Chinese Word Study

This blog post is dedicated to Chinese Word Study. Teaching in the US is a completely different battle than teaching in Taiwan. It's all an exciting learning experience for me still even though I have been teaching for eight years. Before I became a Mandarin immersion teacher, I taught lots of ELL students whose first language was not English. The commonality between teaching ELL and Mandarin immersion is that both groups require lots of TPR (Total Physical Response - a language teaching method developed by James Asher, a professor emeritus of psychology at San José State University. It is based on the coordination of language and physical movement.) and hands on learning experiences.

Chinese Word Study is essential in Mandarin because every word is basically a Sight Word. There is no phonics attached to the characters, so all that is required is memorization by sight. Several of the CWS centers are created based on sight words games on Pinterest, but some are based on teaching experience and imagination!

Race to Win

The students roll dice to advance or back-up. 

They have to say the words, and if they do not know the words, they may ask the other friend to help. 

Rub the Word

I wrote the words on the card stock using a hot glue gun. 

The students rub it on a piece of paper using a crayon. 

Bingo

Two students each receive a laminated card and a pom pom matched to the color of the card. 

Play-doh Word Building

Building words using play-doh. A fine motor skill and a fun way to introduce the complexity of characters. 

Character Art Making

Mandarin characters are pictorial, that is, words are originated from pictures or according to objects' characteristics. The center allows children to be creative and have fun learning the words through art making. 

                                                                     Character Charting

Chart how many times a character appears in the box. This is both a sight word skill and a math skill.

Chopstick Pom Poms

Students learn to use chopsticks while building words, win win!

Geo-board Writing

Geo-boards are great for 'writing' characters. 

Learn Mandarin Numbers

I love these Mandarin character dice that I purchased at a conference. In the beginning of the year, the students learned to read the numbers while counting. Another way of incorporating literacy and math. 

Scramble!

Students scramble the words to make sense of the sentence. A great way to assess students' understanding in sentence structure. 

Reading

Not a CWS center, but I love these hand-made pointers made out of popsicle sticks and tabs. A way to practice one-to-one coorespondance skill - so important at this age for both literacy and math!

Independent Reading

Students reading or singing songs independently. These have been taught during Shared Reading so there is nothing new or confusing. 

Engaged Kindergarteners during center! 

|WATCH| 你去哪裡?

                            

Week of March 9-13, 2015

Our wonderful language specialist (consultant) Marie gave two very informative presentations last week to the k-2 parents. I am including two slides I feel most asked by parents in this blog post.

In Math, students continue to improve subtraction proficiency. Students are divided into groups during centers and rotate to work with teachers in small groups as well. In Kindergarten the students are truly mastering the concept of subtraction (taking away) and solving problems using a variety of ways. Thanks to parents who donated play-doh, subtraction play-doh is a huge hit! You may incorporate math problems into daily routines - meal time is a great place to start the conversation. Kids love playing with food, so have them line up their cereal, apple slices, grapes, and such and the limit is endless.

|Friendly Reminder| 

Report card envelope must be signed and returned on Monday, 3/16. 

Here is a video in case anyone is interested...

|WATCH| 形狀歌

In February, I had the pleasure to learn about teaching through songs. Tunes the children are most familiar with are the best. I picked Let it Go for one of the Math standards - Flat Shapes. Although we had learned about shapes back in the fall, the students are pleasantly surprised to review through singing. Some boys resisted at first, but then the songs kind of just got stuck in their heads. :) 

|WATCH| 你喜歡做什麼?

Be on the lookout for the book in the Reading Bag or this particular page in your child's Mandarin Journal.

Week of February 23, 2015

Friendly Reminder...
- Six Flags Read to Succeed Reading Log now due 3/9 due to snow days. Thanks to those who have turned in!
- Beginning Monday, 3/9, Ms. Salzillo's homeroom will begin their day in Ms. Liu's room and vice versa til the end of the school year. 
- Read the Mandarin book in the Reading Bag nightly


Math
We continue to practice adding with objects, fingers, mental images, drawings, sounds, acting out situations, verbal explanations, expressions, or equations. Word problems have also been introduced and reinforced over the last two weeks. We will begin to introduce subtractions this week. To reinforce at home and allow your child to be familiarized with the concept, please use everyday objects to create scenarios. For example, I gave you 6 strawberries, you ate 2, how many do you have left?

Science
We have been learning so much about how objets move. (straight, zigzag, round and round, back and forth, fast and slow, and motionless) Students are learning through acting out as well as drawing.

Mandarin
Students continue to thrive and have recently been introduced to names of activities (reading, singing, swimming, dancing, climbing up and down, playing ball) They are now able to ask and respond (What do you like to do? I like to...) Since the 50/50 same day switch, I have noticed a significant growth in students' confidence in language. Lots of body language and visual are always a big part of language immersion, but I am pleased to say that most can comprehend without pictures and following directions. Through singing, reading, writing, word study, role playing, drawing, creative art...etc the students have made a great deal of gain in just few short months. Please continue to incorporate Better Chinese at home as well as reading the Mandarin book in the Reading Bag nightly.