The Chinese Dragon Boat Festival

We just completed our Unit on the Chinese Dragon Boat Festival!!!  It was great to see all the teamwork going on at the school.  It can really be challenging for students to learn to work together sometimes, so I really think it is important to give them opportunities to learn and practice a skill that will be used throughout life. 

Students had to first design their dragon boat.

There were a lot of great idea that came out on paper.

Next, students had to actually put their boats together.

It was a team effort where different students had different jobs.

Everyone took a lot of pride in the final products,

In the end we put the teamwork into practice with wooden plank races.

Bringing it to a close for the year

It is a great feeling to get to the end of a school term.  You get to see the students hopefully putting everything they have been learning into practice.  Some use their ears following directions in the target langauge, some speak in Chinese, and some write words or sentences that they have learned.  Seeing and hearing all that really makes me glad to have the opportunity to be in the profession.  That being said, it is very important for me to bring the year to an end in a way that sums up what we have been striving for here in the district.  This year we are putting on a school wide Dragon Boat Race.  Students get a chance to learn about the Dragon Boat Festival, then they get to create their own dragon boats that they will race against each other.  Stay tuned for some great pics.  Have a great weekend.