The Herons have had a wonderful three days so far with Gao Hong. We have learned how to count to a million and how different chinese characters have developed over time. We each received a Chinese name. "Gao Hong" means "high rainbow" and the names she gave us each had a meaning. The children gasped each time she shared a name and meaning, "That's exactly like him!" or "That's so her!"
We have learned several games, including one we will sing tomorrow at all school gathering. And today Gao Hong taught us a body percussion song that we will also perform tomorrow. This latter has me a little nervous, I'll admit, as we learned it in ten minutes today. We might spend some of our reading time tomorrow rehearsing!
Another highlight was learning how to cut the character for double happiness out of a piece of folded paper, like making a string of paper dolls. The Herons are crazy for it and we have a lot of happiness in the room right now. Two students even want to start a business selling them (which I think should be called, "You Can Buy Happiness") and Josie, upon seeing the pile of cut outs, suggested we build a Great Wall of Happiness. That might just become a part of our culmination!
We've also learned a hand clapping game to help us learn the numbers from one to ten. Well, it would help us learn the numbers except that no one except W.J. can get past five so far! It's wicked hard.
Tomorrow, we're looking forward to hearing Gao Hong and one of her students play at All School Gathering. In the afternoon, she's going to give us the opportunity to play the pipa! Thanks to Gao Hong and the Minnesota Arts Board for enriching our learning this week.
The Rookery 
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