1. Hot School News

2. Talk about Chinese New Year

3. Multiculturalism-America

4. Great Work of 5th and 6th Graders

5. Reading Winners (1)

6. Christmas Flashback

E-news in January, 2015

This year, we celebrated Christmas with tons of fantastic

activities. For the lower grades, we decorated gingerbread man,

sang Christmas carols, and made Christmas stockings. For higher

grade, we made Christmas trees, gingerbread houses, and Yum

Yum Balls. We also showed our creativity when we decorated our

gingerbread houses. Wow! We were so into it! This was our most

unforgettable Christmas ever!

It’s almost the end of the semester and Chinese New Year

is coming! What are you going to celebrate Chinese New Year? Do

you want to know more about the Spring Lantern Festival 2015 in

Taipei? Check out this month’s E-news!

Hot School

News

All about Chinese New Year

Christmas Flashback

Chinese New Year

Chinese New Year 2015 – Celebrating Year of Sheep

Among their communities, they have always celebrated this

special event, the Chinese New Year, no matter whether they are in their

home-town or not.

The Chinese New Year is known as the longest New Year

celebration in the world. It carries on the first day of the Chinese New

Year to the 15th day of the first lunar month. The first day of the Chinese

calendar is celebrated as the Spring Festival and the 15th day of the first

month that marks the end of the celebration is known as Lantern Festival.

Like many other parts of the world, Taipei, is quite well known for

Lantern Festival. If you are in the country at this time of the year, then

you are definitely in for a treat. Be ready to greet glittering streets on

the occasion; the entire city of Taipei is decorated with glittering lights

to mark the occasion.

You could head out to the Chiang Kai-Shek Memorial

Hall and witness the massive lantern that is installed

every year in the middle of the plaza for the occasion and

which attracts a larger number of spectators every year.

There is performance that includes an amazing display of

laser lights, sculptural arts and music forms the prime

feature of attraction every year. You will also notice that

the four walls of the plaza are decorated with colorful

lanterns depicting the folklore and history along with larger lanterns all

shaped in the form of animals, such as, butterflies, dragons, birds and

dinosaurs. Keep an eye out for the traditional lion and dragon dance

accompanied by acrobatic acts.

The festival also includes many other activities, such as, lantern

making, games involving lantern riddles, lantern exhibitions, etc. You could

also consider heading out to Pingxi in Taipei County and feast your eyes on

the heavenly lanterns or sky lanterns, traditionally made of bamboo

frames. The masses of lanterns filled with hot air rising up into the sky is

definitely a heavenly sight. Come and light up a lantern with all your wishes

on it. See you next year!

Adapted from: http://www.bbc.com/news

America

USA, the United States of America, is a large country.

It is 9,857,306 square kilometers. In that space there is a

lot of different cultures and religions practiced. But all

people in America have one thing in common that they

practice: their right for freedom.

History

The United States of America were first colonies that belonged to England.

There were 13 of them. This was a problem for early Americans, because they had all

left England to become their own country. Now England was enforcing the rules and

religions that they had run away from.

It was too much for the first Americans. They wanted freedom to decide what

they wanted to believe. They decided to become their own country. In 1776, a bunch of

important men got together and signed a paper outlining

what their beliefs and rules were for the new country

of America. It was very dangerous at the time to write

and sign such a piece of paper. All of the men were

afraid for their lives. Eventually, the Americans won

and broke away from England.

Culture

The USA is different from many other countries because it does not have an

official religion. The early Americans were all Christians, but today Americans practice

many different religions. It is the right of the people to believe what they want and

practice it in public as well.

Another distinction America has with other countries is that it is a mixed salad of

different cultures. People from all over the world have come to America. Each part of

America has a different cultural background and there is no standard American. Each

area has very different types of Americans.

However, there are some very American past-times

that are purely American. The most common is baseball

and apple pie. Another is the sports that Americans have

invented. Including baseball, Americans have invented

basketball and American football. The music is also as

diverse as the people that live there. The music that was

invented in America was bluegrass, blues, jazz, rock ‘n roll,

and country.

The West Coast

The West Coast of America is against the

Pacific Ocean. This is where the music and

movie businesses really thrive.

The West

The West is different from the West

Coast, because it is on the Western side of

the Rocky Mountains. It is mostly desert

and wide open spaces.

The Midwest

The Midwest is where most of

the food for the whole country is grown.

You can drive through large spaces and see nothing

but fields.

The South

The South has a special culture all on its own. It originally

wanted to become its own nation separate from the United

States.

The East Coast

The East Coast is a fast-paced culture that is often thought of as what Americans

are like.

Resources used:

Wikipedia “United States” http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States

Topic: My New Year Wishes

Grade 5 Student Work

By 501 Panda Dory 蔡明君

Instructor: Ms. Ciou

By503 Koala Cindy 顧佳恩

Instructor: Ms. Lai

By 501 Rabbit Ian 李維桐

Instructor: Ms. J. Chen

By 501 Kangaroo Andrea 羅安廷

Instructor: Ms. S. Chen

By 601 Dandelion Fifi 莊靜

Instructor: Ms. Kao

By 603 Sunflower Audrey 陳瑄

Instructor: Ms. Hsu

By 604 Iris Brian 廖振宏

Instructor: Ms. Tseng

By 604 Tulip Sandy 林楚珊

Instructor: Ms. Kao

2014 Fall Reading Passport

A recognition of your reading achievement

Congratulations on the reading achievement of the

following groups. They successfully finished reading a

significant amount of books just within a semester! Their

achievement will service as a model of and inspiration to

all of us. Keep up the good work!

Reading Passport- Bronze Award

Homeroom Group English Name Chinese Name

302 Sea Horse Cayenne 萬開元

501 Kangaroo Vicky 李伃琦

201 Eagle Elaine 葉子綾

204 Toucan Cindy 林歆諦

301 Swordfish Raymond 楊右賓

304 Whale Gaspar 李仲禾

602 Lavender Hannah 楊詠涵

602 Dandelion Jocelyn 彭翊絜

604 Sunflower Rina 黃于娟

501 Panda Ethan 曹宇程

603 Sunflower Priscilla 陳宜鈴

Grade Group Average Module Teacher Top reader

1 Mars 106 Ms. J. Chen 103 Ming-Yun潘明雲

2 Eagle 50 Ms. Cheng 201 Elaine葉子綾

3

Sea Horse

Starfish

Shark

38

38

38

Ms. Ciou

Ms. J. Chen

Ms. Ko

302 Mag 曾子瑜

302 Annie 張晏寧

303 Sophie 周羿薰

4 Shakespeare 36 Ms. Hsu 403 Angel 高紫恩

5 Panda 34 Ms. Ciou 501 Evelyn 黃怡融

6 Lavender 34 Ms. Hsu 601 Claire 賴惠玲

404 Shakespeare Amanda 張一馨

601 Lavender Jamie 吳宸語

201 Eagle Jessie 蔣昀潔

101 Jupiter Ben 謝宗諺

103 Mars Ming-Yun 潘明雲

403 Andersen Mia 張紜

Reading Passport- Silver Award

Homeroom Group English Name Chinese Name

302 Starfish Jean 蔣明瑾

501 Kangaroo Ming Young 吳明陽

302 Sea Horse Michelle 游宸伊

404 Andersen Ryan 陳昱廷

304 Beluga Kyle 王聖元

403 Andersen Athena 嚴辰鵑

403 Andersen Alice 李雨璇

602 Dandelion Michelle 翁綾彤

502 Panda Katy 紀佳妤

402 Einstein Katrina 李例潔

402 Einstein Yurick 李知遠

201 Eagle Renee 楊芯瑀

602 Lavender Sam 鄭庭松

Reading Passport- Gold Award

Homeroom Group English Name Chinese Name

601 Lavender Claire 賴惠玲

503 Cheetah Sophie 李昀蓁

Reading Passport- Platinum Award

Homeroom Group English Name Chinese Name

302 Starfish Annie 張晏寧

At the Christmas party, we watched the

Grade 2 Dance Club Show and then we sang

and danced together. Suddenly, Santa showed

up and gave prizes to the Top 10 lucky draw

winners. After that, we watched the Grade 2

top groups perform and enjoyed the show.

Wonderfully, everyone got a candy cane. We

experienced the spirit of Christmas and

enjoyed the party.

Time: 8: 20~9: 00

Date: December 22nd, 2014

Students: Grade 1, 2, 3, 4, 6

Look at my pink icing!

My gingerbread man

has eyes, a nose and a

mouth.

Merry Christmas!

Gingerbread man is so

yummy, we brought so much

candy and chocolate to

decorate our gingerbread!!

We wrote a Christmas card to Santa! Do you like my card?

Santa is going to tell us a Christmas story <Olivia Helps with Christmas>! So excited!!

G2 Song and Dance

One more sleep till Santa Claus and

Rudolph the red-nosed reindeer come to

town. Hear the jingle bells ring!

Performing Groups: Peacock, Dove, Woodpecker

and Eagle

Instructors: Ms. Huang, Ms. Yang, Ms. Tseng and Ms. Cheng

Performing Groups:

Parrot, Robin, Seagull and

Toucan

Performing Groups:

Parrot, Robin, Seagull and

Toucan

Performing Groups:

Parrot, Robin, Seagull and

Toucan

One more sleep till Santa Claus and

Rudolph the red-nosed reindeer come to

town. Hear the jingle bells ring!

Performing Groups:

Parrot, Robin, Seagull

and Toucan

Let it snow! Let it snow!

We sure wish that it could

be Christmas every day.

Have a merry Christmas

everyone! Ready, let’s rock

and party!

2014 Christmas

We are having fun

making stockings! Look

at our beautiful and

colorful decorations on

the stockings. Our

creative work shows

that we have great

Christmas spirit!

Look at my beautiful

stocking! Santa Clause

can fill it with small toys,

candy, or other small

gifts when he arrives! I

was so excited about

Christmas holiday! How

about you?

Look at our

Christmas trees!

Aren’t they

lovely?

First, we color the

base. Then, we make

our own Christmas

trees and decorate

them creatively and

beautifully.

We must build the house. We must

build the house. Hi-ho the derio!

We must build the house~

Come on! It’s Christmas time! Let’s

build the gingerbread house

together!

Look! We made Australian

snacks by ourselves!