the lunar new year.

Celebrating holidays overseas always provides a great opportunity for learning more about a country's history and traditions. This past weekend was the Lunar New Year in Asia, known as Sol-Nal in Korea. On Thursday all of the kindergartners came to school dressed in hanboks and we had a fun afternoon spent playing games, eating dumplings and chapjae, and making kites.

Here are a few photos from the day:


my class (and wonderful korean co-teacher) wearing hanboks to celebrate the new year. getting everyone to smile for this picture wasn't the easiest thing i've ever tried. and i obviously didn't succeed.


my aspiring artist, olivia, showing off her cute smile and dress.


playing a traditional korean game.


jiwoo... my little genius. today we spent almost thirty minutes devising a plan to publish and market his latest mystery novel. i am the editor and was promised $20 upon the book's release. he is six and amazes me everyday. is it wrong for a teacher to have favorites? if not, he is mine.


the kids learning to properly bow for their grandparents.

새해 복 많이 받으세요!

happy korean thanksgiving!

A few weeks ago Korea celebrated one of its most important holidays, Chusok. In honor of the day, the students at school dressed in Hanboks and played traditional Korean games. It was so much fun to see all of my little kindergarten kids looking nice in their brightly colored clothes representative of their culture. Here are a few photos from the day:


playing a korean stick tossing game. i didn't quite understand the concept.


i sincerely hope that someday i have a little asian girl whose eyes completely close when she smiles.


claire and her red dress.


charlie. the ladies' man.


a few of the girls.

Check out my Flickr site to see more photos from Chusok!