Happy Year of the Wood Goat

When I ordered four lunar new year treats from a nearby restaurant, I wrongly assumed they would all be ready-to-eat. But the taro cake needed to be pan-fried. I was floored when a staff member of a different department offered her time and their kitchen to slice up and fry the taro cake then bring it up to us on a plate. Not a day goes by that I don't remember how fortunate I am to work with people like J in an environment where you'll never hear anyone say, "That's not my job."

Students brought dumplings, peanuts, sunflower seeds, sesame balls, glutinous rice balls rolled in something yummy, black bean cakes, fruit salad, sticky buns, and more. The koi cake you see in the picture was purchased.

The prior week we had guests from LINC One whose instructor was playing chaperone on a field trip for Black History Month. I was in need of material that would both appeal to the seniors and be comprehensible to the level one students. Once again, The Westcoast Reader came to my rescue. We used the lesson about Lunar New Year from the Special Days and Holidays book, including page ten from the Word Games and Puzzles book (see their sidebar) so we could all find out about our respective animals in the Chinese Zodiac.

After reading the text and working with the vocabulary, we played "Find Someone Who" with a BINGO card I created. This all took two days (four and a half hours of classroom time). I was thrilled when two of the LINC one students, given the option on day two of watching a movie with other students, chose instead to come back to our class!

Did you do anything for Valentine's Day, Family Day, Lunar New Year or Black History Month? I would love to hear about it if you did.

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Coming Next Week: Why and how I use Total Physical Response (TPR) and how you can, too.