|Introducing...| WATCH ALL VIDEOS HERE!

Enjoy!
If you have sent me the Youtube link, it's here! Keep them coming!!
Listening Exercise - We did this in class today and it was very successful. You may have your child translate the videos at home and see what he can comprehend. 

|Project| Due: Friday, 3/28/2014

IMPORTANT UPDATE - A lot of you have expressed concerns and worries regarding this project. It is important to let you know that the purpose of this video is NOT to make every word, every tone, and every phrase perfect. It is simply a practice to put words and phrases together while making sense of them. Please encourage your child to try their best and not be afraid of making mistakes. There will be mistakes, and they are the beauty of the learning process. 

We have been practicing and reciting conversations in class, and now it's the time to put the skills into practice. Over the next few days, your child will be introducing someone, anyone. Mention their name, birthday, and likes/dislikes of foods. That is it. Whatever extra you want to throw in there would be great, but it must have something to do with the person.

E-mail me the video clip by Friday, 3/28. You may choose to post it on your personal youtube page and send me the link IF you want the clip to be shared on the blog.

Get creative. The kids can even talk about someone whom he/she has never met (the president). Holding up a picture while filming would be a plus!

Here is a sample -

他(tā)的(de)名字(míngzì)是 (shì)____________________. His/Her name is_______.

他(tā)的(de)生(shēng)日(rì)是(shì)_____________________. His/Her birthday is_________.

他(tā)喜歡(xǐhuan)吃(chī)____________________, He likes to eat_________.
他(tā)不(bù)喜歡(xǐhuan)吃(chī)_____________. He doesn't like to eat_______. 

PS. In Mandarin, he or she are both called ta (他/她).

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

              

WATCH | Math Story Problems |

MCCKOA2 : Solve addition and subtraction word problems

Week of March 10-14, 2014

Mandarin Journal has been coming home in the past two weeks and will continue to be sent home until the end of the school year. Students have been learning so many songs and poems, so it's only appropriate for them to read and sing to the words at home. This should be a fun activity to be enjoyed. Please encourage your child to share a new poem he or she has learned. 

Good pre-reading skill - Point at each word as you read! 

Writing - Like and Dislike of a certain weather

 Class Picture

 Mystery Reader with Rick Beato

 Girls building a nest on this beautiful Friday!

Thanks Mrs. Boyanton for donating your time, energy, talent, and supplies for the project! Thanks Joe Lane for building the tables. Thank you for all the parents who donated the metersticks! Can't wait to see the final product!!

WATCH :: What's in Your Book Bag? ::

:::::::::::: I had fun creating this video, it goes with the flashcards from last week! ::::::::

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