We're Famous!

A couple weeks ago, we had professional videographers come on campus to film our Vietnamese Dual Language Program. Check out the video!

I’m very proud of the kids and the direction the program is going. Thank you parents for all your support!

Summitt's Vietnamese Dual Language Program

Happy Lunar New Year!

This week was a very exciting week because we learned about the Lunar New Year through books, activities, and by watching videos of the cultural celebration. Students learned that during this time, people sweep their housse to get rid of all the bad luck and for a fresh new start. The exciting lions hibernate and wake up during the New Year and are used to scare away bad luck along with firecrackers. People also like to wear red because the color red resembles good luck. Red envelopes called lì xì is also given out from older family members and friends for good luck. Mrs. Skalaban and I gave out some lì xì to the children to wish them good luck on Thursday. We gave each student a red envelope with a 2 dollar bill wishing them good health and luck for the upcoming year. 2 dollar bills are considered good luck. 

 KLRU's Blog About the Vietnamese Dual Language Program

KLRU was at our school last Thursday to film during our Tết show. Here is a short clip from them about our wonderful dual language program we provide at Summitt.

In math, we have been learning about collecting data and applying that into making graphs. Earlier this week, we graphed Skittles. The kids really enjoyed this one. We also took a class survey on which school lunch we liked the best. Graphing can be kind of tricky for the kids because when you’re graphing, you’re having to read both numbers and words to answer questions. Some common questions we answered were:

“Which one has the most?”

“Which one has the fewest?”

“How many more does _____ have than _____?”

“How many did _______ and ______ have altogether?”

 In science, we studied salt water and fresh water. We did a little experiment to test out which objects will float or sink in each type of water. We made predictions as a table and after predicting, we tested it out. The kids did pretty well working together.

Nước ngọt =fresh water

Nước mặn =salt water

Nổi =float

Không nổi =sink

Summitt Lion/Dragon Dance Team is performing at several locations this Lunar New Year! Don't miss out on the spectacular performances!! Please come see these awesome students perform -- they've been working hard all year long to get ready for the season! Bring ear plugs/protection to the ones noted with an asterik JUST IN CASE there are firecrackers at these locations!

2/20/15 (FRIDAY): 
New Year Celebration @ Connally High
7:00 – 7:45 pm
13212 N. Lamar Blvd.
Austin, Tx. 78753

Hanover Draft Haus
8:30 – 8:45 pm
108 E. Main St. 
Pflugerville, TX. 78660
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2/21/15 (SATURDAY):
5 Star Auto
11:00 – 11:15 am
904 Prairie Trail
Austin, Tx. 78758

Pho Thai Son
12:30 – 12:45 pm
2438 W. Anderson Lane (suite A3)
Austin, Tx. 78757

Hana World Supermarket
1:30 – 1:45 pm
1700 W. Parmer Lane
Austin, TX. 78727

Chinatown Center*
3:00 - 6:00 pm
10901 N. Lamar Blvd.
Austin, Texas, 78753

Nanami Sushi Restaurant
6:30 - 6:45 pm
9001 Brodie Lane
Austin, Tx. 78731

Umi’s Sushi Restaurant
8:00 - 8:30 pm
5510 S. IH 35 Frontage Road #400
Austin, Tx. 78745
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2/22/15 (SUNDAY):
Hong Kong Supermarket Center*
10:00 – 1:00 pm
8557 Research Blvd
Austin, TX 78758

BLIA Temple
2:00 – 2:15 pm
6720 N Capital of Texas Hwy
Austin, TX. 78731

Rockin' Out!

It’s been awhile since I’ve updated this class blog. It's been so busy lately so this post will be a catching up blog for the last 2-3 weeks.  Things are settling down for a little until our first grade dance on March 10th. Our Lunar New Years show was a success. We had a packed house and completely sold all the seat tickets. I’m so proud of the kids’ performance. I’ll be honest…I was nervous for them but they got on that stage and rocked it. I got lots of compliments from other teachers on how well the kids did. The children may keep their costumes and leave them at home. February 19^th is the officially Lunar New Year so we’ll be learning more about it in class this week.

For 100 days of school, we celebrated with many fun activities during the school day. In my class, we did an activity that said “If I had $100, I would buy…” 

In science, we have been learning about rocks. We learned that there are 3 types of rocks.

-Igneous

-sedimentary

-metamorphic

We looked at different rocks in class and sorted them in groups of which type of rock we thought it belonged to. 

 We were lucky to have a group of people from “Keep Austin Beautiful” come in to teach us different ways we could help to keep the world to become a better place. The children learned about recycling, landfills, worms…Each week they came, we learned about something new. The second presentation, the kids got to play with worms. I’m not a worm person at all but the kids really got excited and loved holding them in their hands.

They really enjoyed the past 3 weeks of learning this. 

This past Wednesday, we got the chance to go to the fabulous science expo the 5^th graders threw for the school. It was very neat. The 5^th graders did a great job creating hands-on, educational experiments.

Our new pet gerbil!

It’s been one hectic week and why not end it with a Valentine’s party! Thank you for all who got me a sweet Valentine’s gift! Also, thank you for all my special helpers during the party! I hope the kids didn't eat too much candy over the weekend. :)