You cannot open a book without learning something.
Confucius
Halloween Fun!
好玩的萬聖節!
October 19-23
Transitional Kindergarten
Chinese: In our Chinese class, we learned the rhymes, 一二三, 拍拍手 and 爸爸早,媽媽早. TK students can recite the rhymes really well. We also learned to say 萬聖節快樂 Happy Halloween and 不給糖就搗蛋 Trick or Treat. The highlight for the week is the Halloween parade on Friday followed by trick or treat. We have so much fun!
In Chinese culture class, we practiced paper folding. This time, we folded a paper bed. This time we became better at following the steps in paper folding. We also practice calligraphy writing the words: 大, 小, 人, 口, 日.
In Math, we began to do addition. We use the Mandarin words such as 多, 少, and 一樣 to compare numbers.
English: Our TK students reviewed the -ap words such as cap, map, lap, gap, tap, and nap. Students learned how to make the "-ap" sound and then blended the first letter sound to complete the whole word. They also practice saying the words by reading them through a short passage and later drawing out examples of the "-ap" words that they learned. The passage was about a boy with a cap who had a map on his lap and tried to jump over the gap but it was a trap.
In Science, we learned to sing the bone song and familiarize ourselves with "bone" words. We were excited to see the skeleton model to understand how bones are connected and worked together.
In Art, we worked on trick or treat bags for the Halloween parade on Friday. The were excited and filled with Halloween spirit.
Kindergarten
Chinese: This week in Chinese class, we followed steps in making Halloween trick or treat bags. We learned to say trick or treat an happy Halloween in Chinese. The highlight of the week was when we passed out candies for the preschool students.
First Grade
Chinese: Our first graders practiced the key words from our homework packet. We then got into Halloween spirit, making treat bags for Friday parade. We, of course, were very good at saying 不給糖就搗蛋!
Second Grade
Chinese: This week in Chinese class, we read the lesson 種魚 Planting Fish. The goal for this week was for our students to learn to understand words such as 空, 還, and 都 can be read differently depending on the combinations of words. We also read and map the story 風、雨、雪三兄弟.
Third/Fourth Grade
Chinese: This week in Chinese class, we read the lesson 感恩節說笑話比賽. The goal for this week was for our students to practice oral skills. Students picked three phrases from the lesson and retold them in a brief conversation. Through practices, students became better in oral skills.
October 19-23
Fall Camp: Week 2
Pottery Theme: This week students created several projects including a pendant, a plate, a cup, and jewelry from clay. Students learned to condition, emboss, and design their projects. It was a big mess, but all of us had a wonderful time being creative.
Coding: Students became better at adding several codes to their challengng courses. All students moved on to course 2 and some moved on to course 3 and began to work on projects.
October 12-16
Fall Camp: Week 1
Tang Dynasty Theme: During Tang Dynasty, China reached its peak in art, literature and civilization, as it set the high standard to which later poets, painters, and sculptors aspired. For our camp this week, students learned the literature, which represented by Tang Shi (唐詩) and different art forms, including silver and bronze metal art and porcelain.
Coding: Students learned the basic rules and commands for programming. Towards the end of the week, some students completed course one and moved on to course two. Happing coding!
October 12-16
Transitional Kindergarten
Chinese: Ou TK students learned to write characters, 大, 小 and 人. We learned also to make phrases for these characters. To help us remember the charachers, we used our body to act like 大 by spreading our arms out, 小 by putting our hands by our sides, and 人 by putting our arms on the back.
In Math class, we learned to do one digit subtraction. We also continued to count forward and backward in Mandarin.
In Chinese culture class, we did paper folding. This time we made a cute little bird. We also practiced Chinese calligraphy.
English: Students were introduced to the “at” word family this week. The students were fascinated with the words and wanted to learn more words from the “at” family. We worked on worksheets that helped identify the “at" words as well as practicing our fine motor skills. Our class continues to sing and dance to the phonic songs.
Art: We started art this week by making our own bee hives. Instead of drawing out the bee hive, we incorporated bubble wrap stippling with paint and using our thumb to make the bees. The students enjoyed this project because they were able to draw bees that were their thumb shape! The next art project we worked on took us two days to do. It was very exciting for the kids to learn “under and over”. Students will continue to work on patterning through art. After we have finished weaving, the kids were able to imprint their hands with white paint on their paper. The children were excited to see the end results of their work.
Science: This week in science, students were able to grow their on crystal ball in a tube. Last week, we grew crystals, however, it was to delicate for them to take home so we decided to grow crystal gel ball instead and because it was in a tube, they were able to take it home. These crystal gel balls are tough, so they weren’t as delicate as the crystals we grew last week. The students were excited to see how they were growing inside the tube - from small beads to crystal balls. They learned how living things need to intake water and food in order to grow.
We also learned how leaves breathes. Students were able to pick leaves in the morning and put them in water for a few hours. When it became science time, we were able to see the changes inside the leaves. The leaves formed small bubbles on the edge of the bowl which is usually form where the leaf is still using sunlight as part of the photosynthesis process. The students learned how leaf creates energy. They learned the meaning of oxygen through this experiment.
Kindergarten
Chinese: We began the class with singing 小毛驢 Little Donkey. Then we moved on to Lesson 4, 我有十個手指頭 and 畫張畫:小豬. We practiced the antonyms: 大/小, 上/下, 左/右. We reviewed 注音符號: ㄅㄆㄇㄈㄉㄊㄋㄌㄍㄎㄏ. These phonetic symbos helped us with pronunciation as well as reading unfamiliar words correctly. Lastly, we sang a new poem, 雜詩 by 王維.
For Calligraphy, we wrote天南地北, read as tian nan di bei. It means from sky to earth, from north to south. We became better at writing calligraphy!
First Grade
Chinese: We began the class with singing 小毛驢 Little Donkey. We then moved on to the story, 鳥媽媽的蛋不見了to wrap up Lesson 2. This is a fun story about a bird who is looking for her egg. At the end, she realized that the egg is in her tummy. We learned the characters: 言, 請, 找, 黃, 就, 說. We spent 5 minutes to review Zhu Yin Fu Hao 注音符號 as a tool to help us with reading independently.
For Art, we drew bats flying over the golden moon. It tells us that Halloween is near!
Second Grade
Chinese: In Chinese class this week, we reread the lesson 猴子撈月 the Monkey Fishing for the Moon. We worked on the key words for this lesson including 拉, 最, 放, 抬, 頭 and 興. Most importantly, we worked on using the words 最 and 就 in sentences.
Third/Fourth Grade
Chinese: In Chinese class this week, we reread the lesson 我是一個紅蘋果. We worked on homonyms, 院/願, 樹/數 and words that has the same radical, 願/原. Most importantly, we worked on assessment for character identification and writing.
September 28-October 2
Transitional Kindergarten
Chinese: This week our TK students learned the lessons, 來抱抱 and 請你進來. This week words in focus are 大, 小 and 人.
In math this week, we continued to count to 100. We also compare numbers, bigger than 比...大 and smaller than 比...小.
In Chinese Culture this week, we did paper folding 摺紙. We made a big frog 大青蛙. While we were working, we sang the rhyme, 大青蛙, 有腿沒尾巴, 問他名字叫什麼, 他說他叫: 呱呱呱. More importantly, we learned to say polite words, 請, 對不起, 沒關係, 謝謝.
English: After learning the “an” family words last week, this week, students have practice the “ap” family word. Students began to sound out he words and even made flip books to take home to practice. We worked on various worksheets that involved cutting and gluing to help incorporate their motor skills!
On Friday, we had our daily Show and Tell. Many of the students has brought in their favorite toys, snacks and even pictures from their vacation.
Science: This week, students learned the basic of DNA. We created a DNA strand using materials that we have found. Also, they have learned how bacteria strand looks like. Instead of being criss-crossed like a DNA strand, they are circular. The next science project the students worked on was growing crystals. Students shared where they believe crystals come from and where they have seen them. They have also shared with the rest of the class on what crystals they have at home. We grew our own crystals and the students are excited to take them home! Again, our class enjoys the results that baking soda and vinegar can create. The students learned how the air in the bottle is trapped and the only way the air can go is up, into the balloon. Instead of using normal balloons, we decided to use water balloons to experiment with. At the end, the results were the same, the balloon can still blow up regardless of what kind of balloon was used.
Art: Hello to October! We all know what that means….. Halloween and lots and lots of leaves. The students are excited for Halloween and what is a better way than to start off an art project correlating to this holiday. Students started off Monday tracing out their hand prints to put on a tree. We used orange, red and yellow to portray the fall season. Our next art project was a pumpkin lamp. The students were excited to see the pumpkin art works that our after school students had done and really wanted to make a pumpkin of their own.
Kindergarten
Chinese: We began the class with healthy eye exercise 眼睛健康操. We then reviewed Lesson 1 and 2 with flashcards and games. We loved the game that we divided into two groups answering questions to get the sticky ball. For Tangshi, we learned to sing and dance夜宿山寺 by Libai 李白. Most importantly, we learned a new idiom, 大吃一驚. The idiom is not about eating (don't be fooled by the 吃). It is about being astonished.
In art class, we got spooky by drawing pumpkins. Halloween is around the corner!
English: We learned about double finals: ff, ss, tt, ll, dd, gg. zz . We practiced our sight words, by, funny, let, ride, stop, and walk. Our journal this week is about my favorite thing to do do on my birthday. Eating cake and playing with friends topped our list.
First Grade
Chinese: Our first graders do warm up exercise with 眼睛健康操. Then we reviewed Lesson 2 小羊要吃草. We reviewed words such as 朵, 想, 要, 青, 吃, 羊. We then practiced with using 言, 請, 找, 黃, 就 in sentences. To get out to recess, we needed to answer the questions in complete sentences. These questions are 你喜歡吃什麼? 你要去哪裡玩? 星期天你想去哪裡玩?
In art class, we learned to say and draw different expressions for our pumpkins. Check out our pumpkins decorating the hallway by the TK classroom.
English: we read a journal entry and learned answer questions in complete sentences. We apply the key words: deep, frown and worry in our sentences. For our journal, we wrote about I am happy when....