YACA Activities

Teachers are highly regarded in Chinese society, and the Chinese consider Confucius to be a paragon of all teachers. Confucius believed in education without discrimination. As such, his birthday, September 28, also called Confucius Day, is celebrated as a teacher appreciation day at Yinghua Academy. Teachers are recognized and thanked for their contributions to their students’ lives and to the larger community. Here are templates students can use to create thank you cards for teachers: Thank you card 1 Thank you card 2

The Mid-Autumn Festival (中秋节, zhōng qiū jié) is held on the fifteenth day of the eighth month in the Lunar Calendar. The holiday takes its name from the fact that it is celebrated when the moon is at its fullest and brightest in the middle of autumn. The holiday is also known as the “Moon Festival.” In Chinese culture a full moon is a symbol of peace, prosperity, and family reunion. Therefore, the date is also commonly referred to as the “Day of Reunion” and is a time when family members gather together to celebrate the festival. The ingredients of the pineapple mooncake include: pineapple paste, wheat flour, vegetable shortening, sugar, milk powder, and potato starch.

This major fundraising event pulls together parents and families to celebrate our various cultures including food booths, games, international booths, music, dance and more! Takes place in the fall around the first Saturday in October at Yinghua.

One of the important cultural events at Yinghua Academy is our celebration of Grandparents’ Day (重阳敬老节 Chóngyáng jìnglǎo jié) which is tied to the Chinese Elders’ Day celebration on the ninth day of the ninth lunar month. This festival is also known as “Double Ninth Day,”(重阳节 Chóngyáng jié) and the date is special because the word for the number nine in Chinese is a homonym for longevity. Overall, the holiday encourages young people to respect their grandparents and elders. At Yinghua, we celebrate “Double Ninth Day” because we know that grandparents and other role models are critical to students’ success in school and in life. Families with grandparents living abroad or very far away are welcome to invite an elder family member or elder friend of the family in lieu of a grandparent. We are not able to include Yinghua parents as guests unless a grandparent needs assistance for mobility or special needs or the parent is serving as an event volunteer worker. Click here for a parking map. We invite grandparents to be speakers in kindergarten, 1st, 2nd, 3rd or 4th grade classrooms and to be Grandparents’ Day Presenters in 5th-8th grade classes.

This is a fantastic opportunity to encourage students to read more books and offer them an opportunity to fundraise for their community. We ask that students record their reading minutes and collect donations from their family, friends, neighbors, and community for fifteen days. We strive for 100% student participation, and hope that all students will reach the 450-minute mark (a little over 30 minutes daily). YACA recognizes reading and fundraising successes in three grade divisions: K-1st, 2nd-4th, and 5th-8th. All reading counts (Sunday comics in the newspaper, audio books, etc.)!

The Fall Book Fair is held in the school cafeteria during Parent-Teacher Conferences. Stop by to browse a wide selection of books from Scholastic and Usborne booksellers, as well as Chinese books from China Sprout.

Chinese New Year (CNY), also known as Lunar New Year or “Spring Festival,” is an important Chinese holiday celebrated at the turn of the traditional lunisolar Chinese calendar. At Yinghua, we put on excellent performances each year to celebrate this non-religious holiday.

For several years, the school has held an “encore” CNY performance by kindergarten classes. The purpose is to allow you to see the wonderful costumed acts once more, or to extend the viewing to more friends and family members since seating is limited at the main performances.