CNY 2016

A CNY-themed Five for Friday link-up today. Why not head over to DoodleBugs and see what everyone else has been up to this week?

1

Chinese New Year is a big big deal where I currently teach and the school is having a CNY rotation of activities organised by the parents, so I am actually scaling back what I would normally do so as not to take away from their efforts.

My posts from previous years about CNY ideas can be found:
here
and here

I also have a freebie on offer here.

2

I needed a really simple card as with a really tight timetable, unfortunately I didn't have time to do anything overly complicated. This year is the year of the monkey, so I adapted an idea from Adele Jeunette.

3

We made a wishing tree display as a writing focus, using the sentence starter 'I wish' to encourage some use of the recently learnt digraphs! Chinese people have orange trees for luck and prosperity and sometimes write wishes on them. There were some incredibly aspirational wishes ("I wish for diamonds"... please share with your teacher if you find some!) but also some very thoughtful ones.

4

My teaching assistant is a whiz at creative activities and she helped the children to make these beautiful blown ink and finger painted cherry blossom pictures.

5

Chinese New Year wouldn't be complete without plenty of themed books to share with the children. Click on the books for the links to Amazon.

 

 

Currently Feb :)

So I hit my target of blogging twice a month in January quite easily, although the majority of that was in one week of regular posting from me, with then another absence until today! Still I do have an idea I'm really excited about that I intend to blog about so that is my goal for February.

And onto this month's Currently, hosted by the renamed 'Oh Boy... it's Farley!'

Listening - To a oooold episode of Midsomer Murders (thank you Netflix!)

Loving - Having a cleaner. I know its a terrible extravagance, but its really common in this part of the world and a colleague recommended this lady who is great. She comes on Tuesdays so I'm currently basking in the pleasure of a spotless flat (this will not last more than another day or two haha)

Thinking - About the next week's planning. We are doing a story I've not taught before, which is interesting but means I don't have any 'go-to' activities! Any suggestions for The Magic Paintbrush?

Wanting - To be warmer! There is no central heating in my flat and its so so cold at the moment. I have to put on a dressing gown when I take off my coat!

Needing -  Food. A food shop is on the cards for tonight, but I was lazy and sat down to have a cup of tea and write this! 

Swooning - Over a new idea that a colleague of mine has brought back from a course. Its all about thinking skills and this week, we trialled an activity called 'Zoom In'. My kids absolutely loved it and were so engaged and we got amazing work from it. I can't wait to blog about the whole thing properly!