On Friday, at the end of a very hectic week that left me still up to my eyeballs in work, I took the day off to chaperone a grade 2 field trip to the Greater Boston Chinese Cultural Association. I had missed this opportunity with both Steph and Pete, and they both loved it, so I wasn't going to pass up my last chance with Julie.
What a great day we had! First the grownups helped the kids made paper lanterns out of decorative Chinese "red envelopes." They came out beautiful! Then we all learned some Chinese words and characters, and the kids got to practice writing with narrow paintbrushes dipped in black ink. From there we went to roll out dough and stuff dumplings for lunch. After that, we had brief lessons on the abacus and mah-jong. Then, finally, we were served a wonderful meal of dumplings (don't know if they were the ones we made—frankly, don't want to think about that), lo mein, chicken legs, and fortune cookies. Everything was delicious. When we were done eating, we were treated to a wonderful performance of a ribbon dance and a Chinese opera fan dance. Each kid was given chopsticks and a bookmark with his or her name written on it in Chinese letters.
It was a fun but exhausting day. 75 second-graders sure do require a bit of attention! I was glad I went but also glad to leave them all back at school and go home for an hour alone.
*That's "Thank You" in Chinese, pronounced, "Sheh sheh!"
Mark totally loved the field trip. He showed us his name and the numbers in Chinese, his lantern. He totally loved his lantern which is hanging up.
He totally loved the whole thing. Wish I could have been there.
Posted by: Stephanie | December 14, 2009 at 08:55 AM
What a cool field trip. I want field trips for grown ups.
Posted by: nina | December 14, 2009 at 10:29 AM