2008 CSU Spring Festival Spectacular 2/2/08 6:00pm

"If winter comes, can spring be far behind?" The coming Lunar New Year willbring you the spring, and you're all invited to "2008 CSU Spring FestivalSpectacular" to celebrate this major holiday of China.

Six o'clock sharp at the Coffman Union Great Hall this coming Saturday,2/2/08.

Enjoy the wonderful CHINESE FOOD! Spectacular PERFORMANCE &GAMES! Venture at CULTURE BOOTH to learn & have fun! Get the RED ENVELOPE to see your fortune! Sing KARAOKE to be superstars! Play POKER to win PRIZE! You don't want to miss a event like this! Free admissions for all CSUmembers, and it will also cost five dollars only for the non-members. You can can purchase tickets at the door, please invite your friends or familyto attend this spectacular event with you!

What: 2008 CSU Spring Festival SpectacularWhere: Great Hall @ Coffman UnionWhen: Sat., 2/2/08, 6:00 pm

Chinese New Year Celebrations Around the Twin Cities

Here are links to family-friendly Chinese New Year Celebrations around the Twin Cities. Visit the web-sites for details.

Feb. 7 Minneapolis Park and Recreation Chinese New Year Celebration at McRae Rec Center:
http://www.minneapolisparks.org/default.asp?PageID=89&activityid=56670

Feb. 9 Northwestern Health Sciences University Chinese New Year Celebration
http://exploreminnesota.com/event.aspx?EntityID=21426

Feb. 10 Families with Children from China Chinese New Year Celebration
http://www.fccmidwest.org/events/CNY2008/FCC2008RegistrationForm.htm

If you know of any other celebrations, e-mail xinxingparent@yahoo.com with details.

Learning Mandarin

Zhining found a good web site for learning Mandarin online. It is created by Dr. Tienwei Xie. There are good sections describing Chinese language elements such as pronunciation, conversation, and characters and this site provides links to other good Chinese web sites.

www.csulb.edu/~txie/online.htm

XinXing Summer Camp

XinXing is planning on having a Chinese summer camp. Please e-mail suggestions and ideas to bross@superinfoinc.com. We are planning a week long camp and we need to know if parents would like 1/2 day or full day and what dates work best. We also welcome any activity ideas as well.

Electronic White Boards for Next Year

Dr. Lawrence and the XinXing Steering committee are interested in writing a grant in order to get Promethian interactive white boards in the four XinXing classrooms by the start of the 2008-09 if at all possible. The cost for the board, projector, wiring, and staff development is about $7000 a classroom. If you know of any companies that tend to fund technology projects, especially for schools, please e-mail Dr. Lawrence with your suggestions. Thanks.

Open Enrollment Forms Due Jan 15th

For a family who is open enrolling in the Hopkins district, an open enrollment form must be completed for each sibbling. The forms must be post marked by Jan 15th for next year.

Parent Meeting January 14th at 7:00

The parent meeting will be located in the staff lounge at Eisenhower. (The staff lounge is through the main doors. Go past main office and all the way down the hall where you take a left.Go almost to the end of the hall and take a right. Look for staff lounge.)

I hope to see you all there!

Chinese Cooking Class - February 7th

Cynthia Chauwan Crinklaw will be teaching a Chinese cooking class for adults at the St. Louis Park Byerly's store on February 7th (Thursday) from noon to 1pm. She will be cooking three of her recipes: Good Fortune Bao, Eight Treasure Shrimp with Rice and Double Happiness Wonton Dessert. The cost is $10 per person and you'll receive a $10 coupon to use at the culinary shop at Byerly's. You can register online at LundsandByerlys.com or by calling 952-253-3409.

Cynthia taught the Chinese cooking classes for our kids last fall. She would love to see some of our parents at her Byerly's class.