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. 

Week of September 8-12, 2014

When I used to teach at a traditional public school, I was pretty relaxed on Fridays. Fridays are generally assessment days. That is the day you test the students on Math, Reading, Grammar, and Spelling. All the tests would have been printed/ copied and ready to go. All I had to do was to show up for work, pass out the test, watch my students fill in bubbles, and call it a day. Sometimes we ended the day with some sort of parties to celebrate the ones who followed directions and always turned in their work for the week. I did that for seven years, and it wasn't until now I realize what a treat it is to be able to teach and have fun. There won't be copies ready to go on my desk Friday mornings, or any morning. There are copies of songs or poems ready to be cut and pasted on children's Mandarin Journals though. Other than that, I am here to inspire and teach a lifelong skill - speaking, listening, reading, writing, and appreciating Mandarin. One of the oldest and most difficult languages in the world is taught here, and it's being done. It's rewarding to hear all the wonderful things you are saying about how much your child enjoy the new adventure. Always a treat!

This week we expanded vocabulary words in greetings, colors, fruits, and animals. Continue to work on number sequencing as well as teen numbers and counting by 10's.  In science the students planted seeds under three conditions - with sun exposure and water, with sun exposure but no water, without sun or water. The students made predictions and drawings for the outcomes.

Dot Art and Chopsticks during Literacy Center

Computer Lab

The children picked a name from a pool and each said something nice to another person. 

It was a lovely exercise where we practice to focus on the positive.

Taste Testing - Most children love grapes. 

Thanks Julie for donating organic grapes for the class! 

Congratulations GLOBE!

My amazing GLOBE kids took home second place at the Charters Rock - Charter Got Talent today! $500 for the school, but tons and tons of precious memories for the teachers, kids, moms, and pops! Such a proud moment in my career and life. I love my little village and they are taking up the world!

Thank you for allowing me to be part of the journey...

Welcome to the GLOBE Academy!

Ni Hao Mandarin Kindergarten Families!

Welcome to Kindergarten at The GLOBE Academy! My name is Vivian Liu, and I will be your child’s Lead Mandarin Speaking Kindergarten teacher.  I know starting a brand new school can be nerve wrecking, but hopefully this letter answers many of your questions.

A little about me

I was raised in Taiwan and came to Atlanta for college when I was eighteen. My passion for teaching started young, as both of my parents and sister are educators. After receiving my degree from Georgia State University, I taught first and second grades in Gwinnet County Public Schools. Being able to teach has been great, but being able to feel rewarded, inspired, and valued at GLOBE is something else. The freedom to be creative and immediately watch the children sprout has made my career more purposeful.  Watching five and six year olds pick up a foreign language and converse with it is not something you see at a traditional school everyday.  When I am not at work, I enjoy spending time with family, cooking vegan dishes, and traveling. 

What does a Mandarin Immersion Classroom look like?

Your child will be immersed in Mandarin across all content area as well as art, music, culture, and many more. Beginning the first day of school, students will learn routines and “survival” words in Mandarin.  There will be lots of opportunities for your child to learn the skills by acting out, drawing, pointing, and sharing.  The first few weeks could be interesting for your child and he might show anxiety towards a new language. Please know that it is totally normal.  Most language learners go through the silent stages and it can vary how long it will take for them to start imitating or responding. 

My Teaching Philosophy

I have taught in a variety of classroom settings throughout my nine years of teaching.  It is my belief that all students are capable of achieving at different rates. While some may be extremely verbal, she may require extra support in another area.  Identifying the strengths and weakness in students is most helpful for students’ overall success.

Homework Assignment and Communication

To learn and master a new skill, repetition is essential. Although we will not be sending home busy work, you will assist your child in creating some of the homework assignments. These assignments will be announced on the newsletter as well as the blog.  Many of the assignments involve speaking in front of a camera or teaching a family member new words or phrases learned in class.  If you have any questions regarding assignments or events, please check the newsletter or blog (globemandarin.blogspot.com) on a weekly basis. I can also be reached via email at vliu@theglobeacademy.net .

Sincerely,

Vivian Liu

Week of March 31-April 4, 2014

WARM WEATHER REMINDER...
* WATER BOTTLE FOR YOUR CHILD DAILY
* SUNSCREEN PRIOR TO COMING TO SCHOOL

Being the week before Spring Break, you can only imagine the excitement among students. Nonetheless, we spent the majority of our mornings practicing speaking, focusing on the tones, and reading pinyin. In the afternoons we touched and sorted some rocks. One day we even traveled to Asia via Google Map.

Traveling to the Mandarin Speaking Countries - Thanks to Google Map

Talent Show in Music - What a talented group of kids. Karate, Break Dance, Guitar, Drumming (lots), and Singing (Frozen, 3 times!) 

Happy April Fools! Thanks to the Jacobs family for your infectious spirit! 

We made our own "I like to do..." book in class this week, they are coming home on Friday. I encourage you to have your child read to you over the break!

Reed leading Calendar Math while Liu Laoshi takes a water break. 

Mandarin Journals are Annoying...right?

Yes. I hope your kid is annoying you with the Mandarin Journals nightly. Like Aiden here... Meanwhile, his big brother is quite cooperative.

Week of March 24-28, 2014

SPEAKING
We named our stuff animal friends, gave them birthdays, assigned their favorite and not so favorite foods. We also presented it in front of our friends. This was not as easy as I thought, but the children were able to brainstorm ideas and deliver half if not all of it correctly. As I mentioned in the video homework post, putting words together and speaking is a huge part of language development. Remember four or five years ago when your baby was just learning to speak and you filmed every precious moment? This is it. I know there might be lots of tears due to anxiety, so lots of encouragement will come in handy! 

CHINEASY
If you have not watched TED: Learn to Read Chinese with Ease, you should! 

Blurb from Amazon 

 Learn to read and write Chinese with Chineasy - a groundbreaking approach that transforms key Chinese characters into pictograms for easy recall and comprehension.

Chinese is one of the oldest written languages, and one of the most difficult to master, especially for Westerners. With Chineasy, learning and reading Chinese has never been simpler or more fun. Breaking down the Great Wall of Language, iShaoLan Hsueh draws on her entrepreneurial and cultural background to create a simple system for quickly understanding the basic building blocks of written Chinese. Working with renowned illustrator Noma Bar, she transforms Chinese characters into charming pictograms that are easy to remember.

In Chineasy, she teaches the key characters, called radicals, that are the language’s foundation, and then shows how they can be combined to form new words and even phrases. Once you’ve mastered these key characters, you can practice your skills with three stories—a fairy tale, an Asian legend, and a contemporary fable—told using the radicals.

With Chineasy, readers of all ages will be able to navigate a Chinese menu, read signs and billboards, and grasp the meaning of most articles in a Chinese newspaper. 

Below are just few of the art we have been making. Watching the characters progress is just another creative way to introduce the infamous Chinese characters. I don't think I ever thought the words were pretty until I opened this book. 

MATH
We compared numbers using numerical symbols as well as Mandarin characters. 

Week of March17-21, 2014

Culture plays a big chunk of the Dual Language Immersion Program. Today we watched a video clip on a travel documentary in Taiwan. We focused on three components - Scenery, Food, and Transportation. The children noticed the huge contrast between their environment and that of Taiwanese's. The mountains are very much like the Midwest of the US (although I have never been), but the markets are so different. I have attached the video so you can see it for yourself. 

Below are some observations the children made ... 

 Notice the detailed picture of the market...

Mountains after Mountains, Taxis after Taxis...

 Night Market

              

Week of March 3-7, 2014

Flashcards should remain in your child's reading bag. I will be going through them and marking the ones they have mastered throughout the week. 

NOT one, but two mini iPads were delivered this Wednesday! Thanks for the outpouring support from our parents! I was also so excited to purchase apps because of the iTunes credit donated. We immediately put them to use on Thursday. There are so many neat games that reinforce reading, writing, and math skills. 

Dr.Seuss' birthday celebration was a success! We read several of Dr. Seuss' books and discussed what we noticed in his poem. We all made Horton's ears, which they were so proud of wearing. We then compared and contrasted the difference between a story and a poem and an English poem and a Chinese poem written by Li Bai .

From Wikipedia - 

Li Bai (701^[1]–762), also known as Li Po, was a Chinese poet acclaimed from his own day to the present as a genius and romantic figure who took traditional poetic forms to new heights. He and his friend Du Fu (712–770) were the two most prominent figures in the flourishing of Chinese poetry in the mid-Tang Dynasty that is often called the "Golden Age of China".

Around a thousand poems attributed to him are extant, thirty-four in the canonical 18th-century anthology Three Hundred Tang Poems. The poems were models for celebrating the pleasures of friendship, the depth of nature, solitude, and the joys of drinking wine. Among the most famous are "Waking from Drunkenness on a Spring Day", "The Hard Road to Shu", and "Quiet Night Thought", which appears frequently in school texts in China today. Legend holds that Li drowned when he reached from his boat to grasp the moon’s reflection in the river.

In your child's Mandarin journal, you will find the poem "Jin Ye Si 靜夜思" by Li Bai. It's a beautifully written poem and you can even sing it. Below is the clip.  And for your own entertainment, you may watch the other one that is more suitable for adults. 

Below is a glimpse of what we were working on all week. Story problems were introduced this week...the children read the problems, drew pictures, jot down facts, and got it all done! 

Top left - Math Story Problems

Top right - Cutting out poem for the journal

Bottom left - Writing 

Bottom right - Math Story Problem

Top left - Writing

Top right - Poem on the fan

Bottom left - New carpool practice

Bottom right - Hortons working on writing

Homework + Week of February 24-28, 2014

FLASHCARDS - Please have the flashcards made this weekend and keep them in your child's reading bag. Next week I will go through all the flashcards and separate them by the ones they know or are unsure of. 

MAP testing, field trip, and lots of learning occurred this week. The students and teachers had the best cultural experience at the Synchronicity on Tuesday. The play was very well done and engaging for all. There were even some Mandarin words in the play that our children picked up, added bonus!

NEXT week we will celebrate Dr. Seuss' birthday with story telling and crafts. Remember next Friday is a teacher workday!

WRITING - The students compared the differences between a regular Chinese restaurant and a Dim Sum restaurant. They were surprised by what they found. We also wrote and illustrated our favorite Chinese and American dishes. Traditional Chinese characters require lots of rigor and patience, but we are all just having fun!

 MATH- Students played Race to One Hundred utilizing the Mandarin hundreds chart. It is not only an excellent way to practice addition and subtraction but also a way to be familiarized with the characters.

Happy (almost) Hump Day!

To celebrate a new laptop donated by the Rhame Family Foundation (thanks Amy!), I am posting few pictures from class. I also want you to know I am in the process of burning CDs, but would like a volunteer who is able to "burn" them all for the class. Who is in?(Thank you C's Mommy!) I will hand you a copy and you will burn the rest, 43 of them of course. I have the sleeves (Thanks Jen and SuoHsien!)

Important Dates -

Thursday, 9/19/13 |Curriculum Night| 5:00-6:00
Friday, 9/20/13 | Mandarin Parents Night Out |Amy's|
Saturday, 9/29/13 |Welcome to GLOBE| 

                                                       Blocks - Putting Numbers in Order

Independent Reading

Singing Familiar Mandarin Songs

This One Translates to "I am Special!"

Thank You M's Mommy for the Spice Racks, R's Dad for the Leaf, and for A's Dad for hanging all of them up!

Thank You M's Mommy for the Wires!

Mandarin Number Wall

Very Red :)