Featured Classroom

September 2012

School:Zhuzhou Yandi Institute

Teacher: Frank Leone
Country: China

  1. Tell us 5 words that describe your classroom.

Molly: Bright, comfortable, modern colorful, and clean

Bob: Clean, regular, multi-media, large, and bright

Ryan: Interesting, active, terrific, excellent, and full of love

Sunny: Clean, serious, memorial, noisy, and tidy

Jerry: Quiet, wood smelling, colorful, clean, and big

  1. Tell us something special or unique about the state or country in which you live.

Molly: Zhuzhou is famous for its industry and railway lines, but the town where I live is in a geopark, containing a lake and several karst caverns. It’s very beautiful.

Bob: My country has the largest population in the world.

Ryan: People are friendly, it’s cleaner.

Sunny: People here are conservative.

Jerry: Stinky tofu, tea, and red ceramic china.

  1. Describe what’s in your lunchboxes on a typical day.

Molly: Rice or sticky rice, duck and angelica soup, kidney beans with meat and corn with pork ribs.

Bob: Noodles.

Ryan: I don’t take a lunchbox.

Sunny: Fish, rice, beans, wild cabbage.

Jerry: I don’t take a lunchbox, we are given lunch at school. Rice, vegetables, meat – pork or chicken.

  1. What are 3 favorite songs of students in your class?

Molly: “The Rose” by Bette Middler, “Loving Song” by Shanni Chen, “Coral Sea” by Jay Chou

Bob: “Yellow”, “Yesterday”, “Hey Jude”

Ryan: “Give Me Up”, “Bye Bye”, “Ai Quing Mai Mai”

Sunny: “Safe & Sound”, “A Night on the Spring River”, “Emergency”

Jerry: “One for the Money”

  1. Describe a special holiday or tradition celebrated in your state or country.

Molly: The Dragon Boat Festival. We will eat a special food named “zong zi” (rice dumplings), put Artemisia leaves and flag leaves on the doors and windows and dragon boats in memory of Qu Yuan.

Bob: The Spring Festival (Chinese New Year). Our family will have dinner together and watch the Spring Festival Gala.

Ryan: The Spring Festival. All my family will get together.

Sunny: The Spring Festival.

Jerry: The Spring Festival because I can have red envelopes, watch TV, and eat Chinese dumplings and rice cakes. I can also phone my friends to stay with us.

  1. What outside games do you play on recess or after school?

Molly: football or basketball and tug-of-war

Bob: football or basketball

Ryan: run or go for a walk

Sunny: badminton

Jerry: I usually stay in the classroom and read.

  1. Name some traditional foods that visitors to your state or country should try.

Molly: stinky tofu

Bob: Chinese rice pudding, moon cakes

Ryan: dumplings and delicious lobster

Sunny: stinky tofu, rice dumplings, tasty shrimp

Jerry: stinky tofu

  1. What is the most popular sport in your classroom? (To watch or to play?)

Molly: football

Bob: basketball

Ryan: basketball

  1. What do you wear to school each day?

Molly: casual clothes

Bob: school uniform

Ryan: school uniform

Sunny: school uniform

Jerry: school uniform

  1. What is the most popular subject in your classroom?

Molly: Chinese

Bob: Math

Ryan: Math

Sunny: History

Jerry: English

  1. How many pets are owned by students in the class? What kinds?

Molly: I don’t have any, but some of my classmates have dogs, cats, fish or little tortoises.

Bob: I don’t have a pet, but some classmates have cats and dogs.

Ryan: I have a dog and want a cat.

Sunny: I don’t have a pet. Some classmates have rabbits and dogs.

Jerry: I don’t know.

  1. How do you say hi to friends in your school?

Molly: By smiling and waving my hand or patting my friend on the shoulder or hand.

Bob: Nod my head and smile to my friends.

Ryan: Pat my friends.

Sunny: Pat them or call their name.

Jerry: I give them a high five.

  1. Describe what you see outside your classroom window.

Molly: There are buildings and green belts outside one classroom and there’s a lake and a row of tall trees outside my other classroom.

Bob: From my classroom window I can see the square and a building outside the school.

Ryan: Energetic students.

Sunny: The blue sky.

Jerry: The school tennis courts.

  1. What are 3 favorite books of students in your class.

Molly: Lotus by Annie Baby, IQ 84 by Hanruki Murakami, Gone With the Wind by Margaret Mitchell

Bob: His Country by Hai Han, Chen Mode Daduoshu by Wang Xiao Bo

Ryan: Harry Potter by JK Rowling, The Secret Garden by Frances Hodgson Burnett, Freedom

Sunny: Freakonomics, 1587: A Year of No Significance, Cross to the South and Back to the North

Jerry: Diary of a Wimpy Kid

  1. How do kids in your classroom celebrate their birthdays? (Foods, events…)

Molly: The whole family will get together for lunch or dinner, then the friends will come to have birthday cake and other snacks and play games in the evening. The elder in the family would give me a red envelope with lucky money.

Bob: We eat out together.

Ryan: Some of them will invite all of their friends for singing songs or playing other interesting things. Some of them will celebrate with their parents.

Sunny: Have a birthday cake.

Jerry: My parents get me a cheese cake and we eat it together.

If you’d like, attach acookie (or another bite-sized food) recipe that comes from your state/country. We will be featuring a day where we encourage classrooms to make cookies from another country and talk about it on the student forums.

Chinese Moon Cakes
Moon cakes are eaten during the Spring Festival (Chinese New Year) because it is based on the Lunar Calendar. They are also eaten during the Mid-Autumn Festival which is a harvest type celebration in the middle of September. There are many different types. This is an easy and fun recipe that can be done in the classroom.

Ingredients:

  • 1/4 cup sugar
  • 2 egg yolks
  • 1/2 cup salted butter
  • 1 cup all-purpose flour
  • 1 cup strawberry (or your favorite) jam (traditionally red bean paste is used so if you want a more authentic version, you can use a can of red bean paste instead of the jam).
Procedure:
Preheat the oven to 375 degrees. Combine the butter, sugar and 1 egg yolk and stir. Mix in the flour. Form the dough into one large ball and wrap it in plastic wrap. Refrigerate dough for half an hour. Unwrap the chilled dough and form small balls in the palms of your hand. Make a hole with your thumb in the center of each mooncake and fill with about half a teaspoon of jam. Optional: If you have a mold (e.g. for cookies) you can use it to give them a fun shape. Don’t forget to put flour on it so the dew won’t stick to it. Brush each cake with the other beaten egg yolk and place on a cookie sheet. (We didn't have a brush to do this, so skipped the brushing step). Bake for about 20 minutes or just until the outside edges are slightly brown.