visiting students were certainly friendly and well mannered. Our LJA students got a chance to mingle and get to know a few of the Japanese students.


We are currently scheduling a Saturday afternoon outing to the Dragon Garden Bonsai Nursery (http://dragongardennursery.com/). Students and family members will be treated to an afternoon tour of the lovely nursery deep in the Waimanalo Valley with an accompanying class on creating your very own bonsai. Children (siblings welcome!) will get hands on practice. Families will have the opportunity to purchase their own supplies to build their own bonsai or purchase one already started. Mr. Liu will be our teacher and tour guide. Mr. Liu has published serveral books on the art of bonsai and has lectured all over Asia and the United States on this lovely gardening hobby. A sign up letter will be sent home with your child. Date and time to be announced. $5 per child. Adults are free. Siblings welcome.


Interested in shadow puppetry? Students have been enjoying to speak Chinese with shadow puppets. Almost every morning I find more and more shadow puppet that children lovingly created and carefully left on my desk. Today after character writing practice 2nd grade students were treated to a traditional Chinese puppet show from Youtube. With this video students have a up close view of what happens behind the scenes of a Shadow Puppet Show in China. Want to view it from home? Just go to Youtube.com and search "Chinese shadow theatre - backstage by tpventi. Enjoy!