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. 

|WATCH| Week of January 6-9, 2015

Enjoy of the video of three students working together to figure out where the correct order of the poem. It is important the students are building their word recognition skills regularly. You may hear them converse in English, and this is totally normal for dual language immersion students.


Happy New Year! Can NOT believe we are well on our way into the second semester of Kindergarten. The shadow of perspective parents touring in the school hallways is surreal. On Tuesday, January 6, 2015, our students began the 50/50 same day rotation. It went very smoothly and after four days of our new schedule, I am confident the students have already benefited from the consistency and their growth over the next few months will be exciting to see!

What was very exciting for the teachers? We are so fortunate to have Mrs. Marie Bouteillon at GLOBE! Mrs. Bouteillon is a native French speaker who also speaks English, Spanish, and Mandarin. She helped open several French immersion schools in New York City and is currently a consultant for schools across the US. I have started implementing word study centers during the language block and good dual language immersion practice throughout the day. Mrs. Bouteillon will be visiting us four times between now and May.

What are we studying?

Math
Students are learning to measure with different measuring attributes, measuring from the tip point, and comparing length and weight.
Some ideas to try at home...
1) Compare the height between two family members.
2) Measure the family pet with dog biscuit, a ruler, or a piece of yarn.
3) Compare the weight of two objects. For example, an empty water bottle versus a metal cup.

Science
Students will use senses to observe and group rocks by physical attributes such as large/small, heavy/light, smooth/rough, dark/light.
Some ideas to try at home...
1) Compare two rocks found in the backyard and discuss their attributes
2) Research natural landscapes made up of rocks
3) Discuss the difference between rocks and soils and their uses

Mandarin
Students continue to familiarize with their birthdays as well as others' by reading the month and day. We are having lots of fun playing Fruit Stand. The students are learning to recognize words by sight through poem and songs through Morning Meeting.

                                                                   Word Building

                                                     
                                                             Matching Body Part Words

Additionally, my Amazon wish list has been updated - http://www.amazon.com/gp/registry/wishlist/3MKQG5OQDHEL3/ref=cm_wl_rlist_go_o?

What's Ahead and Week in Review!

Ms. Cristi Elliot-Earby sent out an important letter regarding 50/50 Language Immersion Model. Please read carefully and let me know if you have any questions. I am excited about the change because our children will be immersed in the language every day! The students will learn English Language Arts and Social Studies in Ms. Salzillo's room, and Mandarin Language Arts, Math, and Science in Ms. Liu's. This is the model most immersion programs follow in the United States, and Kindergarten will be the first grade to pilot. Remember it is key to consistently read and write with your child at home as well as practice Mandarin on Better Chinese frequently to ensure meeting your child's foremost potential.

Next Week...
- Uniform Free! Wear whatever you want, but please wear sneakers for PE.
- 12/15 Kindergarten Lunch Mini Concert (Parents are not invited to this, sorry!)
- 12/18 Kindergarten Mandarin Mid-Year Performance (K Mandarin Parents ARE invited!!) 
- 12/19 Polar Express and Dress in your Pajama Day!

Mid- Year Performance
Your child has been busy getting ready to show off! They are so excited about this opportunity to perform in front of their loved ones. Show starts at 12:15 in the Village Plaza, a craft activity to follow.

Pete the Cat Field Trip
Don't forget to turn in your permission slip and money for Pete the Cat field trip in January!

Better Chinese Online Subscription
Sign in using the log-in ID and password emailed to you last week. This is a very interactive program that will keep your child busy while learning during the break.


Mandarin Buddies
So this is not new that Mandarin 1st and K have been doing buddy convo practices for three months now. Now not only we are able to greet and ask for basic personal information, we are also buying and selling fruits (and veggies, not really popular, yet! ;)) The children never seize to amaze me everyday with their growth and desire to learn. The video shows the 1st grader buying and the kindergartener selling. How many fruit names can you pick up? Leave a comment!

More Fruit Stand Pictures!

 First Field Trip on the Yellow Bus for newbies!! 

Week of October 6-10, 2014

Math

We continued to explore shapes and reinforce their names this week. The students are learning names of shapes - Triangle, Square, Rectangle, Pentagon, Hexagon, and Circle. Students made group mobiles as well as individual ones to take home. During center, students built shapes using geo-boards, blocks, play-dough, and played interactive shape games on the iPads. 

Writing

We talked about ways to show respect in specials. Students brainstormed, illustrated, and copied words and phrases off the board. Students are reminded to use punctuation marks (for now just period) at the end of a statement. 

Reading

"Big Thumb" the poem was introduced this week. Please practice the poem at home using the video below and pay attention to the highlighted / high frequency words. 

 

Social Studies

Liu Ying Lao Shi introduced the Great Wall of China, The Forbidden City, Beijing, Taiwan, China, and the US. The students showed enthusiasm and were eager to learn more through pictures and videos. 

HOMEWORK reminder! Restaurant project due THIS Friday 10/17.

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! 

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 January 8-10, 2014

CHECK OUT these two websites for lots of great resources for parents whose children are in Mandarin Immersion Programs.

Mandarin Parents Immersion Council

Yellow Bridge 

And you all probably have heard, we are required to speak to friends and Mandarin teachers in Mandarin ONLY (some obvious exceptions, of course!) starting this past Wednesday! All the cool kids are doing it at G.L.O.B.E.! Being the one to break the wonderful news to the French kids, I was able to make them feel how amazing their journey will be. I moved to Atlanta when I was 18 years old and did not have the option to not speak English. The key to be fluent in speaking any language is to...SPEAK IT! Some weeks kids only have two out of seven days to speak Mandarin
(hopefully all day), and that is just 16 hours a week. I am so proud of how much progress the kids (and I) are already making.  It might be a little quiet at times now, but not for long..hopefully!! 

In another news, we received our Better Chinese curriculum in Traditional Chinese this week. The students were engaged during guided reading group lessons and I was thrilled at the moments they click between the spoken and written language. It is truly magical! 

Below are pictures of student work and a short video...

 Building Animals Using Squares

 Counting the Squares and Writing them down in Mandarin

Ajay as Our Mystery Reader! Thank you, Ajay! 

When is Your Birthday?

(((Important!))) If you have sent me your video but do not see them here...it's because it's not uploaded to YouTube. I had first started to upload the first few videos (sent to me as a movie clip) to YouTube with permission myself, but it was very time consuming. So please please upload the video, forward me the link, and make sure it's not set to private! Thanks so much!! 

I really enjoy the intimacy of these videos. Thank you for taking time and effort into the assignment. I hope you all had a restful and fantastic Thanksgiving break!


PS) Please email me the link to your Youtube video..for some reason the .mov ones won't play on here.