Monthly Archives: February 2011
Descriptions, sounds, and descriptions
Hello parents!
We had a short yet fruitful week with a larger-than-normal class. The 1st grade group was divided in to and put into Ms. LeAnna’s and my classes. It was a challenge to work with 20 kids, especially considering that the weather was not helpful at all, but we (meaning I) made it through alive (mostly).
On Tuesday the day was relatively warm and we spent most of our time outside. We did a listening activity in which we stepped out to different areas of the school with a worksheet and heard and recognized noises: ambulancias, perros, risas, motos, etc. The kids were super engaged and worked hard, paying attention to sounds and recognizing the images. They also added new ones that I hadn’t thought of. Afterward, we sat down and discussed which objects from the sheet we had heard, or seen, or both. The cutest part was when they “corrected” me for putting viento (wind), which you cannot see nor hear, but feel… 
We ended the day playing a couple of games, Juguemos en el bosque, Ms. Cata says, and 1, 2, 3, ¡Momia es! All games with verbal commands and complete body responses/ movement. We had quite a few laughs.
On Wednesday we welcomed a teacher in training into the class. The kids got to “interview” her and ask all sorts of questions. They made special emphasis on the fact that our guest was four years younger than Ms. Cata, which in early elementary years, is a lifetime. We classified sounds and talked about those that were agreeable -or not- to the ears. The last 8 minutes of the class the kids drew something they had seen or heard the day before and wrote in their notebooks what they were. We read El león, about two sisters in Africa who travel through forest, waters, and jungle to catch a lion and keep it as a pet. Every time they encountered a new obstacle they had to go through it, so all the kids made the appropriate noises. Then, the lion was too big and scary and we had to quickly back track our footsteps before getting eaten.
Yesterday was a day of music. After talking about how we felt, I played a song by Mazapán (greatest kids band of all time). I brought different instruments from home and taught the kids the lines of the song. Then we took turns with the instruments and sang and played along. They were super excited. I think having professional instruments (instead of toy ones) did the trick. Here’s a link to the song:
The other activity they really enjoyed that day was the Zoo project. I brought in play-dough for the kids to use their creative talent and mold animals: real, mythological, strange, etc; ours was the greatest zoo ever. When the kids were done we made a circle and put our zoo together. We walked into the zoo and visited each animal. The kids took turns talking about the animals they had in the zoo and described them: names, what they ate, their age, etc, etc. Here are a few pictures, unfortunately, not all pictures came out well, but here are the best ones:
Before I finish, I’d like to remind you to check each week for your kids’ I-immersion folders. I am sending short but targeted activities for them to do at home. This week there’s an interview. The kids are familiar with the vocabulary and should be able to ask you questions without any problem. Please fill out the Medical Information sheets as well and send them back as soon as possible. Make sure folders are kept neatly and come back to school at the beginning of the week to check home activities and refill them.
Have a wonderful weekend!
color and Number Test
Dear Parents:
January, we were learning about cooker and Chinese New Year. We have fun activities and art projects together. We have some Chinese New Year stories in the class. We shared opinion about what you do at New Year is coming. And we made a HONGBAO together.
They know how to said wo ai ni. Baba and Mama(I love you, dad and mon).
We had a text about color and number. The students need to listen teacher said color and number. For example, when the teacher said No. 1 is Hongse. They need to found No.1 and colored Red on the text sheet. I want to let they remember what is 1-20 and 10 different colors. They need to remember and understand not only color and number; they need to understand what the teacher said and how to finish their test with their team. I like to let them work with team. I like to see how to made student feel comfortable with their classmate in my mandarin class.
我是学生，我长大了想做。。。I am a student and I want to be…when I grow up.
I hope you all had a relaxing President’s Day long weekend! Welcome back to Ms. Song Mandarin class! 欢迎回到宋老师的中文课！I am glad to see my students maintaining their interest in learning Mandarin and still keep the knowledge they learned last week fresh.
As classes on the Chinese New Year topic rounded up well before the long weekend, we kick off this new weekend with topic of “Student, Classroom and Career Dream”.
To transit from the 12 Zodiac animals, I asked the children to practice writing speaking the 12 months in Chinese as well as writing down the date on each worksheet they do each day of class. For example, today is February 24th, they are supposed to put down “2月24日／二月二十四日”。 So far most of them did a good job!
During the first section of this week, children learned some mostly used words of objects in a classroom in Chinese like “教 (jiao 4)室 (shi 4) ” [classroom], “黑 （hei 1）板（ban 3）” ［chalkboard］， “墙（qiang 2）” ［wall］， “窗（chuang 1）户 （hu 4）” ［window］“桌（zhuo 1）子（zi）”［table］， “书（shu 1）”［book］， “书（shu 1）桌（zhuo 1）”［desk］ “椅（yi 3）子（zi）”［chair］and “地（di 4）面（mian 4）”［floor］。Generally, they did a good job reading those words by following me. Only “墙（qiang 2）” ［wall］is kinda confusing for them and they tended to read it as “床 （chuang 2）”［bed］. They practiced speaking those words in a conversation involving 2 persons. One is supposed to ask “这是什么（zhe4 shi4 shen2 me）”［What is this?］ while pointing at a certain object on the worksheet; the other one is supposed to answer that question by saying that object pointed at in Chinese. And they exchange roles. They got extra stickers for doing it correctly.
During the second section of this week. Children learned a few well-known careers and professions like “教师 （jiao4
shi 1）”［teacher］，“厨师（chu2 shi1）”［chef／cook］， “演员 （yan3 yuan2）”［actor／actress］，“歌星（ge1 xing1）”［singer］， “警察（jing3 cha2）”［policeman／cop］and “工程师（gong1 cheng2 shi1）”［engineer］ I am glad to see them volunteer to speak each work to me as fast as they can. Children also did some arts by drawing a picture of who they want to be when they grow up on a template called “我de梦想（wo3 de meng4 xiang3）”［My Dream］.
I wish all their dream will come true in the future. One of the children asked me why I was not drawing mine (very cute). I told them I am doing what I wanted to do now: teaching children. My dream would be they will improve their Chinese skills and enjoy this after school program!
Have a nice weekend! Stay warm ^_^
A week of drilling, practice, and games
Hello everyone!
This week was fun but wet. Class time was a lot longer due to rain and the kids were not able to have breaks outside as they usually do, so it was challenging to help them release energy and concentrate in a small space. I decided them to have more games to practice what we’ve learned so far and fewer new concepts, that way the kids had more fun and felt less pressured.
Monday we celebrated Valentines Day. I told them that in Chile it is friendship day. We talked about popular gifts and played charades practicing with the vocabulary (eg: A chimpanzee giving a card to a giraffe). We also drew Valentines vocabulary, labeled them and then answered questions, comparing the objects with the descriptive vocabulary we learned last week. I also want to thank J.J.’s family for bringing us delicious cupcakes!
On Tuesday we played. During circle time, we talked about likes and dislikes. I taught the kids Gracias, a game similar to Go fish, in which players ask for the card that matches the one they have. Once it is given to them, they must say gracias, if not, the rest of the players can accuse them of forgetting to be polite by saying ¡no dijo gracias! (you didn’t say thank you!). We also played guess the object, a game the kids really enjoy in which they have to ask certain questions in order for the group to give them answers on which they will base their guesses and recognize the secret object. We finished the day with a story two kids, who followed the sun and the moon. They were lonely but during an eclipse they met and became friends.
On Wednesday, we played Guess the character, similar to Guess the object, but with different questions. We did a short Ms. Cata dice (Simon says). The best game was Bingo, with a twist. We practiced the past weeks’ vocabulary but, instead of saying sentences with the vocabulary, one student took them out of the bag, acted them out and had the rest of the group call out loud the vocabulary word. While they looked for them on their cards, I asked questions.
On Thursday I brought my mom into class to meet the kids. It’s her first time in San Francisco and the perfect occasion for the kids to practice spontaneous speech. I introduced them to my mom and told them they would have time to interview her. I brought written questions on cards for them to read if they didn’t feel comfortable asking on their own. The 8 minutes I had allotted to the activity quickly doubled. I was so proud hearing them asking questions, many of them I had not thought of myself. It was really cute to see them genuinely interested in asking and predicting what answers they were going to get. Afterward, we played Cranium. At the end of the class I gave them the end of the week notes. This time, I handed them out with the following dialogue:
Me: ¡Ha llegado carta! (A letter has arrived!)
Kids: ¿Para quién? (For who?)
Me: Para -name-. (For -name-)
Kids: ¿Qué dice? (What does it say?)
I read the short messages one at a time. We finished class with a story called Lili la gritona (Lily the loudmouth), about a young hippo who can’t keep her voice down and get grounded constantly for it. In the end, she realizes it’s sometimes ok to be loud: she is part of a theatre play and her talent is appreciated by her audience.
Have a great weekend.
Food Bingo
Nihao, parents! This week the preschool class learned different parts in the kitchen. The refrigerator, the oven, the microwave, and foods we store in the kitchen. All students took home a bingo chart with food vocabulary. Please review the bingo chart with your children so we can explore more into the kitchen-food theme next week. Most of the students are able to color the fruits with the correct color specified in class. For parents who speak Mandarin at home, I’d like for you to point out the fruits we did not have a chance to color in class and say the sentence pattern “[color] de [fruit]” (黃色的香蕉 for example). Feel free to ask me in class on March 5th if you do not know how to pronounce the sentence or use the sentence structure.
- Water 水(Shui)
- Milk 牛奶 (Niunai)
- Banana 香蕉 (Xiangjiao)
- Grapes 葡萄 (Putao)
- Salad 沙拉 (Shala)
- Hamburger 漢堡 (Hanbao)
- Candy 糖果 (Tangguo)
- Carrot 胡蘿蔔 (Huluobo)
- Bread 麵包 (Mianbao)
Be sure to check out the new Chinese pronunciation website at www.chinese-course.com to access the i-Immersion practice list. The password to access this premium-paid account is found in a class email.
2nd Week (2/14-2/17) Chinese New Year (Section 2)
Hah! This week is eventful!
We continue with our Chinese New Year “celebration” with Valentine’s Day kicking off the first day of the week Children were in sugar high but I received my very first V-day card from Jackson Friday, so sweet! Thank you! To echo this special loving holiday, I taught the children to express their love and affection to family members or whatever they care about. The sentence structure they used is”我（wo，3）爱 （ai，4）。。。” (“I love…”). They could complete the sentence by saying “爸爸（ba 4 ba)” [father/daddy], “妈妈 (ma 1 ma)”[Mother/mommy] , “哥哥 (ge 1 ge)” [older brother], “姐姐 (jie 3 jie)” [older ister], “弟弟 (di 4 di)” [younger brother] “妹妹 (mei 4 mei)” [younger sister], “我的猫 (wo 3 de mao 1)” [my cat], “我的狗 (wo 3 de gou 3)“ [my dog], or even “我自己 (wo 3 zi 4 ji 3)” [myself]. Beside, they are try to follow me to do origami of paper heart. See the following link for reference:
http://www.wikihow.com/Make-an-Origami-Heart
It was not easy but I was glad to see that they all tried hard and a couple of children who finished earlier volunteered to help others. This is how Valentines Day matters to us!
Tuesday, due to a mandatary training, teacher Daisy subbed me. I sent out detailed class schedule to her. She is a very vivid story teller. I left a very good illustration book about the original of Nian (年，Chinese New Year) for her to tell the children. Feel free to get some idea of the story from the following link:
http://resources.echineselearning.com/general/general-chinese-1239.html
You may also practice reading some key words on this website where their phonetics (Pinyin) were noted and even with audio.
On Wednesday, we follow up with the story told on Tuesday as well as checking previous worksheet. Children learned to say “春 （chun 1, spring)” which is part of “春节 （ chun 4 jie 2) [Chinese New Year]” and a couple of popular greetings during Chinese New Year like “大吉大利 (da 4 ji 2 da 4 li 4)” [Good Luck and Forturn] and “平平安安 （ping 2 ping 2 an 1 an 1）” [Safe and Tranquility]. BTW, I was very glad to meet Baxter for the first time on Wednesday this semester. He has some Mandarin foundation so I assigned him to be seated with four other advance communication/literacy level students.
Also, in the evening, I had a very meaningful parent meeting together with Alice explaining Mandarin class students grouping, class structure, class discipline and parents expectations. The minute of the meeting was sent out by Alice through email system. I appreciate all parents’ participation and suggestions. They are very constructional to my teaching！Xiexie！
On Thursday, considering Chinese New Year is going to close, and we are still expecting the last big day of the whole celebration period – “元宵节” （yuan 2 xiao 1 jie 2）［Chinese Lantern Festival], I read a story about the origin of the story. This story also tells about one of the most important traditions on this holiday - 吃元宵 （chi 1 yuan 2 xiao 1） [eat glutinous rice ball]
Last but not least, they were all excited and enjoying making paper Lantern (灯笼 deng 1 long 2)
Here’s a good link to follow:
http://www.enchantedlearning.com/crafts/chinesenewyear/lantern/
I am glad all the children were able to finish or did their best to complete all the worksheets in class. A couple of the children were not that shy like before and speak Mandarin louder. Also, another few of them enjoyed writing the first twelve numbers in Chinese and had a pretest. I plan to test all of the students next Tuesday when school is reopen after the President’s Day long weekend.
Happy Holiday and be proud of your kids~
Zaijian! 再见！ See you later!
Music & Language
In her article “Early Brain Development Research Review and Update,” Pam Schiller notes new thinking on the link between music and language…
“Linguists, psychologists, and neuro-scientists have recently changed their long held opinion about the relationship between speaking and singing. The latest data show that music and language are so intertwined that an awareness of music is critical to a baby’s language development. As children grow, music fosters their communication skills. Our sense of song helps us learn to talk, read, and even make friends.
“Brain areas governing music and language overlap. Music and language have much in common. Both are governed by rules and basic elements (word and notes). In language, words make phrases, which combine to make larger phrases and eventually sentences. In music, notes combine and grow to form a melody.
“The neurological ties between music and language go both ways; a person’s native tongue influences the way he perceives music. The same progression of notes may sound different depending on the language the listener learned growing up. Speakers of tonal languages (most Asian languages) are much more likely than Westerners to have perfect pitch. All languages have a melody that is unique. Infants echo the inherent melodies of their native language when they cry, long before they speak.”
Frutas y Vegetales
Experimentos
Hello everyone!
This week we worked we worked on description, and (re)learned a list of useful opposing adjectives:
-Pesado/liviano (heavy/light)
- Bonito/Feo (pretty/ugly)
- Entretenido/aburrido (fun/boring)
- Fuerte/ débil (strong/weak)
- Alto, bajo (tall/short)
- Rápido/ lento (fast/slow)
- Grande/pequeño (big/small)
- Limpio/ sucio (clean/dirty)
We played several games in which we took the role of scientists: we described and classified images according to the new vocabulary categories and discussed how some of them can be described with more than one word at the same time. We also played charades by acting out objects and vocabulary, such as una araña liviana (a light spider), or un camión aburrido (a bored truck).
We also introduced the 5 Senses: la vista (sight), el oído (hearing), el tacto (touch), el gusto (taste), el olfato (smell). We talked about sight and how we see, what organs we use to see, and how light affects our possibility to see. We went through the new vocabulary in the dark and played a game in which the kids had to flash certain images depending on what their classmates were describing.
We also talked and learned about el día y la noche (day/night), la luna, el sol y las estrellas (the moon, the sun, and the stars). We used flashlights to represent the sun and a ball as Earth and we talked about how the day turns into the night. We introduced some verbs and classified them as thing you do during the night or the day. We will continue to work with these words next week.
This week we also read two interesting stories, Click, clack, Muu, about a group of cows that go on strike at a farm and communicate with a farmer by typing notes, and Tina and the Bully, about a sheep who has a classmate who is not very nice. Luckily, she’s brave enough to tell her parents and teacher. Tommy learns later that being nice is way better than being mean, now he has friends.
Today Thursday, Alice took over the class. After a long year apart, my mother arrived to San Francisco to visit for the first time, and I took the day off to pick her up at the airport. I will be back at school on Monday.
Next we’ll keep looking into the senses, observing, describing, and experimenting.
Enjoy your weekend!
Preparation for Valentine’s Day and other things
Greetings!
This has been a great week as we had Ms. Brigette, the i-Immersion Spanish advisor and supervisor, come in and teach class on Monday. She showed us some new games and songs. So this week, we took a break from the community helper and focused on some basic themes such as clothes, animals, shapes and colors. This was great since we have two new children in class.
Here is the vocabulary for shapes (please look to previous blogs for the other vocabulary):
circulo- circle
cuadrado- square
rectangulo- rectangle
triangulo- triangle
rombo- rhomboid
ovalo- oval
estrella- star
corazon- heart
Thursday we made a valentine’s card, which should be in their backpacks. Please let ask them about it so that they can share them with you. Please take into consideration that the kids are following my instructions in spanish and are doing a wonderful job.
Inside the cards they wrote: Te quiero, which means ” I love you”.
Besides that, we are beginning a new Homework folder. This folder is for your children to have with them everyday and they are to take it home with them to share the work they are doing in class. We will begin to have handouts to practice vocabulary and writing the alphabet in Spanish. This is an opportunity for you to spend time with your child and practice the language. With the homework, it will assist you in knowing how to practice with your child.
If you have any questions or concerns, feel free to contact me!
Have a great weekend, and I look forward to Valentine’s Day on Monday.
Feliz de San Valentin