27 Apr 2018

Mandarin Monthly Update #8

Y1 – We have continued with our Mandarin standalone unit “Sharing the Planet” in Mandarin lessons. The central idea is “Plants and animals depend on each other for survival in the environments”. We will be learning simple food and drinks words and phrases that are related to this unit, e.g., 吃苹果，香蕉，西瓜，葡萄，喝水，牛奶，果汁。

Y2 – Students in Year Two have started to learn “花园“ 和 ”公园里“。They visited the BHS butterfly garden during Mandarin lessons and learnt to name different plants in Mandarin. Students have also started to create their own little books of “花园里“ based on what they observed in the garden.

Y3 – Students in Year Three have continued with their learning of 我的学校。They have had lots of fun visiting different areas and rooms in our school and writing phrases and sentences to describe these places.

Y4 – Students in Year Four have been learning adjectives (香香的，甜甜的，臭臭的，酸酸的）that can be used to describe the taste/smell of fruits. At the end of this unit, they should be confident at using the following sentence structures: 你吃过…吗？你去过…吗？我没吃/去过…。

Y5 – Students have started the unit of “Poems from the Tang Dynasty”. In this unit, they will learn 敕勒歌，杂诗，游子吟，江雪。Students will have opportunities to create artwork using watercolor and Chinese calligraphy to demonstrate their understanding of these poems. They also formed pairs to write their own poems in Mandarin.

Y6 – Students in Year Six have started the exhibition unit in Mandarin. They have come up with a list of tasks that they aim to accomplish during Mandarin lessons. Many of the students have made good progress with these tasks which may include using Mandarin in group names, slogans, banners, displays, posters and many other activities and actions. One of the actions of a group is to read Chinese books to reading buddies in Year One!

Y2- We have finished about Body Parts unit. Children should be able to describe the person with 高，矮，胖，瘦。

Y3- We are working on “All About Me”. Children should be able to express orally a greeting, their last name, first name, age and family.

Y4- We are learning about our extended family in this topic.

Y5- We started our 3A 小学华文。 We are working on chapter one 看企鹅。

Y6- Students in Year Six have started the exhibition unit in Mandarin. They have come up with a list of tasks that they aim to accomplish during Mandarin lessons. Many of the students have made good progress with these tasks which may include using Mandarin in group names, slogans, banners, displays, posters and many other activities and actions. One of the actions of a group is to read Chinese books to reading buddies in Year One!

Y2- We have been learning about direction/position words in Mandarin: 前，后，左，右，上，下. Students should be able to move around and locate things by following Mandarin instructions. We have also shared a story in Mandarin.

Y3- Students have learned the texts of “江河“， ”泉水和大海“. We have also shared more Chinese stories in Mandarin.The students have chances to sing songs，do role plays as well as tell stories in Mandarin in class.

Y4- Students have learned the text of “诚实的孩子“，“狼来了”。We have also been practising composition writing.

Y5- Students have been learning about the topic of “things”, an extended list of stationery. They should be able to talk about and understand a lot of things they use in school，including：glue stick，textbook, scissors etc. We have also shared a story in Mandarin to practise a useful expression of “following/imitating others to do things：学……的样“。

Y6- Students in Year Six have started the exhibition unit in Mandarin. They have come up with a list of tasks that they aim to accomplish during Mandarin lessons, including websites, art work, posters and many other activities and actions.

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.
Home learning is now given out in the year group weekly update under the heading Home Learning. It is the responsibility of the students to check the weekly update and make sure that they finish their home learning before the due date.
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 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: