Capitol Tour

Last week both Employment Readiness classes were able to take a tour of Minnesota State Capitol.

A very crowed school bus with 64 students pulled up in front of the building and the bus was filled with Ooooos and Awwwws. The students were all very awestruck by the beauty of the building both inside and out.  With the help of our lovely tour guides, Mimi and David, the students were able to learn all about the history of the capitol building.

                                                 Group one on the capitol steps

                           
                                   Tour Guide Mimi tells about where the laws are made

             
           Saw Kaw Lo was very excited to pose with the flags in Governor Dayton's reception room

                                                     
                                           Posing with a statue in the rotunda

Receipt with you or in the bag?  

Jessica's level 3-4 classroom was humming with commercial activity this morning.  Students could be overheard saying things like "Would you like to open a store card and save 15% today?"  Long classroom tables became shopping aisles and students were armed with calculators, shopping lists, and fake money as they took turns playing customer, cashier, and sales associate.

Simulations like this give learners a chance to "put it altogether" and practice using all of the skills they studied throughout the March "Shopping" unit.  Once totals were tallied, change counted back, and receipts in hand, learners sat down to write about their experience.  Here are a few excerpts... 

 

I wrote a list when I go to the store.  I looked for the aisle -I can find.  If I don't find I can question to the Sales Associate.  The Sales Associate can show me everything in the store.

When I find...I go to the cashier.  The cashier check out and total money.  I can pay cashier.  They give me money and receipt put in the bag for me.  Usually we need receipt every time.  The receipt important for any people to buy things.  -Chong Moua Xiong -pictured above in green shirt

In English class today, we practiced shopping.  I talked to the other people.  I was a cashier. I talk to the other customer. Some people were sales associate.  Customer ask [questions] for sales associate...Cashier check out...Customer say" How much money?" Cashier say "$45.60" Customer give money for cashier.  Cashier take your money. -Char Ku Moo, pictured above as cashier

For class today we practiced shopping.  I was a customer go to shopping.  I write the list.   I look at the list and going find on the aisle 3.  I take a lamp, go to aisle 2, take a sauce pan and coffeemaker, go to aisle 1, take a toilet paper.  I go to check out.  Cashier count total $106.00.  I pay $120.00.  Cashier change $14.00.  -Dung Nguyen

Making Holiday Cookies

During the week before winter break, the Basic class was busy making holiday cookies.

On Monday, they watched a video about making cookies and learned all the names for the ingredients and measurements.

On Tuesday, they mixed up the dough.

At first, some are dubious that cookie dough will ever taste good

Who needs a Kitchen Aid?

Eh Ka Nyaw and Thin Than work together to get the dough mixed up

Absolutely perfect

What a workout!

On Wednesday, they rolled out the dough, cut out the cookies, and baked the cookies.

Nyo Nyo, Kyaw Po and Cuong cut out flawless cookies

Three good friends: Dung is from Vietnam, Maricela is from Guatemala, and Damanti is from Bhutan.

Cathy demonstrates the art of cookie cutting

Mue Leh, Moo Ko Paw, and Lay Lay Moo cut out cookies as a team

On Thursday, they mixed up frosting and decorated the cookies.  Some of the cookies went to our friends at Arlington Hills Lutheran Church.  The rest of the cookies went home for families.

Pu Day adds red food coloring

This group is a cookie-decorating factory!

Tey Moo puts many colors on his cookies

Maria shows off one of her beautiful cookies

Getting the cookie plates ready to deliver

Sarah, Naw Boh, and Jen pause for a picture with a pile-o-cookies!

The entire class sings "Jingle Bells" as they deliver the cookies to the office and to Mr. Jim

After the class finished decorating and delivering the cookies, they worked with Jen to write a class story about their experience.

"Yesterday we made cookies.  Today, we decorated cookies.  We quickly mixed powdered sugar, water, and food coloring.  Sa Ki Na made yellow frosting.  Eh Ka Naw made green colored sugar.  We put the frosting and colored sugar on the cookies.  We were happy.  We washed our hands, the bowls and the tables.  We put the cookies on the plate.  We put plastic over the cookies.  We wrote Happy Holidays on the plastic.  We sang the Jingle Bells song.  We gave the cookies to Mr. Jim and to the office.  We said Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!"

Happy Thanksgiving!

On Wednesday, November 23rd, we had our annual Thanksgiving Party at Arlington Hills.  There were over 90 learners that attended, plus about 20 volunteers, teachers, and special guests.  Somehow we managed to feed them all!

The men from Andrea's class took over the making of mashed potatoes with Teacher Kirsti supervising. They peeled 15 pounds of potatoes in all, but there were no leftovers at the end of the meal!

Teacher Jessica's students helped decorate for the event. They used turkey decorations that Rachel's Childrens English School students created the day before. Both the children and the tukeys were adorable!

Some of the women from Teacher Andrea's class helped Mrs. Wiehe hang up coats in the Alley Shoppe while we were setting up for the party.  Every learner was able to take home two winter coats at the end of the party, as well as hats, boots, scarfs and mittens for themselves and their families.  We are so lucky to be able to partner with the Alley Shoppe to help keep our learners warm.

 Teacher Jessica's class preformed "Oh Susanna" for the school.  It was very popular!

Teacher Andrea's class preformed "Down by the Riverside"  They were really nervous because they were doing it from memory, but they did a wonderful job and sounded beautiful, so they shouldn't have worried.

Everyone at the party wrote their name and something that they were thankful for, and glued it on the "Tree of Thanks".  The Arlington Hills Lutheran Church is displaying the tree in their lobby during the holiday season.

 Teacher Marya, who was the only teacher with turkey-cooking experience under her belt, was in charge of the turkeys.  They turned out delicious, and more importantly, no one came down with food poisoning!  A HUGE thanks to Annelisa, Gail, Cathy, and Diane who chipped in to help us buy the turkeys.

 Aung Moe Kyaw, Tey Ley, and Than Thin show off their turkey-carving skills.

 Kirsti and Emily graciously finished up the final potato preparations. 

Finally!  After all of that work, it was time to eat.  Many learners brought food to share, so we had the traditional Minnesota holiday foods of turkey, mashed potatoes, and stuffing, along with papaya salad, rice, taquitas, rice noodle dishes, and curry.  Jim even baked apple pies that he served warm with ice cream.  It was a delicious day.



Tricks and Treats

Jim, the head of maintenance from the Arlington Hills Lutheran Church, put on his annual trick pool shots show for the school.  There were over 90 learners, teachers and children attending this year!  Jim preformed original trick shots with volunteers from the audience, and everyone ate popcorn and got a salted nut roll to take home, courtesy of Jim.  A great time was had by all!



Jim explains the game to the learners.

The Children's English School loved the trick shots!

Jim gets some help from members of the audience.

Tree Nae and Way Way Lah play Jim's game, "Helping Hands Across the Sea".

Ready, aim, shoot!

Teacher Jessica is one brave woman!  Fortunately for us all, Jim didn't miss, and Jessica is still with us.



Good-Bye Garden!

We said good-bye to our gardens for this year and got them ready for the winter. 

Teacher Jessica's class, led by her sister Liz that day, took care of the courtyard tomato and chili pepper gardens.  They stored the potting soil, sifted out the rocks for drainage, pulled the plants, and stacked up the pots.  Some of the students took chili pepper plants home to try planting them in their apartments over the winter.

Teacher Marya's class took care of the outside church garden.  They pulled up all of the plants and got them ready for Jim to take to the compost heap.  They took down the fence and the sticks for trellising, and got them ready to store in the garage for the winter.  It took us weeks and weeks to put everything up in and around the garden, and less than 10 minutes to take it all down.

The marigolds were still beautiful!

Teacher Andrea's class took down the Sue's Park garden.  They pulled the fence, pulled all of the plants, and said good-bye until next year. We have to say a huge thank you to the wonderful Hmong family that allowed us to use their water for the garden so that we didn't have to carry water from the church.  They saved our backs and arms from a lot of work! 

Bal Tamang wrestles with the fence.

How many students does it take to pull out a fence post?

Nga Reh decides to take the sunflower heads home for a snack.

Aung Moe Kyaw shows us how strong he is.

We carry the vegetables back to the church to send with Jim to the compost heap.



Teacher Andrea's class is very grateful to Santiago's family, who allowed us to pick apples from their huge apple tree in their backyard.