Early Day Out Thursday and Friday

This Thursday and Friday are early day out. We have school until 1:40.
Though this is a crazy week, we still have our tests this Friday. If you pay attention in class, ask questions when you have any and study at home, it will be just like the other tests you have in "normal" weeks.

Week 10 Test Sample

Here is the link for the test samples.
http://lindachliao.blogspot.com/p/3a-test-samples.html

Science Test

The test will be written in Chinese and will be read by me on Friday (11/2). There are twenty yes/no questions.
For example: (X) 冰是气体的水。 Ice is a gas.
Students need to listen to me saying a statement and decide whether the description about water is correct or incorrect. Therefore to review the science vocabulary is the key to understand what I read. They don't need to be able to write the vocabulary, but they need to be familiar about the sounds and meanings.

To download more science materials, please see my blog: http://lindachliao.blogspot.com/p/science.html
There will be more updates later.

Great Science Education Website for Our Unit of Water

Here is the link
http://shoalwater.nsw.gov.au/education/tapstar_home.htm
The website gives good examples and clear definitions of the water cycle.

Week 9

Hi
I hope you all enjoy this week because we had our first snow (actually mine) of this season and Fun Friday.

Homework today is as usual.
Review and Fix week 9 test.

There are two reminders for the following week and one news.

Next week is Halloween and Wednesday is our Halloween Party. Thanks a million for our room parents and volunteers for preparing for our party. I am looking forward to your costumes, kids!!! (My first real Halloween too.)

We will have our first science test (Topic: Water Collection). The test will be in Chinese. I will read the questions to them and them have to decide whether the statement is true or false. Also in some questions I will ask them to write down the answers. Don't worry. If I want them to write the answers down, they must be something you have learned before, like numbers and yes or no in Chinese.

One thing I want to stress is that they must turn in their homework on Fridays.
Some of them told me that they couldn't either find it at home nor in their tote tray "yesterday". That's why they didn't do the homework. However, the writing practice book is always sent home on Mondays and they should keep it at home and complete it before Thursday nights. So that they can bring it on Fridays. If they suddenly can't find their books when they check their backpack again on Thursday evenings, they can get a blank paper, write the vocabulary for ten times and turn the paper in on Friday morning. I will accept that at completing homework, but they will still need to find the writing practice book of their own and complete the pages I have assigned.
I emphasized this again to them today because having good learning attitude do help them learn in many aspects.

We have a new student in my homeroom since today. She studied in Shanghai, China in the past three years. Everyone was thrilled to meet her. I hope everyone can help her to get used to our daily routines soon and they can all learn from each other.

10／25 Homework and vocabulary oral quiz today

Homework:
1. Study: Week 9 test
2. Bring Extended Writing Practice Book (with pages 7-9 completed).

Oral quiz today
They had their oral quiz today. In the quiz, I randomly picked five words from the vocabulary list (words for application) and they had to tell me how the words are pronounced. The score was written in the planner (as Quiz: 休，病。 3／5 correct). The Chinese words written mean the words they didn't correctly answer. 3 means he/she got 3 correct answers out of 5.

Science: Water Collection

For the fourth graders in Chinese program, they learn science in Chinese, but are tested in English.
Therefore, we need extra materials to help them clarify the concepts. And we thank Mrs Todd that she helps to reinforce  the science vocabulary in English.

The animation is very helpful to understand the water cycle.
It includes a lot key vocabulary that will be tested.

For both the Chinese (traditional) and English version, please go to the website below.
http://waterday.e-info.org.tw/index.php/2012-02-23-08-54-00/2012-02-23-08-59-35/88-2012-

For the English version, please view it here
http://www.unwater.org/worldwaterday/animation_watercycle_en.html

These pictures explain very well about what a water cycle is too.

10／24 Homework

Study 3A L2 Blue Flashcards three times.
And there will be an oral quiz tomorrow!
I will randomly pick five words from the vocabulary list. T
Students need to know how to say it.

Parent Meeting Tomorrow

As the letter I forwarded to you last week, our first parent meeting is tomorrow (10/24), 4:00 pm after school!
Mrs Todd and I together will be expecting you in her classroom then!

10/23 Homework

1. Study 3A L2 Blue Flashcards 3 times.
2. Write Extended Writing Practice Book p7-p9. (Due:10/25) Turn in on 10/26.

Stories, New Words and Test ample Update

I will continue updating new contents of our lessons including stories, new words and test samples so that students can practice at home. I have added 3A L2 which we start learning this week. (We now also have Hanlexon to practice word-sound match. See http://lindachliao.blogspot.com/2012/10/hanlexon-online-learning-lessons.html)

The links on the top of this blog lead you to different materials and websites.

If you want to check the update of stories, new words and test sample, please see stars 1, 2 and 3 below. The picture corresponds to the links on the top of the webpage.

3A L2 New Words Correction

There is one new word needed to be corrected in L2.
The word is 调。It is marked as [tiao2] and [diao4] in our books.
For this lesson, it should be pronounced as [tiao2] only.

When the word is pronounced as [tiao2], it is a verb which means "to alter, to adjust, to tune, to turn up/down, etc."

If it is pronounced as [diao4] in other contexts, it is then a noun which means "tune" or a verb means "to switch, to transfer, to move, etc."


[tiao2]: the number "2" means the second tone of Chinese. There are totally five different tones.

10/22 Homework and Week 9 Test Sample

1. Please bring 3A L2 Yellow Flashcards
2. Study for Week 9 Test. The sample was sent home today.

Hanlexon Website---Login Problems

There are two different problems so far that were found out for causing problems for login and doing the practice.

1. Problem for loging in:
 ----Could be that I didn't enter the correct email addresses, so write to me to let me know if you never receive any confirmation letter from the website.
---- Or could be that  the website haven't update the share list I gave them. I will continue tracking the update.

2. Problem for not able to drag and drop:
--- Tell me what type/make/system of your computer is. I know little about computer systems, but I can ask the website constructor to see if there is any restriction for different computer type.

Chinese Corner

Mr. and Mrs. Xiao are holding Chinese Corner in Sandy Public Library every other week.
They are helping people who are interested in learning Chinese.
The lessons are free. If you like to learn Chinese and Chinese culture, you are welcome to join them.
It starts at 10:15 am. The next meeting is on 10/20.

www.utchinesecorner.blogspot.com

10/17 Homework

Worksheet: Picture Dictionary for 3A L1.
These are the phrases that are in our L1 stories. They need to know the meanings so the stories will make more sense to them.

拼命(pin1 ming4):to try very hard to...
轮流(lun2 liu2): to take turns to...
入口处(ru4 kou3 chu4): an entrance...
挤(qi3): to jostle against; crowded
圆滚滚(yuan2 gun3 gun3): chubby
不好意思(bu4 hao3 yi4 si): to feel embarrassed

We have no school on Thursday and Friday.

Websites for Learning Chinese Characters

Here is a very good website for learning Chinese Characters.

http://www.zhongwen.com/

A lot to explore. You will be amazed.


Want to give yourselves a real Chinese name that each character has Chinese meanings?
This website help you find a Chinese name that is not a direct translation from the sounds.

http://www.mandarintools.com/chinesename.html

But if you really want to adopt the Chinese name from the website, please ask a person who knows Chinese if this name sounds natural or not.

Hanlexon Online Learning Lessons

I just found out that the online lessons can only be shared with at most 50 email addresses. So I will remove your second email address or have students tell me which email address you would like to register.
I have just put your email address that they brought to me today on the share list. So either if you have given me the email address but haven't received any confirmation letters or if you haven't given me any email address, please write to me (chliao327@gmail.com).

The note I sent home on Monday is here.

Here is the video clip of the demonstration of how to go to Hanlexon and do our homework today.

Or view it on our youtube channel http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=50cQUy_-Qf8#!.

10/16 Homework

Homework today:
Do 3A L1 Scramble at "http://www.hanlexon.com/"
If you gave me the email address to register today, you are supposed to receive a confirmation letter from the website. If you have not, you can send an email (chliao327@gmail.com) to me to tell me the email address.
Then log in and go to My Classes. Do 3A L1 Scramble (which I have demonstrated to them today).

What's in Scramble......

Online Learning Material for our class

I have created online materials for our class and will keep on updating the content.
The website is here http://www.hanlexon.com/
A note will be sent home on Monday. But you can take a look at it first and give me the email you want to register for the website too.

Click here to download the note.

Parent-Teacher Meeting this school year

Hi Dear Parents

We will have 3 parent-teacher meetings this school year.

Here are the dates and time

Wednesday, October 24, 2012 at 4:00 pm
Wednesday, February 27, 2013 at 4:00 pm
Wednesday, May 22, 2013 at 4:00 pm

You will be welcome to come and talk to us at school.

...and You still can write to me or make an appointment to meet with each other when questions occur.

Love to have all the kids in my class. They are WONDERFUL.

Learning Chinese words

Each Chinese word is composed of different parts. The parts of words may represent their meanings, origins, or pronunciation. We used different colors  to mark different parts in a word so it helps learners to understand how a word is formed and pronounced.

Week 7

1. Homework 10/12

Review and fix Week 7 test.
(We will have no tests to study next week because we will only have 2.5 days. But we still need to do reading homework. )

* Writing Homework will not be sent back home again until Monday. (We collect it on Friday and return it on Monday.)
* Fewer of them forgot to turn in homework than last week. Hope there will be zero for the later weeks.

2. Fun Run was really fun today. We had great time this morning!!! Thumbs up for everyone who ran very hard today.

3. Another great thing I wanted to say is that they did very well in the test today. Great job.
 
4. Remember we have two kinds of test formats because we learn a new lesson for two weeks. A test sample will be sent home for reference on the first day of every week and we always have tests on Fridays. If that Friday is a holiday, then the test will be on the next Monday.

Test format for the first week of a lesson

Then Test format for the second week of a lesson

   

5. We have finished our first Chinese lesson in the new level (3A) and  most of them are very familiar with the new Chinese words now. But they still need to work on the story reading more to be more fluent readers and speakers. For the homework, I ask them to read the stories in the blue story book (marked as Extended Practice Book) that goes home. They need to read the part of texts with pinyin first and read the other part of the same story without pinyin so they can be able to learn to recognize words.

It is very important to review at home. Because, in class, we read the story together and found that students who remember to practice reading at home can read more fluently and can catch the meanings of phrases more quickly. Practice makes perfect after all.

(Our Extended Practice Book)

 (Stories with pinyin followed by stories without pinyin, as shown below)

Also the flashcards they have help reading a lot. They need to study both the front side and the back side of the cards so they can retrieve word meanings quickly when they see them or hear them.

6. Reminder of our new Chinese packet:
All blue materials, including flashcards, are meant to be kept at home so they can practice.
Yellow flashcards should be brought to school when they are required to and this will mark in they daily planner.

7. No school on 10/18 and 10/19

10/11 Homework and test reminder

1. Bring Extended Practice Book (-Writing Practice Homework-)
    They only need to have pages 4 and 5 fixed and have parents' initials on one of the pages.
2. Week 7 test (see the test sample)

10/10 Homework

1. Read 3A L1 Stories once. (Same as 10/9 )
2. Study 3A L1 Flashcards (Blue set for at home learning) three times. They need to know both the sounds and meanings.

Next week is a short week, so we don't have tests next week.

10/9 Homework and story reading for 3A L1

1. Read 3A L1 stories once (in Extended Practice Book/ Blue Reading Book pages 4-7) or listen  to Miss Liao read the story here.

There are two stories they need to read in L1. The animation of reading the second story can be found in the official website of our material. http://xuele.edumall.sg/xuele/slot/u107/index1.html

If you forgot how to find the online version of our textbook, you can see the instruction here http://lindachliao.blogspot.com/p/instruction-for-reading-our-textbook.html

2. Study for Week 7 test. Test Sample was sent home today. Or view it in this blog (see 10/8)

Students were asked to bring yellow flashcards today so we can use them in class. But some forgot to bring their own or forgot to cut them out in advance. So they can only share with others.

Reminder: There will be no tests or homework in week 8.

Week 7 Test Sample (10/8-10/12)

Week 7 Test Sample (10/8-10/12)

The words tested are still 3A L1 new words.

10/5 Homework

1. Review and fix Week 6 test
2. Fix writing homework (It is sent home today because we have no school on Monday. Next Friday we will check the correction of mistakes. So bring it to school on Friday as usual, not on Monday or other days. )
3. Bring 3A L1 word flashcards (Yellow) (Cut out in advance)
4. No school on Monday (10/8)

Students who didn't turn in homework on time or forgot to bring their homework had a reminder slip sent home. They will need to turn in both the slip and the homework on Tuesday.

This week we start to write short journals and will keep on doing that every week. They can understand and speak a lot of good Chinese, but not very much written language skills.
This will help them build reading and writing skills and increase their Chinese vocabulary.

The topic for this and next week is 我的朋友 (wo3 de peng2 you3) [My friend]

10/3 and 10/4 Homework and Week 6 test reminder

10/3
Read 3A L1 Words 5 times

10/4
1. Complete Extended Practice Book -Writing Practice Book- pages 4-5 and turn it in
2. Week 6 test (10/5)

Test Sample for Week 6 was sent home on Monday (or see the picture below). The words can be found in Extended Practice Book in L1.

10/2 Homework and New Chinese Packet

1. Write Extended Practice Book -Writing Practice Homework- p.4 p.5
2. Check New Chinese Packet for Level 3A please (An instruction inside)
 There should be five items inside
 (1 Blue Extended Practice Book; 2 Blue Extended Practice Book -Writing Practice Homework-; 3 Blue Flashcards for home <L1~L11> ; 4 Yellow Flashcards for school <L1~L11> ; 5 Yellow Instruction)

All materials of blue paper/cover are meant to be kept at home. (Only need to bring Extended Practice Book -Writing Practice Homework- to school on Friday) 
Yellow flashcards should only be cut out and brought to school when I tell them to. : )

The New Chinese Packet is for the first half of the school year. Students do not need to study all of them at one time.

The progress of Chinese lessons is now at Lesson One, so students only need to study materials of Lesson One so far.