Sharing Chinese Culture with the Pre-K

In November, the 9/10 ESL class visited the pre-K classroom to share cultural traditions through conversation and storybooks.
Before visiting, the ESL students researched children’s books about the Mid-Autumn Moon Festival in China and selected those that represented the festival accurately. Three students took turns reading the traditional story about Chang-E and her husband Hou-Yi.
The story goes that there used to be 10 suns in the sky, but it became too hot and dry. The Jade Emperor asked Hou-Yi, an archer, to rid the land of all the suns. He shot down nine of the 10 suns. He was rewarded with an elixir of eternal life. However, Hou-Yi wanted to rule over China for eternity and he was a cruel man. His wife, Change-E, knew he was an unkind man, so she ran away. As the harvest moon was rising, she took the elixir and rose up into the moon. As the story is told, she lives in the Jade Palace on the moon.
Students took turns reading from another simpler book about family traditions related to the Moon Festival. Feynman (2021) pre-taught the younger children some Chinese words: ba-ba (father), ma-ma (mother), Mei-mei (younger sister) and jie-jie (older sister), and they all engaged the children with questions as they read.
Darren (2021) and Eileen (2021) spoke about how their families celebrate. The children learned that Feyman’s family does not celebrate, and in discovering this began to understand that, the visiting high school students are individuals with different family traditions.
No celebration is complete without food. The high school students brought mooncake for the Pre-K to have as a snack. The interactions and time spent together were enjoyed by all!

Belonging to a PreK-12 community provides many opportunities for connection and engagement. Students look forward to our All School Activities and PreK-12 assemblies. In addition to these community gatherings, cross divisional collaborations and conversations occur each day.