Member's Day at the Races

My student's family invited me to a day at the races in Shatin.  It was a lovely day for horse racing.  They own one of the horses, Fiery Raider, a 3 year old stallion.  He came in 5th place in his race, though he was predicted to come in 10th.  As a guest of the owners I got to go down to the main stadium where they show the horses and meet the jockey and trainer.  That was alot of fun.  This Lexington girl was quite impressed with the race facility and track in Shatin.  It is in a beautiful setting overlooking the mountains. 

Spring Musical

 

For the Spring musical this year we did the Go, Go Jonah kid's musical.  The songs are really lively and the story is funny and entertaining.  Everyone worked really hard on the production.






 Jonah running away on a boat from what God told him to do.

Picasso in Hong Kong

On Wednesday, I took my Grade 2 students to see an exhibit of Picasso.  It was a special exhibit that is usually only in the Musee National in Paris.  Due some renovation in that museum the exhibit came to the Hong Kong Heritage Museum.  My class was going there anyways for a Social Studies field trip and getting to see the Picasso masterpieces was a huge bonus. 

Students described the exhibit as wierd, crazy, disgusting, scary, you can sortof see what it is and it is sortof hidden.  Needless to say they were not impressed.  One little boy was very surprised that Picasso had sculpted a naked pregnant woman.  He wanted to know why were there so many naked pictures.  I tried to explain that the human body is artwork and that we were created and fashioned in our mother's womb by the Master Artist God.  I was grateful I got to see some of this art that I otherwise would only have seen if I was in Paris visiting the museum.

Rainy Day Reminds Me

Well it is a rainy day in Hong Kong.  Hong Kong is not so different from my home city of Seattle where it rains and rains and rains.  Must be cities that are next to the ocean get lots of rain.  I do feel quite at home here in Hong Kong, because of the rain and the ferries.  Of course it is much more tropical than Seattle.  So rainy days remind me of.....
my home, the pitter patter of rain on the roof while I lay in bed listening, falling back to sleep, coffee shops and steamy windows, evergreen trees and a myriad of grey colours, driving in a car, wanting to stay inside and read a book, listening to jazz, playing the piano, eating dinner with my family, fall and spring.

Oh rainy day thank you for coming.  Thank you for the enveloping blanket of nostalgia.

Playing Marbles

As a Language Arts project, I taught my students how to play marbles.  We were reading about games from long ago and marbles was one of the games we read about.  They loved playing marbles.  The next couple of days students were bringing in giant marlbes.  One boy brought in a 3 pound marble.  It was the largest marble I have ever seen.

Reader's Theater

The students practiced a Reader's Theater script of Rumplestiltskin.  They had a fun time working out their parts and acting.  One little boy was an excellent Rumplestiltskin.  Acting is a good excuse for students to come out of their shells and be silly, funny and different from everyday.

Passover

For Christian Ethics students need to learn about the Passover.  So I had some parents help prepare a Passover meal for the students to try.  The lamb was delicious, but the students didn't really care for the bitter herbs.

3D Bugs

During a science unit on Small Crawling and Flying Creatures I had students make 3D modles of insects out of clay.  The students really liked it and they did some amazing work.

My Little Blue Smurfs

My class is really into the Smurfs.  In class some of them will be humming the Smurf song.  They read the Smurf books.  They play Smurfs at recess.  Each student is a certain Smurf.  It is so cute and funny.  During free play time the other day one kid wrote on the whiteboard, "Laboratory No Smurfing."  It made me laugh so hard.

Neon in HK

Ok so lately I've noticed this trend in HK.  NEON is every where and it is not just the NEON signs.  The hot, bright, bold colours of the 80's are back.  I've seen kids shoes that are brighter than the sun and make me do a double take.  For myself I have decided to jump onto the NEON age and dawn myself in hot pink.  Oh yeah hot pink baby.