果冻传媒 is a diverse community that celebrates many different cultures. One of them is our Chinese community. In previous years, around the time of the Chinese Lunar New Year, we brought in performers from a local lion dance team that performed for the community. Two dancers wore an elaborate lion costume, and several musicians played large wooden drums and assorted cymbals. This year, due to COVID-19, we will not be able to have the performers come to celebrate this joyous time for us, but let me explain a little about what Chinese do in Lunar New Year.

2021, in the Chinese Zodiac, is the year of Ox. Chinese New Year 2021 falls on Friday, February 12th, 2021. Chinese New Year, also known as Lunar New Year, is China’s most important festival. It is time for families to be together, just like how we celebrate Thanksgiving here in the United States. How long is the Chinese New Year? Celebrations last up to sixteen days, but only the first seven days are considered a public holiday. Traditionally, Chinese New Year activities start as early as three weeks before Chinese New Year’s Eve, but a week before is more typical. One of the traditional activities is cleaning homes. Chinese believe if we clean our home before a new year begins, it will bring us good luck and get rid of all the bad things that happened the previous year.

The main Chinese New Year activities include 1) putting up decorations, 2) eating reunion dinner with family on New Year’s Eve, 3) firecrackers and fireworks, 4) giving red envelopes and other gifts. Red is the main color for the festival, as red is believed to be an auspicious color. Red Chinese lanterns and red couplets are the most popular decorations. Chinese people greet one another with lucky sayings and phrases to wish health, wealth, and good fortune when they meet during Chinese New Year. Then, red envelopes, called “hong bao” in Chinese, filled with money are typically only given to children or unmarried adults.

The Luckiest Things to Do at Chinese New Year

• Giving money/gifts in lucky numbers and lucky red packaging with lucky greetings.
• Eating lucky food like fish on New Year’s Eve, especially carp or catfish with some left over for New Year’s Day.
• Lighting lots of red firecrackers and fireworks to scare away evil and bring good luck.

The Unlucky Things to Do at Chinese New Year

• Having an accident, especially if it means hospital visits, crying, and breakages: all bad omens.
• Giving gifts with unlucky meanings, colors, words, or numbers, or even saying something inauspicious.
• Sweeping up on New Year’s Day: don’t “sweep all your luck away”.

When someone greets you with “新年快乐 (Xīn nián kuài lè, Happy New Year)”, the best and simple reply is: “新年快乐 (Xīn nián kuài lè)”.

Happy Chinese Lunar New Year! 新年快乐!

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The class of 2020 could be seen from the windows on the top floor of the school, gathered on the playground, waving their arms toward the sky and chanting in hopes of coaxing the sun out for the Stone Soup meal.

Throughout the fall, I learned more and more about this 果冻传媒 tradition and up until that morning, the morning of Stone Soup, everything had been going according to plan.

A stone lovingly placed at the bottom of a pot. The pot lovingly filled with a marvelous combination of ingredients. Those ingredients lovingly stirred by attentive cooks. The process of making the soup itself mirrors the thoughtfulness that makes up this shared experience. Just days before, a play focused on inclusion was produced, practiced and presented. Creative souvenirs were created for buddies. Delicious food was prepared.

On the morning of Stone Soup, the cold chilled our bones and grey clouds leered overhead. Nevertheless, everything had been going according to plan and so facilities teamed up with Tower students and staff to arrange tables, chairs, and place settings for the entire school—outside on the playground.

When the first raindrops fell, we went about our business, confident that they would stop, and they did. Still, the potential for precipitation could not be ignored and many of us looked up with anticipation. Definitively, the rain returned and was met with the sun chant.

The sun did not heed our calls.

It was decided that we would move Stone Stone inside. Everything had to be moved, dried, reset and every available hand was up to the task. Students and staff showed great flexibility and resourcefulness. This collaboration of minds and bodies allowed Stone Soup 2019 to play out splendidly. While the sun remained hidden that day, the qualities of a community shone through.

I wanted to revisit the Stone Soup story in this blog because I wanted to revisit the idea of shared experience. This has the power to heighten our awareness of the people around us and motivates us to examine the degree of connection with those people. Ultimately it has the power to build empathy – one of the hardest things to teach.

In this new year, let’s continually strive to generate and lend ourselves to shared experience.

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This past Friday, our buddies trundled into the classroom, papers in hand. Right on time! Around mid-November the preparations begin for a beloved 果冻传媒 tradition: Stone Soup. As the familiar folktale goes, a community gathers together (unknowingly) to make a feast together. Whether we are comparing retellings of the story with Venn diagrams, calculating recipes with column addition during Math Vitamin, or planning a toast to kick off the event, the kids lean into all aspects of the tradition. There is an excitement to be a part of the community in a familiar way.? Each year we share food, foster our connections and, of course, make placemats for our buddies!

Those paper-wielding buddies were armed, ready for an interview; as were the 1-2s! These interviews are valuable as you practice asking and answering questions, building understanding of someone new to you, and fostering cross-level connection. But there seems to be another layer of magic each year when we convert the information gleaned from this task into a placemat. With the element of surprise, kids reflect on the joy of giving the placemat to their buddy. They recall how they felt to get their own placemat, emblazoned with their name and decorated in a unique style each year. With that remembrance, they set out to create the same feeling for their own buddy.

Each year, as we dive into Stone Soup preparations, the feeling of kicking it into high gear is present for us teachers. Between orchestrating bread, dessert, or soup making, guiding careful craftsmanship of placemats, supporting kids in writing and memorizing a short toast, all amid academics, there always seems to be a shortage of time. However, each year, no matter how chaotic it can seem on paper, the magic of seeing buddy pairs sitting down to the community curated meal, and the sparkle of excitement as they exchange placemats makes the tradition a highlight year after year. Happy Stone Soup season!

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Recently the school community came together to celebrate and recognize the class of 2019!

The Fifth Grade Showcase took place in February, right before mid-winter break, and offered a unique opportunity for students to share their passions and talents that they pursue outside of school. This year’s Moving On class showcased a wide variety of pursuits: Performing Arts such as singing, guitar, piano, hip hop dance and ballet; Athletics including tennis, horseback riding, basketball, soccer, swimming, skiing, and ice skating; and Passionate Hobbies like baking, trampolining, movie producing and rubix cubing. Even though students in this fifth grade class have been a part of 果冻传媒 for along time–some as long as 10 years–there were still some amazing surprises and hidden passions that came into the spotlight!

The Showcase is a time to both honor a whole class for all that they bring to our community, and also recognize individuals for the tremendous skills and talents that they will bring forward to Middle School. While the event is much anticipated by fifth grade parents, who share boxes of tissues as they enter the emotional roller coaster of the Moving On transition, it is met with even greater excitement by the younger members of the audience. Indeed, the pre-K through 4th grade students sit wide-eyed and open mouthed as they behold a catalogue of future possibilities for themselves unfolding on the stage. Some of this year’s fifth graders reflected on a feeling of responsibility to the community–even when they felt nervous to perform on stage, they still seized the opportunity to “give back” and inspire their younger peers.

The Fifth Grade Showcase is a longstanding tradition at 果冻传媒 and has evolved over the years. It used to take place right alongside the Moving On ceremony in June, until teachers recognized the possibility for making it a stand-alone event in February. It also used to focus more exclusively on performing arts, but new formats like student-produced movies have allowed students to Showcase a wider diversity of their out-of-school pursuits. No doubt it will keep evolving, while it continues to inspire us all and celebrate each new Moving On class. One thing is for sure: 果冻传媒 is very proud of the class of 2019 for their unique talents and many accomplishments!

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Other than the snow and ice that covered the playground on Thursday February 7th, it seemed liked an ordinary morning at ucds. That was, until loud drums and cymbals awakened a sleeping lion on the Interconnection stage! The lion looked around, scratched its ears, reared up on its hind legs, and proceeded to walk right out into an audience of unsuspecting 果冻传媒 students! Weaving deftly among the rows of wide-eyed onlookers, it paused intermittently to open its jaws wide and roar in time with the beating drums (some children were even swallowed whole in this jaw-opening spectacle). Finally, as the lion emerged from the crowd, it once again stood on its hind legs, and the crowd erupted in cheers!

This was not a traumatic tale of a zoo presentation gone-wrong; rather this was a joyous celebration of the Lunar New Year! The performers came from the Mak Fai Washington Kung Fu Club Lion Dance Team. Two dancers wore the elaborate lion costume, and several musicians played the large wooden drums and assorted cymbals. The performers explained that the tradition of the lion dance originated from a mythological tale of a village under attack by a monster called Nian. As the story goes, the villagers created a lion costume and successfully scared away the Nian, and ever since the practice of lion dancing has been associated with good fortune.

This exciting lion dance performance was part of a larger school-wide exploration of the Lunar New Year. In their classrooms, Early Elementary students built their number-sense skills by estimating the number of chocolate gold coins (associated with good fortune). They also reflected in their journals about the Lunar New Year celebration and their families’ own holiday celebrations. First and second graders engaged in puppet-making activities and conducted research about different Lunar New Year traditions. Third and fourth graders explored the tale of the Nian monster and the different ways that people celebrate the Lunar New Year holiday. Specialist classes also participated across levels, from singing the song Gong Xi Gong Xi (恭喜恭喜) in music, to engaging with non-fiction and fiction books in Library. These activities–along with the performance that so captivated the community on February 7th–provide an example of how students’ cultural traditions are brought to life in the 果冻传媒 curriculum.

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Tapetes are used in parts of Mexico, particularly in the southern state of Oaxaca, to mark the death of loved ones throughout the year. These large murals include symbols and images such as skeletons, flowers, food and musical instruments that represent?El día de los muertos.

Please enjoy this documentary?video of the process.

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