31 Aug 2018

Mandarin Monthly Update #1

Year 1 – Students in Year One have had an excellent start of the Mandarin lessons. They have spent some time learning about the routines in the Mandarin classrooms. As part of the Mandarin link to the Year One unit of inquiry “Who We Are”, students are getting to know each other and learning simple greetings in Mandarin such as “你好 Hello” and “再见 bye”. They will also learn to introduce themselves using sentences “我叫… My name is…” and “我五岁 I am five years old”.

Year 2 – Students in Year Two have started to learn the names of different strokes for writing Chinese characters. They will also learn Chinese radicals and the importance of writing Chinese characters in correct stroke order.

Year 3 – 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.

Year 4 – Students in Year Four have been learning to say the different subjects in school. They will also read and write the Chinese characters for these subjects and learn to how to use them in their own writing.

Year 5 – Students in Year Five are learning to ask and answer questions about telephone numbers and addresses in Mandarin. They will also revisit the “Family” unit and learn how to say uncles, aunts and grandparents in Mandarin.

Year 6 – Students in Year Six have reviewed the “Family” topic and created own family trees in Mandarin. The next topic will be “Physical descriptions of people”.

Y1 – Students in Year One have had an excellent start of the Mandarin lessons. They have spent some time learning about the routines in the Mandarin classrooms. As part of the Mandarin link to the Year One unit of inquiry “Who We Are”, students are getting to know each other and learning simple greetings in Mandarin such as “你好 Hello” and “再见 bye”. They will also learn to introduce themselves using sentences “我叫… My name is…” and “我五岁 I am five years old”.

Y2 – The topics we are working on are ” Self introducton” and “Greetings”.

Y3- We are learning Pin Yin and rhymes 我的布娃娃。

Y4- We are working on our first topic 我的家。We emphasize the layout of our living space. Students will be able to describe the house with Chinese words such as: 卧室，浴室，客厅，书房 etc..

Y5- We started 中文4 chapter one 给爷爷的信。 We have practiced writing a letter to 于老师 in Chinese to familiarize how to compose a letter in Chinese format.

Y6- We started 中文6 chapter one 在公园里。 Students have practiced writing a composition of their own experience about visiting the park.

Y2- Students in Year 2 started the year with the topic of “self introduction”, reviewing as well as learning. They also practise with Chinese character recognition and writing.

Y3- Students in Year 3 have learned the text “中文学校“（中文2第一课）。We have started learning and practising Chinese Pinyin.

Y4- Students in Year 4 have learned the texts of “红绿灯”，“交通歌”（中文3第一课）。They are encouraged to borrow and Read Chinese books.

Y5- Students in Year 5 have learned the texts of “种鱼“，”聪明的公鸡“（小学华文2A第二课）。They are encouraged to borrow and Read Chinese books.

Y6- Students in Year 6 have reviewed the topics of colours, physical appearance of people and dates. They have also learned the texts of “三年坡”， “阿凡提的染坊”。

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: