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See this dragon in action! (QuickTime streaming video, 2MB)

     This year in sixth grade Mrs. Scuorzo taught her sixth graders all about China. We learned about many Chinese dynasties, Chinese letters and numbers, got to visit a Chinese Restaurant, and one of her students in her homeroom, Casey Mohrien, came up with an idea to build a Chinese dragon.

     The dynasties we learned about were the Zhou, the Shang, the Qin, and the Han. Each of these dynasties were very different, but yet they each contributed many ideas that people in China still use today. One thing the Zhou contributed was the ideas of Confucius. Confucius was a Chinese philosopher. A philosopher is a person who studies the meaning of life. Many of Confucius’s ideas are still used in China. The Shang dynasty contributed pictographs. A pictograph is picture or symbol used for words. The Qin dynasty had a very cruel ruler. His name was Shi Huangdi. Shi Huangdi created the Great Wall of China. During the building of the Great Wall, 500,000 workers died working on it. The workers were buried in the wall. The Han contributed a device called a seismograph. The seismograph was used to detect where there was an earthquake and in which direction it had come from. Seismographs are still used today.

    Also during this unit we got to learn Chinese letters and numbers. Each student got to make a banner written in Chinese, Chinese numbers, a Chinese zodiac, and a Chinese New Year envelope. A Chinese zodiac is similar to our zodiac, only they use animals. This year is the year of the sheep. A Chinese New Year envelope is red and inside you put a wish and give it to a friend.

     We celebrated the Chinese New Year with a field trip to a Chinese restaurant. Chinese New Year is on the first new moon of the year. This year it was on February first. At the restaurant, we got to experince Chinese food, some Chinese art, and some Chinese language [the food, by the way, wasdelicious!].

    Casey Mohrien came up with the idea of making a Chinese Dragon. Casey became the head of the dragon and Mrs. Scurozo homeroom marched behind in red decorated boxes. I think learning about China this year, and going to the restaurant was a great learning experience for all the students and the teachers.     

Article by
Logan Tallmadge