Game ka na ba?

Paaralang Pinoy Classes and Workshops for Kids are back! 


The Fall Classes will have eight sessions from October 4 to November 22, 2015.  Each session will include an introduction to the Filipino language and a culture lesson.  The students will either work in class or take home worksheets that reinforce the lessons.  Next year, we will bring you our Slice of Pinoy Spring Workshops for Kids which will feature a short review of the relevant culture lessons learned in the fall followed by an activity such as cooking or dancing or creating crafts.

Our Ate and Kuya helpers will continue to lead our littlest students at our Saling-Pusa Station using the same topics but geared to our preschoolers.  If you register a preschooler, a parent or guardian is welcome to stay for the duration of the session.

All our classes and workshops will be held on Sundays from 3:30-5:00 p.m. at the St. Joseph's Center of Our Lady of Good Counsel Catholic Church, 8601 Wolftrap Road, Vienna, VA.

Registration for our Fall Classes is now OPEN for your rising 1st to 5th graders.  Tuition for Fall Classes is $10 per student per class or if you choose to enroll for the entire series of Fall Classes, we offer a discounted tuition of $64 per student if paid in full on the first day of class.  Registration and other forms will be emailed after you sign up.

O, game ka na ba?  Click on our Sign Up Genius button on the right to register your children and to be counted for our OPEN HOUSE on October 4.

Teaching the Pinoy Beat

We at Paaralang Pinoy love to end the year with a party, and what better way to pass on the Pinoy way of celebrating than to hold a Fiesta Workshop! 

Some of our students have been with us since they were barely able to write their own names.  Attending year after year had given them an appreciation of their heritage, a repertoire of Filipino folk songs, and dance skills!  Those flapping arms imitate ducks quite well that the rest of the class easily pick up the steps.

For the Saling-Pusa kids, banging out the song and dance rhythms--from the beat of the northern mountain regions to the danza of the harana, and the fast and furious bamboo claps of the southern regions--is half the fun of celebrating.  And for the Paaralang Pinoy teachers, feeling the Pinoy rhythm is already half the lesson about being Pinoy.

We end another year of Paaralang Pinoy workshops, and of passing on bits of Pinoy stories and songs to our Filipino-American children. If you are interested in joining us for the school year 2015-2016, watch for announcements in this blog, or email us directly at paaaralang.pinoy at yahoo dot com.  We look forward to meeting you soon.

Jack en Poy!

The Street Games Workshop is the hands-down favorite of all the kids who've participated in Paaralang Pinoy's classes.  They get to take off their shoes, scream out, and at the end of all that fun, eat street food.  This year, we served them banana-cue!

The Saling-Pusa kids weren't left out of the fun either.  There were paper balls to use for sipa, tiny shells for sungka, and their own version of Chinese garter.

 

 

Tumbang-preso is the kind of game that lends itself to variations.  The kids get into it enough to modify it and come up with their own rules.

The gymnasts in our class were in the air literally, showing us the different ways to go over the elastic stretched across the room.  But Chinese garter required more dainty and accurate feet, to finish the patterns without missing a beat.  

Maybe years from now, when their gadgets' batteries are low and these kids are feeling bored, they might remember that it doesn't require much to have fun.  A 3-yard length of elastic can entertain them as well as any video game.

Palay, Bigas & Kanin

We introduced our workshop topic, Bigas o Kanin? with a popular tune, Magtanim ay di Biro.  But wouldn't you know it, the composer also created many other songs that our students knew!  So with the help of our student teachers, we had a belated caroling session singing the popular medley, Pasko na Naman and Noche Buena, both composed by prolific composer and National Artist, Felipe Padilla de Leon.

Yuko! and Ate happily obliged, showing our saling-pusa kids the action words from our song of the month.  Later, with the help of their noisemakers--little plastic eggs filled with (what else?) bigas, they demonstrated tayo! upo! and yuko! to the big kids in class.

We had puto for merienda, quite appropriately showing the many things made from rice to our kids.  But many lessons are remembered better when the hands are involved, and as a bonus, if these same hands make something edible and yummy.  Perhaps you can guess what we made and ate that afternoon?

Palitaw!

Join us next month for our next workshop, Isang Gabing Tahimik: Vintage Fashion. Register via Sign-up Genius button on the right.  If you have questions, or need to update or cancel your registration, please email the Paaralang Pinoy Coordinator at paaralang.pinoy@yahoo.com

Sunday, February 15
3:30-5:00 p.m.
St. Joseph's Center
Our Lady of Good Counsel
8601 Wolftrap Road
Vienna, VA 

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