BITS OF MAY!

Here it is..... I know you have been waiting for it. This month I went with "old school" music. First of all, every suggestion from the students had inappropriate lyrics at some point in the song. When I watched all the jumping in the video, I knew I had to have the song "Jump" by Van Halen. No bad lyrics in this song!

Census Assignment

Your child should be bringing home their census assignment on Thursday. I was very impressed with the work they were able to do. Some of the students demonstrated very high level thinking skills, coming up with reasons I hadn't even thought of. They had to analyze data to make decisions and be able to come up with reasons for their decisions. When they had to narrow down their choices from three neighbourhoods to one, I didn't go with just one correct answer. I looked at the reasoning behind their answers. Some of the reasons made me laugh! As usual, please sign and return.

Weekly Blog and Grade 4 Math Test

We started a new post today during our computer time. Some students finished it in class but most didn't. This blog is due Thursday, May 5 by 3:00. I look forward to reading them.

The Grade Fours have a math test Friday, May 6 on the fractions and decimals unit. They should all have their texts and notebooks at home to study. We talked today about "how" to study for a math test. Yes it is different from studying for many other tests. I suggested they start with the unit summary called "Show What You Know." We usually do this in class. I have corrected everyone's work and they should work through the questions they have wrong-that is a good start. Students not sure about certain concepts can look back into the lesson about that concept. Students can also work their way through each of the lessons, trying a question here and there.

Giant Buddha!

The other day Mr. Hosie and I went to another town to see a giant Buddha! Since Jeff was working we had to make our way there ourselves. We use a guidebook that has the places we want to go written in Chinese. Then we just show the cab drivers or people at the train stations where we want to go. We also have Jeff's address written down in Chinese on a piece of paper in my purse to show the cab drivers! Cabs here are very cheap and we have used them everyday.

A lady at the info booth in the train station spoke English and helped us buy our tickets and showed us which platform to wait for the train on. Once we got to the platform we showed another person our ticket and she motioned where we should stand and which train we should get on. It is very weird not knowing any of the language. A few places have the "English" spelling of things which makes it much easier. Most street signs are written in Chinese. They are just starting to have the more major streets written in English.

When we got there we were amazed at the giant Buddha and the beautiful temple. We are getting used to seeing these beautiful temples everywhere.

Last night I ate Taiwanese ice cream. Yum, yum! It had a bit of ice cream on the bottom, then a bunch of stuff kind of like frozen ice milk then cut up fruit (I choose mango) then some sort of syrup. It was all in a huge bowl.

I haven't bought any souvenirs as I haven't real seen anything of interest. All I bought was one pair of shoes! They have beautiful shoes here for cheap but nothing in my size! People here are small and have small feet!

We leave tomorrow night. I am ready to go home but I don't want to leave Jeff!

See you soon!

More Taiwan Updates

We just got back from a 5 day little trip to Southern Taiwan. We took a taxi, train and high speed train to get there. We had to pack all of the things we wanted to take into our backpacks. Mine was very heavy and really stuffed. Once we got there it was so beautiful. Jeff and Mr. Hosie did lots of snorkelling there.

The picture of the mom and two little girls shows how many kids get to school. I have even seen a little baby in a high chair like thing balanced on the foot part of the scooter. Oh-and also dogs riding on the scooters!

The picture of me walking on the path shows what they have in many of their parks and walkways. These paths have bumpy stones or other things to walk on and massage your feet. I could hardly walk on them but I did see many old people just walking on them. The different colours and shapes are supposed to massage different parts of your feet. I find if I walk on them wearing my flip flops that is a good enough foot massage for me!

The picture of Mr. Hosie and I was taken at the harbour of a city called Kaohsiung (pronounced Gowshung). Mr. Duke taught English here!

I hope everyone had a happy Easter.