3A L1 New Words

Here are the new words for the first lesson in our new level.

叔馆入等拼挤喂摇摆轮星期参观排隊胖乱样

Happy Birthday

Wow, we have four birthday boys and girls in October.

Ms Liao wishes all of you have a fabulous birthday!!!!

艾瑪:10/10
梅根:10/20
喬治亞:10/24
喬治:10/26

Birthday boys and girls in October are all invited to sit with Mr. Robinson and have lunch together on 10/2 (Tue.).
Congratulations!!!

9/28 Homework and 10/1 Homework

The homework for today
1. Review and fix Week 5 test
 Most of them were well prepared for the test this week. Keep it up.

Homework for 10/1
1. Study Week 6 test (Due 10/5)
2. Read 3A L1 words 5 times

I will attend a professional development seminar on 10/1. Mrs Yu will come and teach new Chinese words and math topic. Week 6 test sample and 3A L1 new word chart will be sent home on Monday.

This week was really great. We had parents to do enrichment and fun Friday for us. We enjoyed a lot. Thank you for all the things you do for our children.

9/27 homework

1. Read L21 words five times and stories once
2. Week 5 test
3. Bring Extended Practice Book with pages 15~17 completed

9/26 Homework

1. Read L21 words five times
2. Read L21 stories once

Enrichment and 9/25 Homework

Thank you for the volunteers who came today  to do the enrichment. Our children were really excited and had a lot of fun. : )

The homework today
Read L21 new words for five times

2B L21 New Words

9/24 Homework

1. Write Extended Practice Book p.15-p.17
2. Study Week 5 test (see sample in their take-home folder)

9/21 Homework

1. Fix and review Week 4 test.
2. Keep on studying L20 words and stories
3. Students who forgot to turn in their homework (Extended Practice Book p.10-p.12) have had a reminder slip sent home with planner and need to bring it back to school on Monday.

Answer key for week 4 test

Week four: About our courses and tests

We just finished our fourth week and the second test.
Some of the parents and students themselves are worried about what we have been doing these weeks.
I hope this will make you more released or at least help understanding

(1) Some children feel stressful for not knowing what to do in Chinese class because this is only the second week we go through all the routines. So some things may only be done for a second time. But they will get used to it soon after a while. For example, by now most of them understand that when they come in and sit down in my classroom, they need to take out their planners, write down the homework and turn it in to me. The Chinese planner is new this year and they never heard of this term or understand the procedure in Chinese before and never wrote about homework in the planner. Some just haven't get used to it and need to be reminded. For Extended Practice Book, this is the second time they need to complete and turn it in, so some remembered and some forgot  and got a reminder slip for forgetting homework. Please feel less worried because they have two teachers' rules and routines to follow so it will take them more time, especially my rules and routines are explained in Chinese.

I am new to Lone Peak and it also will take me more than a month to know what to do here and I still forget some routines we do at school and need reminded. Mrs Todd and students reminded me a lot [time for recess, rotation, and giving them eagle bucks : ) ] as well.

(2) Tests and courses: The tests didn't seem every understandable for them, even with the answer keys I gave them in advance. I know some of the students are worried. We have two new test formats for Week 3 and Week 4 test. Students may not understand what to do with them. But after these two week, I think they already know what to do. I didn't give them any stress for not doing well these two times but I want them to understand what to do and how to review for test next month.
Another thing that may cause them to feel  uneasy and confused of what we are doing in class I believe it's the pace of teaching and learning now. We have only one week for each lesson in Book 2B so we just go through new words and vocabulary very fast. This is planned. Three lessons in 2B will be finished by the end of September and we start next level in October.  For what we are doing now, we have five days each week to complete learning of 2B. Five days is very little of time to absorb new words, their sounds and meanings, the strokes and stories reading. (We need three days originally to finish learning of new words only, so I know it is difficult to be able to understand, read and write new content.)

The pace for the third level will be slower because we will do more practices in four skills (listening, speaking, reading and writing) and will try not to rely on pinyin from this level.They will have more time for learning next level (3A and 3B). Book 2B is just a transition to it and serves as a step stone for us to get used to our homework, tests and routines as well as to reflect students' learning styles and my teaching methods in 4th grade Chinese program.

(3) Homework and supplementary learning materials:
Students will get a new set of homework and supplementary learning materials from next level. I want to thank all the parents who asked questions and gave me suggestions to make everything clearer. I think the materials from next level will be more systematic and will be explained better.

Please don't hesitate to let me know your questions and let me know how your children feel about school.
Anything helps us improve will help them learn.

2B L20 New Words

9/20 Homework

Today's homework

Study for Week 4 test.
See Mon.-Wed. (meaning some homework has different due date and were marked on Monday to Wednesday on the planner and will need to be completed by its due date)

Reminder: Every Friday is the due date for turning in the Extended Practice Book. For this week, they need to finish page10 to page 12.

Enrichment program-parents needed

We are going to start the enrichment program soon next week and so far we only have parents for the art helper and dance. We still need parents who can help with art and music. If you can volunteer, please call our PTA or write to me. We will really appreciate your help for our children.

9/19 Homework

We learned all of the now vocabulary in lesson 20 and started to read the stories. So students need to study the vocabulary (due 9/21) and stories (10 minutes a day at least, due 9/25).

The new flashcards they brought home today can help students understand more words or phrases they need to comprehend the stories. They can keep these at home and practice. No need to bring back to school.

There is a test for L20 on Friday. Please don't forget they need to read one line from the stories. What they need to read was printed on the Week 4 test practice sheet they brought home on Monday.

9/17 Homework

1. Keep on reading L13 stories (in Extended  Practice Book p1)

(This is the Extended Practice Book)

2. Write Extended Practice Book p10-p12 (Due 9/21 Fr.)

3. Study Week 4 test (Due 9/21 Fri) (They have the test sheet today.) (The answer for question two in part one should be chi, not yi)

4. Check Week 3 test (The test we had last Friday. Please fix the mistakes and review.)

(Here is the answer key.)

Third Week

Wow!!!  We are moving on to the fourth week!!!
Thank you for coming to back to school night and thank you for your support.

We almost finished the first lesson of this year; we will continue to finished the making up story activity and extended reading on page 8 and page 9 next Monday and start a new lesson (2B L20).
Our first Chinese test was a word-and-sound matching test and it will be marked and returned to students next week. Write to me if you want to know the test result before seeing it.

Math learning in Chinese is a little behind math in English schedule because, from 4th grade in Chinese class, we reinforce math.  So we don't go ahead of English class. Next week we will start a new topic.

In science lesson, we learn three forms of water: 固体(gù tǐ )[solid], 气体(qì  tǐ )[gas] and 液体(yè tǐ)[liquid]. They need to be able to say these three terms in Chinese and give examples of each terms, tell us when they can see different forms of water and talk about the importance of water. They like this unit very much.
We will continue talking about three forms of water and learn how a form of water switch to another form.

Homework today: Read 2B L13 stories.
The word writing practice in our extended practice book p5 and p.6 were check and marked. Students need to fix the mistakes once. Just erase the mistake and write it correctly again. Students who didn't turn in homework should turn it in on Monday.

Thank you for all you do for our children~~~

A website for looking up Chinese Words

Here is a very useful website for learning Chinese writing and word meanings.
For those whose can't type Chinese words, just copy a word in PDF or Word files and paste it to the website. Then click on the search button. You can see the stoke animation and word meaning.

The website is here
http://www.archchinese.com/chinese_english_dictionary.html

                                                                 (Click on the button

                                                                 above to enlarge the 

                                                                  film or  just view it on 

                                                                  our youtube channel)

9/13 homework and instruction of listening to textbook stories online

Parents,

I sent one mail to your mailbox and show you the instruction of helping children listen to our textbook story online! please check if you have had it in your mailbox. 

Thank you!

Here is the video clip for listening to textbook stories online!

                                                              (Click on the button

                                                                 above to enlarge the 

                                                                    film or  just view it on 

                                                                  our youtube channel)

Homework: Chinese test (Match words and sounds)

Read L13 Stories (10 minutes at least)

9/11 Homework

Today's homework:
1.
Trace the words on left side of the first page. (School writing practice)
The afternoon class has done a part of this and they bring home to finish the else.
The morning class didn't do the writing practice in class because we were having our picture taken then.

The writing practice book they bring home for homework looks like this

The homework today is the left half side of the first page

2.
Continue studying new Chinese words. And I encourage them to preview the other new words that we will learn tomorrow.

9/10 Homework

The homework today:
Read New Chinese Words in 2B Lesson 13 (only the words with a little check on their handout  )

Reminders:

1. Tomorrow (9/11) is the picture taking day.

2. Those who didn't turn in or finish "20 Chinese Words" homework should turn their homework in tomorrow morning. Thank you!

Happy Birthday

We have six birthday boys and girls in September.
Miss Liao wishes all of you a very very very happy birthday.
生日快乐(sheng ri kuai le)

本 (9/9)
艾瑞兒 ( 9/9)
艾薩克 ( 9/10)
湯姆 (9/12)
塞德勒 (9/14)
雷恩 (9/21)

Our second week

We did Chinese review test today! And most of them did an excellent job in the oral responding part! They gave clear responses in the one-on-one oral test! I am impressed! Also I recorded their responses individually during the test and will send the files through email to the parents and will explain a little bit about their performance! However this job will take some time! So please be patient! Also a few student haven't finished oral test because we have little time on Friday and we will continue that on Monday!

The review test score will not be recorded in the grade system. It is considered as a reference that reveals what they have learned and how much they can apply the language.

However the test on Fridays from next week on will be recorded! Because it's about learning new things! 

Homework today : Write 20 learned Chinese words! I gave each of them a piece of blank paper and they should write 20 Chinese words on them! It's fine if they want to write more than 20! Chinese numbers like 一 二 三 should not be included because they are too easy for them. If they lost the paper I gave them, it's alright to find another blank A4 paper to do this homework. On Monday, I will randomly pick 3-5 words on their homework!

 One more thing, I want to say that I am really proud of everyone of you! You all did a great job on the symphony field trip! You behaved well on the bus and in the auditorium! Really wonderful kids!

A reminder for the field trip and Chinese test

For the symphony field trip tomorrow, students can bring tissue paper with them because I noticed that some of them were sniffing or had a runny nose! Tissue paper will be very useful then! Also they can bring a thin sweater to keep them warm. The temperature changes a lot inside and outside and during a day!

For the Chinese test, the sequence of the questions will not be the same as the one they bring home to practice.
That means students need to be able to read and recognize the words to complete the questions!
We will practice in class again tomorrow! I am looking forward to everyone's good job in the test!

Today's Math

We practiced the extended form of numbers in Chinese.

Chinese words for numbers

一 1 二 2 三 3 四 4 五 5 六 6 七 7 八 8 九 9

one 个(一) ten 十 hundred 百 thousand 千 thousand 万 ten thousand 十万

123,456 is written as 一个十万+二个 万 +三个千+四个百+五個十+六个一

(个 also means the unit for counting things )

Chinese Planner

Starting from the second week, all Chinese homework or test information will be put on students' "Chinese Planner." This is to avoid confusion.
The usage is the same as Mrs Todd's planner.

Week 2 Chinese test

From this week on, we will have a test every Friday for each unit we learn in class.
The content of the test we will have this Friday is the 2A book which they have learned when they were in third grade.
There are three parts.
Part 1: 10 questions for them to orally respond.
Part 2: eight word and sound recognition questions
Part 3: 2 questions for them to write down the learned words or phrases.
(Students will take the test sheet home to practice and bring it back to school.)
We review first and they will have the test on Friday!