Hmong Heritage Night and Cardboard Arcade

Last night, we held our Hmong Heritage Night and Cardboard Arcade. We started our evening off with a short introduction to the Hmong culture. We have a large part of our school's population from Laos and Thailand. We shared how our student's families were refuges and in April of 1979 our first family came to Wausau. This year, we are celebrating our first Hmong heritage month to celebrate diversity in our city. We then read Dia's Story Cloth...sharing one girl's story about why her family is here. (You know I am all about tying literacy to what I am up to...)

Now, for me getting dressed up in a traditional Hmong New Year Outfit...

Entertainment was fabulous. My fourth and 5th grade girls along with sisters and cousins practiced for three weeks in my room at noon every day and at home a ton of time, it was beautiful. I even had two girls sing a beautiful Hmong song...I didn't know until today that it was about their mothers and how they are growing up and will leave soon, but they will always love them (weep, tears, sniffle...) Now, I know why my Hmong moms were crying.

My Fourth Graders...White Hmong

Sisters!

One of the most quiet girls...shining!

This beautiful song brought tears to mothers' eyes!

We wrapped up with the explanation of the Hmong Ball Toss. A boy and a girl would toss the ball back and forth. If you dropped it you would need to give the other something that belonged to you. (it kind of sounded like strip poker...) We finished our evening with the ball toss. Fun stuff.

Before we went into the gym I explained the background behind the arcade. We shared the competition and that each person would get two tickets two play any game. Until the tickets were used, everyone would have to wait until we counted tickets. The winners of the most tickets were announced (those games will be featured at our Saturday carnival. Our winners screamed with joy...too cute!)

Here is our cardboard arcade! It was a blast! The best part was that we engineered these amazing games with tape, paper, boxes...and a ton of imagination and cooperation!

Everyone played endless games until the time was out and the ball toss started. It was a great success! Caine's Arcade...our inspiration! I have included a rubric and reflection sheet that I am using:)

                             Cardboard Arcade Rubric and Reflection