Newsletter #9
Grandparents Day was so great! It was such a blessing to worship together and welcome your parents into our classroom! I enjoyed watching the kids interact with some of the most special people in their lives. Please relay my thanks to the grands and it was such a pleasure meeting them 🙂 Pictures will be coming home in a couple of weeks!
The next couple of weeks are BIG weeks! We are transitioning into the BIG switch – which means communication ALL in Mandarin (to teacher and friends!) We have a Mandarin line at our doorway, and the children know – when they cross the line, it means Mandarin is what we should say/hear. The date when we switch is on November 14th!! Next week is going to be a trial week where we try to switch but some English would still be okay, and the following week – IT’S ALL IN MANDARIN! (snack, lunch time included, and Mandarin Play time will probably start around January). We have our individual and classroom language incentive going and I can feel that it is motivating the children to try more Mandarin 🙂
We are doing a lot of news/story sharing and this week we started to attempt to share stories without using English. We tried to use words that we already know, describe things as well as drawing and motion. We were working really hard to figure out that a friend said he was swimming in the swimming pool – and though it took a really long time to figure out what he was trying to tell us, we managed to work through it WITHOUT english. I think that is also the moment that the children realizes that it’s hard, but it’s possible to learn and say what things are in Mandarin without using English! That also help us filled our classroom language incentive jar so we will be having our first Mandarin Celebration tomorrow!
Here are the tools that can help them communicate:
1) Words that we already know (describe it, tell me colors/shape/place/etc.) 2) Motions (use your hand: point at it, show it to me 3) Draw it out 4) Try anything BUT NOT speak in English. We have a Mandarin line at our doorway, and the children know – when they cross the line, it means Mandarin is what we should say/hear. Please also help me keep the Mandarin only environment – if you need to speak to me and/or the children in English, the hallway is a good place to go.
What did we learn and What will we learn?
Mandarin/Language Arts: We are working on looking and recognizing words, as well as saying the stroke out loud when writing characters to help us to see what different strokes make up the characters. We are also starting to work on writing our Mandarin names on our work – Please continue to help them practice their name when you have time as well. The first couple of weeks we focus on learning to understand what we hear in Mandarin, and now we are working intentionally on looking at characters, remembering them and understanding them at the same time. We have practiced teaching all the strokes in the stroke booklet (Feel free to use it as a resource to help your child practice strokes to get them more and more familiar with Mandarin characters!)
Bible: We continue to talk about the story of Joseph, and we talked about how God is always with Joseph all through his challenges and that it is a part of God’s plan that Joseph faced those challenges – and he was reunited with his family at the end. It also ties into our bible Memory Verse for November, which is about trusting the Lord and lean not on our own understanding.
Memory Verse/Fruit of the Spirit: We are starting to learn the November Bible Memory Verse, and will be talking about our November Fruit of the Spirit – Peace.
5你要专心仰赖耶和华， 不可倚靠自己的聪明， 6在你一切所行的事上都 要认定他， 他必指引你 的路。 (箴言 3:5-6)
Math: We started practicing counting by 5s, and practice addition problems and subtraction problems using our fingers. This week during math centers we focus on doing shapes with play doh, writing numbers and drawing things out, as well as taking unit 1 test. We will explore numbers 6-10 this coming week and continue to get familiar with the concept of addition and subtraction.
Exploring God’s World (Sci/SocStu): We reviewed our school map as we talk about how we are bringing our guests around during Grandparents Day. We continue tor review maps, directions and talking about our world while we are learning about us being a part of the world!
Writing: We continue to learn the relationship of numbers+measure marker+noun+period. We will continue to work on our classroom book “What do I see in my classroom”, and hopefully soon the children will be able to share the book with you.
Play: This week, I intentionally model and have the children practice common phrases we will often use/encounter when we play. We will continue to have mini lessons (while learning vocabularies as well as problem solving, and exploring creativity) through play!
Things to Note:
Parent Teacher Conferences (21st/22nd of Nov): Parent Teacher conferences sign up starts on November 4th-November 16th through an online signup system.
As you are signing up for conferences, please be aware that various administrative and support staff are also available during conferences. If you have questions regarding the immersion program, you are able to sign up for a time to meet with our program coordinator, Jodi Pierce. You will see her name on the list of teachers and can sign up for a time with her in the same way you would sign up for a time with a teacher.
**Report Cards: Please note that Kindergarteners do not receive report cards until January. Please look for more information and instructions on viewing when that time comes.**
If you haven’t return the Parent Teacher Conference Questionnaire to me, I would really appreciate it if you return it to me tomorrow so I can have enough time to prepare fully for our conversation coming up soon!
Wishlist Page: Please visit this page throughout the year for more ideas/suggestions. There are two things on the list now. The children are really into building and legos so if you have some that you can donate it will be great (they really don’t have to be new or in a set)! If you happen to have old baking pans (that are deeper) that you can donate, we will take them as well – we will learn that we can practice characters through writing in sand and/or corn starch.
Framework: As we step further into the framework, I wanted you to be aware that soon enough I am going to assess their producing and recognizing of the Word Wall Words and High Frequency Characters at the end of the week, and if they are not able to do it then we would need extra practices that will potentially take some recess time.
Featured Friend: Featured Friend is starting this week! Just a reminder that I send home featured friend pages 2 weeks prior to the week your child is featured, as well as a 1 week reminder email. Please make sure their pages are turned in latest by Friday before the week that they are featured – so I can have time to translate things, because it is part of our Monday morning to go through the book together (It is an opportunity for the children to learn new Mandarin vocabularies that is personally related to their interests! – Please provide drawings for all the things so going through the pages in Mandarin will be easier!) Here is the page of Featured Friend: https://blogs.zcs.org/ssulayman/featured-friend-schedule/
Mandarin Homework&Flashcard: Homework this week consists the word wall words for U2W1, and flashcard is on high frequency words as well as some animals.
From the Immersion coordinator:
add.a.lingua has launched a new resource for immersion parents and you will want to check it out! Please visit
addalingua.com and scroll down to the box that invites parents to learn more. After registering, you will find brief yet excellent information regarding immersion education.
Chinese New Year Celebration:
Greetings Staff and ZCS Mandarin families,
We are eagerly anticipating a great celebration for Chinese New Year. This comes up pretty quickly after the Christmas Break, so we thought we’d give you a little advance notice! We will be celebrating on January 14th from 6:30 – 8:30 (or so) at ZCS. We would love to have you and your families join us for dumpling making (and eating) and good conversation. We also can’t wait to “ring” in the new year with the “bubble wrap fireworks,” which are always a highlight. More details will be coming as the date approaches.
We hope you can save the date and join us!
Dana Moeller
Carrie Traver
What’s Coming Up?
Specials: Monday – Spanish, Art, Tuesday – Music, Spanish, Wednesday – Library, PE, Thursday – Spanish.
Featured Friend: Our first featured friend is 程浩宇 easton, and he will be featured on the week of November 7th!
Picture Retake Day: November 10, Thursday.
NO PM Busing or Hot Lunch: November 9 and 10.
NO AM/PM Busing or Hot Lunch: November 11.
Parent Teacher Conferences: November 21 and 22.
Thanksgiving Plan: In honor of Thanksgiving we will be trading (like the Pilgrims and Indians did) pictures on November 22nd. Please send in 10 individual pictures of your child to trade with their friends. This can be a 4X6 or a wallet photo.
Thanksgiving Chapel: All ZCS students, parents, grandparents and friends are invited to give thanks to the Lord on November 21st, 9AM.
NO PM busing and NO Hot Lunch: December 9
Prayer Request:
Please continue to pray for adjustments toward the switch – motivation and patience towards learning in another language and attempting to speak it 🙂 <For the children to understand it is a part of a learning process that things are challenging at first, and they will make mistakes – which is okay! But they have to try, and keep trying :)> Please continue to pray for friendships that are developing in our class as well as with other friends out of class! Your children are getting more and more familiar with friends in and out of class, and are constantly learning how to use kind words and gentle hands, starting to learn to be considerate of others and problem solving.
谢谢！
－ 黎老师
The next couple of weeks can potentially be tough and exhausting, but hopefully soon we will get to see more “clicks” and connections make that the process will be easier 🙂 <For the children to understand it is a part of a learning process that things are challenging at first, and they will make mistakes – which is okay! But they have to try at least :)>