Ang Munting Bituin

The annual Parol-Making Workshop held at Our Lady of Good Counsel has become a tradition to many Filipino-American children in the northern Virginia area.  Many have kept the parol, or star lanterns that they've created each year.  Others have given these parol kits to others as a way of sharing their Filipino culture to American friends.

Years from now, these children may remember that making a parol is part of their Advent preparation, together with attending Simbang Gabi and eating at a salu-salo every night for the nine days before Christmas.  Paaralang Pinoy is proud to contribute to their memories and help them discover ways to share their culture.

Bahay Kubo

This month, we learned about some of the Chinese and Spanish influences on Filipino culture by way of Bahay Kubo.  After all, singing helped them practice their short vowel sounds and introduced them to words like bawang, sibuyas and kamatis, the basic ingredients of many culinary creations.

There was little bit of history too as we displayed a Maria Clara outfit, common during the Spanish period, and a camisa chino, a shirt revised to fit the weather and needs of the Filipinos then.

 

In the Saling-pusa Station, our preschoolers continued to learn the rest of Bahay Kubo with a picture book, and color the Philippine flag using their new words: bughaw, pula, dilaw and puti. 

They also saw our three-part cards: picture cards with the corresponding labels in Filipino, cards with picture only, and cards with Filipino word label only.  They will have these available to play with, and with frequency, should help them remember the Filipino words.

Though we don't have a workshop scheduled in December, Paaralang Pinoy is co-sponsoring a Parol-making workshop on Sunday, November 30 at Our Lady of Good Counsel's De Sales Hall at 2:00 p.m.  Do join us and listen to Filipino carols sung by former students of Paaralang Pinoy as your children create their own parol.

Maligayang Bati!

Paaralang Pinoy opened this year's workshop series with a birthday party! Our theme was Maligayang Bati: Pinoy Etiquette and Manners but we were fortunate to have a new student celebrating her birthday and the class was able to sing for her, in Filipino!

You would have heard chants of A-E-I-O-U, spoken like true Filipinos, from our new group of kids.  There were also strains of Lupang Hinirang, which we will continue to learn and practice through all the workshop sessions.  The children also learned the correct way to display the Philippine flag, and a general idea of how the country's many islands look like.

Our Saling-Pusa kids colored the flag and traced the names of the islands.  But learning about manners and etiquette cannot be done with just pencil and paper! They got up to show respect to elders, touching hand to forehead and saying Mano po!  They also practiced those short vowel sounds in Magandang hapon po! and Paalam po!

But birthday parties aren't complete without frosted cupcakes so after singing Maligayang bati!, they sat down to a birthday snack to end their first workshop with Paaralang Pinoy.

Join us next month for Bahay Kubo: Pansit and Menudo in the Menu.

Sunday, November 16
3:30-5:00 p.m.
St. Joseph's Center
Our Lady of Good Counsel
8601 Wolftrap Road
Vienna, VA