Ni Hao Afterschool Mandarin Class On Feb

Insect Fun Month!

Welcome to the Ni hao Afterschool Mandarin Class! I am so happy to share our wonderful working in our class. My name is Mrs. Daisy. I hope you enjoy watching our blog! Please contact me if you have any question or comments!

This month, we are learning the insects such as butterfly, ladybug, dragonfly, ant and carpenter worm.  We have been doing some really fun works on Feb.  We tried to found some insect for backyard. Also we found some ants and worms. The students used a large paper to create their insect picture, and they need to put on all the insect vocabulary on their picture. It is amazing how creative they can be! They do a good job!

After they created their insect picture they had to ask each classmate about do you like a butterfly? Do you like a worm? Do you afraid an ant? Do you afraid a dragonfly?

We have made some really cute butterfly in this month! Here are large Butterflies!

Also we made a Valentina’s Card on Valentina’s day!  Happy Valentina’s Day!

The last week of this semester is eventful and passes by quickly.

On Monday and Tuesday, we kept on practicing the song we would sing during the performance on Tuesday night. We also went through a few times the process we would go through on the stage: Line up and walk onto the stage>Make individual brief self-introduction>Follow the background music to sing the song>Bow and walk off the stage.
I appreciate parents’ support including helping kids who were absent to practice lines at home, getting costumes ready or working together on the paper crowns.

The children did a nice job both individually and in a group-set during the performance. Each of them was able to introduce themselves in clear Chinese and complete sentence structure in front of a large number of audiences. They successfully followed the background music to sing the whole song. It was a pity that we didn’t get any stand-up microphone from the school, otherwise, children’s voice would be better heard from the audience. The did a better job when we were practicing. The lyrics of the song is a good collaboration of quite a few vocabularies and sentences we learned during the semester. The following is the original version of the song on YouTube:

To appreciate children’s hard work during the whole semester, I had them watch a couple of Hello Kitty episodes in Mandarin with the chance to win fortune cookies. They were all very attracted by the movies and striving for cookies by pointing out object on the TV screen in Mandarin. This is very fun way learning and reviewing words in a multimedia full-immersion language environment. I will adopt the method multimedia learning more next semester as long as supplies allow.

As a few students are transferring to other schools next year and will no longer attending our program, I bought a few cute cards and have all the children in class Thursday sign their Chinese names on them. Each of them also made a card for Ms. Woo to appreciate his patience and kindness in letting us use his classroom when he is still working there, especially during the rainy days he always let us get in the room earlier than scheduled. Last but not least, children made a card for me together, which is surprisingly sweet. It was interesting that they wrote down the Chinese character “力” (power) on the card. I guessed they were conveying the message that “Mandarin is power”? ^_^

Here comes the long summer vocation, I wish you will all enjoy a relaxing period of time. I am glad to hear that quite a few of the students will attend Mandarin summer camp outside the McKinley School or still keep on being exposed to Mandarin at home. I hope you will keep the language fresh during the long summer and come back with the knowledge we learned on mind when the new semester starts in the fall.

Thank you for your support and understanding of my work. I will keep on working during the summer time to develop curriculum and continue working with children in our own Mandarin summer camp.

Have a wonderful summer vocation! 暑假快乐！

Xiexie

I hope this final blog finds you all well and enjoying the sunshine. I also hope that everyone enjoyed our end of the semester performance and the salsa de tomatillo I made! I’m definitely sad that the semester is coming to an end because I’ve had a wonderful time getting to know each of the children, whom are all such unique, delightful, and talented individuals. Everyone has learned so much in such a short time and I am eager to see each and every one of you next semester so we can continue advancing together.

This week was intentionally set aside for some fun; Spanish style of course! We have played many games this week and have also enjoyed a few treats since the class has done such a marvelous job. We played Loteria again on Wednesday and it has seemed to really help the children expand their vocabulary and practice their pronunciation (which is absolutely fabulous). We also used some of our time this week to make tarjetas (cards) in order to express our appreciation to Teacher Gary and Teacher Dale, since without their profound generosity and willingness to allow us to use their classrooms, we wouldn’t have had a designated space for our Spanish class. Friday will officially mark our last day of class so we will try to spend most of it outdoors playing games (if weather permits), as well as making something special for Fathers’ Day (I know that Dia de los Padres isn’t until June, but it’s only fair since all of the madres got something for their special day). I am aware that Friday is the last day of school and as a result, we may have lower attendance, but regardless of the fact, I will be there and ready for a final day of fun! I’m going to wrap this up (before the tears come) and once again thank you all for your support and dedication to your children. Have a great summer and I hoe to see you all soon! ADIOS!!

-Joanna

Wow, this week went by so fast!  We were so busy and excited rehearsing for our performance on Tuesday!

We basically finished our costumes and did some art projects in the meantime, like a little “Mundo Marino/Sea World” made with paper, to learn about some sea animals:
Foca: Seals
Calamar: Squid
Pez: Fish
Caballito de mar: Seahorse

And also we made “Algas/Sea weed” out of paper to decorate the Sea World.

Children drew and framed a picture about a vacation with their family, one that they liked the most! the result was terrific.

On Thursday as a reward we had a little picnic after our last rehearsal on stage: we ate raspberries, strawberries, figs cookies and of course…Sea weed snacks! (In accordance with the topic of the week).
I have to say that the children look very happy about the two performances that we’re going to play, so I hope you appreciate and cheer them up that day!

See all of you soon,

This past week has been a busy one as we continued to practice and prepare for our final performance. Here is the information as a reminder:

i-Immersion End of the Year Performance and Potluck

When: Tuesday, May 24
Time: 5:00-Potluck, 5:30-6:30 performance
Where: McKinley Elementary Cafeteria
Admission: Free!

The children will be performing a short dance routine. The McKinley teaching staff will also do a short performance. It should be fun!

Everyday we managed to at least have our check-in circle, with puppet time and practice the dance routine. The schedule was jumbled around depending on the weather and cafeteria availability. We did practice writing in our journals, as well as play goldfish and start on a painting project.

Besides the children learning Spanish, at this age and considering the end of the year rapidly approaching, it is obvious that the children are learning more than cognitive information. They are learning social skills like how to share the paint brushes with one another and to work together. Or learning how to handle transitioning into the first grade.

I recognize that the children are going through a lot of change at this time and have chose to not assign homework.

Thanks for reading and I hope to see you at the performance!

We start from writing and drawing. To show their handwriting they have done this semester, I found out a standard Chinese characters writing template sheet with squares for them to better organize the strokes and structure. They were doing a great job especially in writing numbers. Their daily practice writing days and months in Chinese helps keep their memory of numbers fresh.

As part of the performance, children are supposed to make their own animal crowns. I found out coloring sheets of each animal for them to color and glue to a hard paper board. Then I helped each of them make a hair band to hold their animal so they can wear the crown while singing.

Last but not least is the show. We had a change of plan from acting out the Legend of Zodiac Animal to singing a song of the Zodiac Animals. I think the later is less challenging and easier to organize. I prefer not letting the song out through video or audio in this blog until you watch your kids’ singing it next Tuesday night. It is not easy for them to focus and practice. They asked for holding lyrics on the stage during the performance, which is completely fine. I am glad we went through the whole song and also checked out the stage in the cafeteria.

Two more days of practice and let the show start!

Our year is coming to an end and I have mixed feelings about it. This week we mixed learning and rehearsal. The kids have taken their performance very seriously and keep coming up with new ideas for it, it is adorable. On Monday we talked about our weekend and finished the props and costumes for the performance. We also read Peter Rabbit, the Spanish version.

Tuesday and Wednesday were dedicated to talking about our vacations and summer. We talked about our favorite seasons and the difference between them, and what makes summer special. We also commented on what we wear in summer, what we eat and don’t eat on hot days, what we like to do, would like to do, and have done during summer, different modes of transportation, and the beach. Then, we mixed it all together and played cell phone hot potato. We talked about phone etiquette and what you would say in Spanish. Then, we sang a song about riding trains while the kids passed around two cell phones). When the conductor of the train stopped the two kids with the cell phones made calls to invite each other on a nice beach vacation. I brought cards with phone etiquette and questions. Some of them also asked how to say certain words, and learned a few Chilean slang words in the process. It was super funny and the kids were very eloquent. The following is a sample of the conversation that they put together:

- ¿Aló?

- ¡Hola! ¿Quién es? (Who is this?)

- Amaya.

- ¿Cómo estás? (How are you?)

- Bien, ¿y tú? (Fine, and you?)

- Bien, bien.

- ¿Quieres ir a Haiwaii? (Do you want to go to Hawaii?)

- ¡Sí! ¿A qué hora? (Yes! At what time?)

- A las 3.

- ¿En qué viajamos? (How are we traveling?)

- A caballo. (on horse)

- Ah, ok. ¿Qué traigo? (What should I bring?)

- Trae una mochila, tu traje de baño y chocolate. (Bring your backpack, bathing suit, and chocolate)

- Bakán, chao loca! (Cool, bye dude!)

- ¡Chao loco! (Bye dude!)

Afterwards, the kids took some time to draw a picture about summer and write a few sentences and then shared them with the class.

Yesterday, we spent the day rehearsing. We went over details and ideas and then went to the cafeteria to try it out on stage. We also played a few conversational games like flyswatter in which the kids got to swat images after paying attention to what another classmate was saying (a sentence about the images).

Have a great weekend and I will see you all on Tuesday, at the performance.

           This week has been a little hectic because we have been putting the finishing touches on our routine that we will perform at our end of the year celebration.  I had originally planned to focus on deportes (sports)  this week, but since the end of the year is coming, I felt that we needed additonal practice singing/dancing to “Para Bailar la Bamba.” We did , however, discuss our favorite deportes (futbol = soccer, nadar = swim, futbol Americano = football, as well as brincar cuerda = jump rope, and anything involving a pelota = ball).

          We have also spent some of our time this week playing Loteria and luz roja luz verde (red light green light). Next week will be our final week of the semester, so I want to make sure to keep it fun and engaging.  Playing juegos (games) and deportes (sports) has really helped the children start speaking more Spanish and they can all understand a majority of what I say to them, which is a MAJOR breakthrough! We will spend the latter half of Friday’s class rehearsing our routine on the stage and I will begin my preparations for the salsas I will bring in (I’ll keep them very mild, I promise).  I’m sure  that you all received Yang’s evite and I hope to see you all there on Monday! I will provide chips, salsas, napkins, forks, and plates, but feel free to bring any other finger-foods you may desire. Thank you all for being so supportive and have a wonderful weekend. Adios!

Greetings!
 It has been a fun-filled, yet an easy week with windy, sunny weather as we
 prepare for our final performance on Tuesday, May 24th.

 Monday we practiced our weather terms and played the animal charades game.

 Tuesday we played goldfish with our verb flashcards. Then later made get
 well cards for Ms. Moore, who has had some injury with her knee and had been
 absent the whole week.

 Wednesday we practiced our dance routine. It is not complete as I attempt to
 incorporate the children's movement ideas. But they are doing fine and
 having fun. We then played "Las noticias", where we roled played being on
 television, and being news casters. It was very funny as they all were very
 excited about being on TV.

 Thursday was a busy day as we prepared for our dance routine and played a
 movement game where the kids could act like an animal, using a certain
 action: like a bear who crawls.

 Thanks for reading.

The end-of-the-year MALIP Performance is coming very soon and this next week we’ll be rehearsing and finishing our costumes for the event. These two activities will be the central part of the class for the next days. We’ll be also reading, writing, and doing art.

The theme for the week May 9^th – 12^th was Vacations/ Las vacaciones.

We talked about vacations in the mountains where the forest and lakes are, vacations places with snow, and vacations on the beach. Children colored coloring pages and they learned new vocabulary:

Lago: lake

Montana: mountain

Nieve: snow

Playa: beach

Acampar: camping

Sol: sun

Arena: sand

Fogata: camp fire

On Tuesday and Wednesday we practiced the two songs the children chose: “Los pollitos dicen” and “Asereje”. Some of them will be participating in both dances, so we will probably be opening and closing the event.

Cutting and sticking paper on the shirts, they have been very enthusiastic making their own costumes!  I had to find some adult size one because some parents forgot to send the shirt…but there is a child who needs one, so please: this week is our last chance to finish this project!

Please, remember also that the event will take place on Tuesday, May 24^th. It will start at 5pm with a potluck and by 5:30 the performance will begin.  I’ll send you a list of food and supplies that we’ll need on Monday 16^th so you can choose what to bring that evening.

LET’S MAKE IT HAPPEN!