Duality maps

Sarah is showing the lovely duality map she has made.

Her duality map is about Tonga and New Zealand and she has told us interesting information about food, clothes, housing, games and life in general.

Much of the information Sarah knew herself, but she spoke to her parents and looked for pictures on the internet and in travel brochures.

Why is it valuable to make a duality map?

- It enables self pride in one's own culture.

- It gives everyone an awareness of other cultures and personal experiences.

- Communication links were established between children of similar nationalities, students of different nationalities and families and school.

Ahmad felt very proud of his duality map and was happy to share his knowledge of Malaysia and his life in Malaysia with his friends and teachers.

His map looks fantastic doesn't it?

Ainni shared a lot of information about Malaysia too. She had great fun gathering the information for her duality map and she talked to her parents about lots of things. She noticed some similarities and some differences between New Zealand and Malaysia. Her completed map looks wonderful doesn't it?

Grace spent a long time discussing the making of her duality map with her mother and sisters. She made some notes on paper and brought them to school and then decided how to construct her map. She used pictures from the internet, magazines and travel brochures. Grace include a lot of details about her country and culture on her duality map.

She is particularly fond of some of the foods from her culture and enjoys it when they are cooked in New Zealand.

Grace's finished map looks fantastic and it is full of interesting information.

Visit to the Taieri River - Outram Glen

We went to Outram Glen to walk by the Taieri River. We could see where the river had been flooded a few weeks ago. We took flat stones from the river bank and tried to skim them across the top of the water. Some people were very good at skimming and could get the stones to bounce along the top of the water and reach the other side of the river. Others of us found it really hard to do and the stones just plopped into the water.

We had to wear our coats and jackets to keep warm because the wind was very cold.

Han Byeul enjoyed collecting all sorts of different stones from the river bank. She found different coloured stones, different sized stones and different shaped stones, She gave away the stones she found. People liked their present of a stone.

We took a group photo of us together on the river bank. Can you see anyone you recognise?

We went to the Taieri Museum picnic area and had a picnic afternoon tea. We all brought some food and shared it and we had some tea from a thermos flask. The tea was nice and warm. It was sheltered from the wind at the picnic place and we enjoyed the view over the Taieri Plain. We had fun watching some waxeyes and fantails fluttering around in a tree. When we were in the car we saw some harriers hovering over some prey.

We travelled around Saddle Hill and into Brighton where we had an ice cream at the dairy and watched the ducks on the creek by the bridge. After this we parked on the Brighton Domain and walked down to the beach.

We found dog tracks in the sand. They look like the tracks of a fairly big dog.

We also followed Mrs Probert's foot prints. She was wearing her walking boots and they made a clear footprint in the sand.

There was a lot of foam on the beach. Look at all the bubbles and the interesting patterns they make.

Farewell to Han Byeul

Han Byeul came to North East Valley Normal School in February 2010. She came from Korea with her parents. We were very lucky to have Han Byeul come to our school and we are sad that she has to return to Korea. Han Byeul learned a lot of English this year and made lots of new friends. Her friends and class mates helped her to learn English and it was not long before she was able to speak to them in English.

Han Byeul likes writing and drawing and whilst at North East Valley Normal she started to learn how to write in English. She wrote a lot of things in English in her writing book.

We had a lovely dinner together to farewell Han Byeul and her father before they returned to Korea. Sarah and James invited us to their home and Sarah prepared a wonderful dinner with sushi and sashimi. We all brought some different food to share.

We had some delicious stuffed mushrooms - they were stuffed with cream cheese and lemon juice.

There were several kinds of sushi. Some were vegetarian, some were chicken and some were tuna.

We also had some delicious kumera fritters and some very tasty prawns.

Han Byeul looked very beautiful in her hanbok, her traditional Korean costume. She wore it specially for the occasion. Her hanbok was so lovely and was made with very bright coloured material and pretty embroidery.

Look at Han Byeul. Doesn't she look beautiful in her hanbok ?

We were so lucky that she wore her hanbok to school so that we could all see how beautiful it is. Thank you Han Byeul and have a safe trip back to Korea.

We all learn together - we teach our teacher

Taiwanese dumplings

A lesson: how to eat them

A wonderful display of steamed Taiwanese dumplings ready to be served and eaten. Yum yum!

A delicious dumpling meal. One natural chopstick user and another who needs to give their full attention to using them!

Mrs Probert was concentrating very hard. Look at the serious expression on her face. She did not drop the dumpling though.

Taiwanese dumplings in the bamboo steamers. We had to use our chopsticks to lift the dumplings out of the steamers and onto our plates. We had to be careful not to drop them. If we dropped them they burst open and the hot stock squirted everywhere.

More delicious dumplings.

We had fun eating Taiwanese dumplings with Mrs Probert. She knew how to use chopsticks but we taught her how to use them to eat dumplings that contained stock - not such an easy thing to do! We had to hold the dumpling with our chopsticks and then bite a small hole in it. Next we had to suck the stock out of the dumpling before eating it.

Tang Yuan -Chinese New Year dumpling

Typical food for Chinese New Year is the Tang Yuan, a type of dumpling made from glutinous rice flour that is rolled into balls and stuffed with either sweet or spicy fillings such as sesame, red bean, or peanut butter paste. We made some of these in our conversation class.

Lysiane, Nik, Lily, Didi and Gwendoline write down the recipe for making Tang Yuan so that they can make some more at home.

Farah rolls a ball of glutinous rice before stuffing it and cooking it. Yuko watches her before.......

she rolls one of her own.

Zul is obviously enjoying rolling his Tang Yuan. I wonder what he will stuff his with - will it be sweet or spicy ?

Mike carefully watches how James rolls his Tang Yuan. James concentrates as he makes his dumpling.

Mike is the chief cook and he puts the Tang Yuan into boiling water - when the dumplings float up to the top of the water, they are cooked and need to be taken out.

Chetna watches carefully so that she learns what to do and next time she can become a cook and help Mike with his cooking task.

Proud makers of Tang Yuan - Chinese New Year dumplings. Ready to serve and eat. They look very good for a first effort!

James suggests that Mr McKenzie should be the first to try one of the Tang Yuan made by the group.

What does he think of the Tang Yuan? Can you guess from his expression or is the glutinous rice too sticky ?

Chinese New Year 2010

We celebrated Chinese New Year at school.

2010 is the Year of the Tiger

The word "Yu" for fish sounds like the words for both wish and abundance. On New Year's Eve people often eat a whole fish at the end of the evening meal as a wish for togetherness and abundance for the following year. It is also thought that if you do not eat meat on the first day of the Chinese New Year then you will be ensured of a long and happy life.

We saw the Lion Dance performance at the Dunedin Chinese Gardens

We celebrated the Lantern Festival that marks the end of the 15 day New Year Season.

The Dunedin Chinese Garden was decorated with lanterns for the Chinese New Year Festival celebrations. Lanterns light your way into a bright and happy future.

Yi Yi wore a beautiful new red outfit for New Year. Red clothing is common during the Chinese New Year season. Red is a bright, happy colour that will bring a sunny and bright future. Your appearance and attitude during New Year sets the tone for the rest of the year. Red is also the colour of fire and fire burns off bad luck.

Chinese let off fire crackers on Chinese New Year's Eve to send off the old year and welcome in the new year.

Cultural celebration in Dunedin

Our conversation group went with their families and teacher to a wonderful English Language Partners' evening of cultural celebration in Burns Hall. Many people wore their tradition clothes and looked really lovely in such brightly coloured and beautiful materials.

Here we are together for a group photograph at the end of an enjoyable evening together. Can you recognise any one?

Rashmin and Chetna were there with their son Nirgoon. Chetna and Nirgood performed an Indian song for us. We enjoyed listening to their performance and their beautiful singing voices.

James and Sarah came too. Sarah wore her traditional Korean costume called a hanbok. She looked very elegant in her lovely yellow hanbok.

Nik look beautiful too, in her Malaysian traditional dress called a baju kabaya.