Thursday, February 7, 2013

Chinatown Field Trip!


The second graders are just finishing up a unit called Around Town: Neighborhood and Communities. One of the stories takes place in Chinatown. 




To complement the unit, the second graders took a bus to Los Angeles' Chinatown!   Here are some photos that Bryce's mom and Nate's mom took during the excursion. (ik •skÉ™r • shun) 

The captions for the photos were written by the second graders! Nice vocabulary and sentence structure, pupils!

Trip to Chinatown on PhotoPeach



After the field trip, Heather brought in traditional Chinese envelopes for everyone with an ornament inside. Each ornament had a different meaning. For example, Mrs. Yollis got one that means wealth



 In addition, Heather brought her Chinese yo yo to share. She is taking yo yo lessons and will soon master this skill!





What was your favorite part about the visit to Chinatown?

Do you have a skill that you are trying to master?

8 comments:

  1. What an opportunity! My husband and I are high school teachers in Maine and in April we will travel to China for two weeks with ten high school students. We would love to know of anything you learned in Chinatown that might help us be the best travelers and visitors we can be. What do you think?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Dear Mrs. Long,

      I am one of Mrs. Yollis' students.

      You will have a lot of fun in China!

      A tip for going to China is to make sure you like to try new things. You should because the food, clothes, and the population are all very different then America.

      The population is huge! China has the biggest population in the world!

      Do you like to try new things?
      Why did you only take ten students?

      Sincerely,
      Mallory

      Delete
    2. @ Mrs. Long,

      Ten high school students must be a big group!

      Since I have been to China, I have some tips that you should follow:

      •There are lots of cars. It is also really crowded. You should stay together and pay attention.

      •It is really pretty, so don't get distracted on the bamboo decorations. When the other people in your group leave, do not stay. Leave.

      What day are you leaving in April?

      Warmly,
      Heather

      Delete
  2. Sloane (Bryce's mom)February 8, 2013 at 9:54 AM

    Dear Second Grade Class,

    I am Bryce's mom and I had the pleasure of joining you on your field trip to Chinatown. It was an amazing day! It started off grey and rainy, but by the time we arrived in Chinatown there were only a few drizzles from the sky. We got quite lucky, as we heard that it continued to rain all day back at home! (Maybe we got so lucky because we all wore our lucky red clothes!)

    The bus ride was loud, but fun. We were fortunate that we didn't hit too much traffic. Once we arrived in Chinatown, we were divided into groups before heading off with our tour guides.

    We walked through Chinatown and were able to see market places, bakeries, stores, restaurants, and Temples. My favorite place was the Temple. It was beautiful. The red and gold decor was striking! As you could see from the picture that Mrs. Yollis posted, the gold statue was quite impressive!

    The end of the tour brought us to the Golden Dragon restaurant. The food was very good. My favorite was the vegetable dumpling. It was delicious! (Thank you to the PFC for providing us lunch!)

    As we finished lunch, we were treated to a show at the restaurant. The people in the show were very funny and talented. The kids really enjoyed themselves and so did I!

    I am so lucky to have been chosen to chaperone the Chinatown field trip. Thank you to Mrs. Yollis and the second grade class for allowing me to join you!

    Sincerely,

    Sloane (Bryce's mom)

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Aashi, Chloe, and BryceFebruary 8, 2013 at 1:24 PM

      Dear Mom/Sloane,

      Wow! What a fabulous comment! You had lots of support for your main ideas.

      Like you said, it was a wonderful field trip. Bryce liked the wishing well because you throw pennies, and he liked throwing.

      In the restaurant, The Golden Dragon, they had: veggie dumplings as you said, egg rolls, meat dumplings, oily noodles, orange chicken, and finally the delicious cube shaped coconut pudding. Aashi's favorite food was the egg rolls. Bryce's favorite food was the veggie dumplings, and Chloe's favorite food was the oily noodles.

      What songs did you adore on the bus?

      Your field trip friends and son,

      A♣shi, Chl♥e, and Bryce

      Delete
  3. Dear Mrs. Yollis and class,

    How exciting! When I’ve visited Chinatown, or at least one of the many to be found in different parts of the world, I always enjoyed the sights, sounds and smells you can experience. The food, art, colours, and people remind us of a rich history and culture and, at Chinese New Year, to see the dragon and hear the fireworks makes it an amazing experience.

    The Chinese yo-yo demonstration by Heather is fascinating. I have seen circus performers and magicians use them. I think they’re much better than the yo-yos many of you have probably tried. I’ve seen the Chinese yo-yos thrown very high in the air in some amazing displays.

    Of course, Wikipedia has a small section on this topic…
    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chinese_yo-yo

    Something based on the Chinese yo-yo is known as the diabolo. It’s really only a different name for a similar thing…
    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Diabolo

    @RossMannell
    Teacher (retired), N.S.W., Australia

    ReplyDelete
  4. Dear Mrs. Yollis,

    I saw that question about the acheiving goals I have acheved my green belt with a black stripe down the whole middle. It was really hard to earn it trust me. If you are doing karate always pratcie because if you don't you will forget what you learned for your next belt rank. Also ALWAYS respect the sensi and when you are sparing alway say good luck.
    Sincerely,
    Brendan
    Techie Kids

    ReplyDelete
  5. Mrs. Yollis's class,
    I teach PK - 12 grade at a school in Philadelphia. Each year the students and faculty all read the same book in our lower school (PK - 4th grade). This year we read "Where the Mountain Meets the Moon." After reading the book we participate in 3 days for cross graded activities. One of the days we went out into the woods, adjacent to our school, and built natural shelters. We also Skyped with the author one afternoon and then went back to our classrooms to write. On the 3rd day we worked with a partner to design our own journey through lower school. There were lots of different activities to go to. Some examples were tweeting, orienteering, lantern making, building bridges, writing, cooking, Skyping, games and meditation. After all the activities we had a no waste lunch feast in the gym. That night we were to have a Dragon Ball but it snowed and had to be rescheduled. Thanks for sharing what you learned on your trip. Please say hi to your teacher for me.
    Betty Ann

    ReplyDelete

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