Mandarin: September 2025

First Grade:

Greetings to our First Grade students as you embark on your journey into the realm of Mandarin. Throughout this semester, students will immerse in the beauty of Chinese songs and poems. Starting with the enchanting greeting song, students will discover the art of exchanging pleasantries and expressing politeness in Chinese. Through melodious tunes, we'll unravel the names of facial features and body parts in the language. The wisdom of ancient poems will grant us insight into the rich tapestry of Chinese cultures. Moreover, we'll embrace the skill of counting from one to a hundred, unlocking a fundamental aspect of the language.

Second/Third Grade:

As students continue their learning journey, they will revisit and strengthen the songs and poems learned last year. This semester, students’ focus will expand to writing Chinese characters, beginning with the fourteen fundamental strokes. Having completed a thorough review of numbers from 1 to 100, students will explore the Chinese abacus. Our next step will be practicing multiplication tables on the abacus, starting with the 2s and 3s. During this semester, more Origami activities will be introduced in our lessons!

Fourth/Fifth Grade:

At the beginning of this semester, we will review pinyin and Chinese characters, then practice basic conversations to build and strengthen our vocabulary. As we move forward, our focus will shift to using the Chinese abacus to develop a solid understanding of multiplication tables. To conclude the semester, we will prepare and present a Chinese Lunar New Year puppet show.

Middle School:

In this semester of their Middle School journey, students will focus on expanding their vocabulary. Group One (6th and 7th grades) will learn to describe family members and work toward writing their first Chinese book, My Family. Group Two (7th and 8th grades) will learn to describe foods and the three daily meals. Through consistent conversational practice, students will strengthen their oral communication skills—culminating in the ability to order food in a Chinese restaurant. In addition, both groups will develop the ability to compose simple sentences in writing.

Warm regards, 

Ki Cerina