Newsletter / Winter 2012 Gahanna Elementary Chinese Program ! In this Issue:

- ’s Greeting from the Chinese Program - Words from the Coordinator, Pupil Service - Elementary buildings celebrate the 2012 Chinese New Year

Words from the Coordinator As we reach the halfway point of the school year I want to congratulate all of our students and parents that are participating in the Chinese language program. I recognize that this is not always an easy commitment. For students staying after school or Lincoln JeffersonJeffer coming in early several days a week to learn a complex language is son challenging. For parents arranging special schedules andd transportation in an already busy schedule can be frustrating and timeme consuming. Yet when I see our students and teachers in the classroom, I know this is something special and worth the extra effort. The students continue to make significant progress and are achieving something that is not available to most students in this country. They are learning to speak and understand Chinese. Yes, this is a difficultt Chaplefield Stage1 and a protracted process that requires patience and commitment, but step by step the students can and will achieve a high level of proficiency. I am convinced that the language skills achieved will have significant life-long benefits for our students. Parents, please continue to help us with your encouragement and support for good attendance and student practice. We look forward to a very productive remainder of the school year. High Point Stage3/4

Happy Chinese New Year.

Hank Langhals Coordinater, Pupil Service

!!! 

Xīn nián kuài lè  Happy Chinese New Year! Jefferson

The ’s Year celebrated at Elementary Schools During the week of Chinese New Year, students and teachers in Chinese language program celebrated this festival together in class and with the whole school in various ways. Let’s take a look!

!Blacklick

!Jefferson XinXi kuai le! Happy Chinese New Year! Greetings from the Chinese teachersers at JJeffersonefferson ChineseChin New Year is the most important Elementary School: Happy Chinese New Year, festival in for every family to get everyone! We had a wonderful time this past together. Celebrations including on week. As you know, the biggest traditional holiday Chinese New Year's Eve, setting firecrackers, giving in was on Monday: the Chinese New lucky money to children, sending Chinese New Year Year. This is the year of the dragon. At Jefferson, greetings, and dragon and lion dancing. the Chinese teachers worked together to celebrate Dragon, fifth in the cycle of Chinese horoscopes, this holiday with students. All students in Chinese follows the Rabbit to represent 2012. To celebrate program learn how people celebrate their traditional the Dragon's year, Stage 1 and Stage 3 & 4 students family holiday, like Christmas, on the other side of in Blacklick Elementary School worked together to the world. To involve all Jefferson students, we create a beautiful dragon to hang at the main host the Chinese Riddle Game. Additionally, Stage entrance of school. Stage 3 & 4 students designed the 3 & 4 students told the story of “Nian (Chinese head and tail of this dragon, while Stage 1 students New Year),” while Stage 1 and 2 students sang decorated the dragon's body with colorful scales and songs in the morning announcement. These wrote their Chinese names on them. Every student in activities helped students learn more about StStage 2 made two red lanterns to Chinese culture and some Chinese words. dedecorate the classroom doors. In the We gave red envelopes, “Hong Bao,” with second week of Chinese New Year, candy coins inside to each student, wishing Stage 3&4 students will share their everyone good luck. During the Chinese New experience about Chinese New Year, Chinese parents usually give their children Year with Stage 1 students. red envelopes with lucky money as a symbol of Next time if you stop by any good fortune. In Stage 2 class, students made elementary schools, please come clay . We also learned how to doo to take a look at their Chinese calligraphy. Students not only learnedd hard work. Xin nian kuai how to say Chinese words but also know how to le! write the characters. We had lots of fun doing those activities. We really appreciate the principal and the teachers at Jefferson Elementary Scholl for being so supportive of Li-lun Lin this event. We wish everyone a wonderful new year! Tang Zhengng

!Lincoln

Xing Nian Hao !! Happy Chinesese New Year!! All our Chinese classes at Lincoln Elementary were gearing up to learn about and celebrate the Year of Dragon. We have a week of morningin announcementnt about exciting Chinese New Year customs. The Stage 3 & 4 students introduced the traditions and customs of Chinese New Year to the whole school, including red envelopes, dragon and lion dances, Chinese New Year dinner, cleaning up the house, fire crackers, wearing new clothes, , and most importantly, the meanings behind these traditions. The Stage1 and Stage 2 students sang Happy New Year song in Chinese in the announcement to wish everyone a great year. Besides that, the students in the school also learned about the story about a Chinese monster, “Nian,” Chinese and the traditional instrument, Gu Zheng. One of our Chinese teachers, Miss Tang, is a master of Gu Zheng. She showed us how Gu Zheng is different from the western instruments. So far, do you think that was all for our Chinese New Year celebration? There were more! Thanks to Mrs. Iseringhausen, the Art teacher in this school, the Stage 3 & 4 students had a beautiful dragon, with smoke (dry ice) coming out from his nose, to do the dragon dance in the hallway on Chinese New Year day. With their effort and pride, the students accomplished an amazing job because the whole school is excited about the dance! For Chinese New Year handcraft, Stage 1 students did paper cutting, the Stage 2 and Stage 3 & 4 students mad the Dragon head and the . It was a Jefferson wonderful start of the new year, and we are so happy about sharing the culturecu with the whole school! Thank you and have a wonderful year to you all!

Liang-wei Huang Chaplefield Stage1

Xīn Nián Kuài Lè ! !Royal Manor Happy Chinese New Year ! This is a veryry exciting time to ChineseChin people throughout the world, and I have the privilege to introduce this special festivalfe to my students in Chinese class. We did Chinese calligraphy on red paper and hang themth up with a gorgeous dragon, this is the year of "Dragon", and students wrote the characterch "Dragon" on the red paper. We also watched a short film about the Chinese New Year while students wrote down the information they learned from the film. During the Chinese New Year, parents and elders will put money in red envelopes and give them to children. Everybody says nice things to each other, such as, "Happy New Year !", "Wish you more prosperity in this coming year". Therefore, all students in Chinese class received a with candy coin in it. The designs on the red

envelopes mean blessings () and abundance (). Students are excited about the beautiful red envelopes. They had fun with the dragon and had a picture with it! Chinese people celebrate Chinese New Year for 2 weeks, and our students in Chinese program celebrated this wonderful holidays with 1.4 billion people around the world! Holly Han