First Grade
The First Grade class has had a lot of fun making origami hats, fortune tellers, and more. We learned the poems Gesse, Gesse, Geese, and The Two Tigers. The students are learning the basic strokes for Chinese characters. The class also practiced simple conversations about greeting each other, asking each other’s names, saying thanks to each other, and how to apologize to others. Students are learning more vocabulary and using them in simple conversations.
Second Grade:
In Second Grade, the students learned how to write numbers 1-10 in Chinese characters. Two classes were spent writing numbers from 1 to 99 in Chinese characters. Everyone did a great job. Now, the students are learning a new song about facial features. Later, they will continue learning new vocabulary and using it in simple conversations. If time allows, the class will practice the Chinese abacus.
Third Grade:
The Third Grade students learned a new song, Little Stars. They also learned the first set of twelve basic Chinese characters and memorized how to write them in the correct stroke orders. The students have also put a lot of effort into speaking beautiful Chinese with the correct pronunciation. In April and May, the class will practice Chinese abacus and new vocabulary.
Fourth and Fifth Grade:
The Fourth and Fifth Grade students practiced using pinyin** to pronounce the characters that they had learned before. The students have learned the second set of basic Chinese characters. Besides practicing pinyin and tones for the characters, students have learned the methods to build up to more complicated Chinese characters. Through the characters, the class has a view of the Chinese culture and way of thinking. The Fourth and Fifth grades will continue to learn new vocabulary and conversations.
Sixth Grade:
In sixth grade, the students continue to work on building more vocabulary for our first Chinese book, My Family. The goal is mastery of at least 70 Chinese characters. Students practiced using pinyin to pronounce the characters that they had learned before. With this book, the students will learn simple sentences about introducing family members, how to describe a person’s appearance, and how to ask simple questions.
** Pinyin
Phonetic writing system, the most common Romanization system for Standard Chinese. In official documents, it is referred to as the Chinese Phonetic Alphabet. It is the official system used in China, Singapore, Taiwan, and by the United Nations.
