|WATCH| 踏雪尋梅 Plum Blossom in the Snow

The students will be performing the song at our winter program on 12/15. Have them practice at home!

Week of November 3-7, 2015

What an overwhelmingly awesome, exciting, and successful week at the GLOBE! Our class raised over $3000 with the whole school raised over 80k in just two short weeks!! Thank you parents for being a strong voice for education. Your support makes the difference.

Below is what we have accomplished on top of all the excitements. :) Yes, we get our work done (and have fun too)!

In our third language thematic unit, we learned about names of some body parts and language structures. Specifically head, shoulders, knees, feet, hands, head, hair, eyes, nose, and ears. The students can now tell someone if one of those body part hurts by saying, " My____ hurts, please help me!" "This is my_____." "I have # (body parts)." "Please don't touch my ________."  Our end of unit assessment is for the students to match the words to the body parts. Keep going over those vocabulary cards at home! Ask your child if he can identify body parts on a family pet or a stuffed animal for fun.

For the past two weeks, we have been looking for, tracing, and identifying two-dimensional shapes. We also looked at some paintings that are made up of lots of patterns and shapes. The students were inspired to create their own artwork.

GLOBE Trot! The students were such troopers. What a memorable mud run we will remember forever.

The students were able to share their artifacts from the Chinese restaurants and make a book with their experiences. I am blown away by some of the illustrations.

 "I went to ________ to eat." 

 "I went to _______ to eat." 

 "I ate....."

 "I even spoke some Mandarin!"

|LISTEN| Motion Song (運動)

We are learning about motion in Science. Practice the song and learn the otherwise boring vocabulary words. The song is to the tune of Shut up and Dance. 

Lyrics:
運動是變換位置
動來動去都不停
你來看我怎麼動~
喔！曲線是zigzag,
直線往前走,
我說轉一圈
旋轉很容易看我做.
快慢都是運動,我說
喔喔～前進後退停止.

曲線 zig zag
旋轉 go round and round
直線 go straight
前進後退 forward and backward
停止/靜止 motionless



Record and upload voice >>

|Mandarin Journal| 形狀歌 The Shapes Song

Refer to your child's Mandarin Journal for The Shapes Song.

Week of October 19-23, 2015

This week we wrapped up Gravity in Science and Directional words in Math. Students experimented gravity through art, and a bouncy ball we made in class.

In language, we are wrapping out the "My Body Parts" thematic unit. Students are now able to point and name a body part (head, hair, eyes, nose, ears, shoulders, hands, tummy, knees, and feet), name how many of each body part, express if a body part hurts, and the color of a certain body part.

During language center, we continue to practice writing, recognizing sight words, reading, singing, and building sentences. The newspaper sight words scavenger hunt is a huge hit!

Next week, we will be sharing our Chinese Restaurant experience with classmates and begin to start exploring two dimensional shapes as well as motions.

|WATCH| Reading Body Parts Book in Mandarin

Have you wondered how students take off to read...in MANDARIN? My kindergarten students have been with me for two and half months, but they began to build sight words starting day one. The theme of the month is Body Parts, and some students are really taking ownership of the words and their meanings. Watch how two friends read the book by matching the words to the pictures and using one to one correspondence skills.

|WATCH| What's the weather? Turn and Talk

So many of you are wondering what calendar math looks like in another language, or what IS Calendar Math? For starters, this is where we begin our day. The students learn about the date and day of the week. There are counting involved (counting forward, backward, skip counting, patterns) and there are skills we spiral throughout the year. So whatever we are not focusing on in Math, we may still be reviewing at this time. This is such a key event of the day, it sets the tone.

In the video below, you will see how my kindergarteners turn and talk. They each asks, "What is the weather today?" and their partner has to respond, "The weather is_______ today". The language structure is the foundation and paves the way of new and more complicated sentences later on.

Week of October 13-16, 2015

This week, we are all about positional words. The students placed the ball above, below, inside, next to, in front of, and behind a box. They also practiced with a figure and a cup. You may do this at home by incorporating any objects. Reinforce those vocabulary words in English! 

In language, we continued to work on body parts. We made our flash cards and are now learning to tell someone/ a teacher if a body parts. Your child may sing the body parts song to you if you ask! 

In centers, we are testing our sight words reading muscle! It's exciting how many words we already know and it's only been 40 something school days. 

In Science, we continued on experimenting with gravity. Look at the gravity art our class made on this beautiful fall day. 

Board Game Day!! 

Our second graders and kindergarteners were giggly when they saw each other. So many leaders in the group, which made the experience more meaningful. We encouraged the children to apply all the Mandarin words that they know. By playing familiar games with friends in Mandarin not only reinforce oral skills but also improve critical thinking abilities. There are so many times a second grader tries to explain the rules in Mandarin mixed in some English.