23 Sep 2019

Mandarin Monthly Update #2

Year 1 – Students in Year One have been learning simple greetings in Mandarin such as 你好(hello) 早上好（good morning) and 再见 (bye). They have also started to learn to read and write numbers 1-10. At the end of this unit, students should be able to sing the Number song, count up to ten confidently and recognise numbers from one to ten written in Chinese characters.

Year 2 – Students in Year Two have been learning to understand and follow classroom instructions that are commonly used in the Mandarin classroom.

Year 3 – Students in Year Three have continued with the unit of Pinyin. They are encouraged to practise the pinyin initials and finals at home when they have time.

Year 4 – Students in Year Four have been busy role playing stories that are related to “我爱干净”。 They will learn to sing a Mandarin song – 不分你和我。

Year 5 – Students in Year Five have completed the unit “My birthday”. Their next unit will be “Pets and Animals”. At the end of this unit, they should be able to use relevant vocabulary in oral conversations and in writing.

Year 6 – Students in Year Six had lots of fun making lanterns and mooncakes for the Mid Autumn Festival. They are now working in pairs learning about Chinese Idioms and will share their knowledge and understanding with the class through presentations, stories and role-plays.

Y1 – Students in Year One have been learning simple greetings in Mandarin such as 你好(hello) 早上好（good morning) and 再见 (bye). They have also started to learn to read and write numbers 1-10. At the end of this unit, students should be able to sing the Number song, count up to ten confidently and recognise numbers from one to ten written in Chinese characters.

Y2 – Year Two students begin each lesson listening to a Mandarin story book. Students are currently practising speaking and memorizing characters through rhymes. We have also been working on character stroke order, building up their fundamental knowledge of reading and writing.

Y3- Students in Year Three have started to learn the Pinyin system as part of the Mandarin link to the Year Three unit of inquiry “How we organise ourselves”. They are beginning to understand that Pinyin helps to facilitate effective communication and both the sound and the intonation affect the meaning of the words.

Y4- Currently Year Four students are learning about the layout of the house, describing, drawing and labelling their own homes in Chinese. We are building up strong vocabularies about their homes, as well as building up their reading and writing skills.

Y5- We finished Roald Dahl’s “George’s Marvelous Medicine” and started “The Twits ” to improve their listening and comprehension, the children are thoroughly enjoying the book. We have also been investigating what animals can predict the weather.

Y6- Students in Year Six are working on their own personal timelines. Mapping their lives from when they were born to where they are now, utilizing new vocabulary and topics we have studied in the past.

Y2- Students in Year 2 have learned a few rhymes and songs (什么圆？小鸟飞开心笑）which help them expand reading vocabulary . They have also been practising Chinese character writing following stroke orders.

Y3- Students in Year 3 have continued to practise Pinyin. They have also learned how to introduce their own family with: 这，家，爸爸，妈妈，和etc. They have also been practising Chinese character writing following stroke orders.

Y4- Students in Year 4 have learned the texts of “雪“，”白云娃娃“ （中文3 第6课)。They have also been practising writing reading journals（读后感）in Chinese.

Y5- Students in Year 5 have learned the text of “太阳是甜的”，”种鱼“。They have been very creative to write about their own 生日蛋糕 and stories in Chinese.

Y6- Students in Year 6 have been revising topics of “my house”, ”my room“ and “people description”. They have also been doing a lot of writing practice at sentence and paragraph levels.

Getting organised for Mandarin lessons

If your child has been given a Mandarin folder (including textbooks, activity books and exercise books), she/he needs to bring it to every Mandarin lesson.

Home Learning

All children are encouraged to take a reading book home on the days when they have Mandarin lessons.
All home learning should have been given out by the end of the last Mandarin lesson of the week. It is the responsibility of the students to complete their home learning in a timely manner.
The amount of home learning varies from class to class. It usually includes reading aloud, copying Chinese characters, writing sentences, reading storybooks, writing book reports etc. Some classes will have weekly written tasks while other classes may be given oral practice only.
Please let your Mandarin teacher know if you have trouble completing your home learning on time.

Taking Care of Books

The replacement costs for books lost are as follows: