Dear parents and students,

Welcome to our first day of distance learning!! It’s quite an adventure for all of us. And I’m sure we will learn and grow a lot in this exciting journey.

Before starting, as you all know, English is my second language. If I didn’t express myself well, please ask me. If my words sound rude, which I know often occur, please do forgive me. Sometimes, I want to get my words across but didn’t think about how to beautifully word it. Sorry!

Now let’s go back to our learning. Today’s work are mainly made up of four parts: introduction, math, writing practice and word work. Please follow instructions below.

1. Log into your kid’s school google account.
2. Introduction and sharing.  Go to https://flipgrid.com/32dc6756. Watch my video on the upper left, and record a video sharing what you did in these past few days and your prayer request. To record a video, click the big green plus button at lower left. Then, click “log in with google” to log in and choose your child’s google account. A screen will pop up to record his/her response. After they are done, they may watch one or two other students’ response. If they want and have time, they may record a video to give others a response. Please keep this part under 20 minutes. Thanks!
3. 2nd and 3rd Math. Time: around 40 minutes. We are going to use Khan Academy in Mandarin for our Math study today.

Detailed steps:

1. Go to https://zh.khanacademy.org/
2. Click the button called 登录. See picture below.

• Click 使用Google账号. See picture below.

• Now you should be in a similar page like the one below. (Easton, please excuse me for using your account as an example.) Click 作业. See picture below.

• All the items with triangles at the beginning are learning videos. See picture below.

• All the items with stars at the beginning are exercise. See picture below.

• When you click 开始, it will let you start to do that item. See picture Below.

• For the exercise part, after you choose an option, please click 检查 to check your answer.

• If you get it right, it will say, “干得好！(Good Job!).” Then, you click 下一个问题 to go to the next question. There are 7 questions in each exercise series.

• If you get it wrong, it will say, “不太对 （not quite right).” You may click “获取帮助“ to get some help. The screen then will show some prompts and videos to help you. You may read and/or watch any of them. Afterwards, you may click “再试一次“ to try again.

• Once you tried again, click the lower bottom right blue “再检查一次“ button to check again. If you get it right, it will say, “这就对啦 (that’s right).”  Then, you click the blue “下一个问题“ to go to the next question.

Note: They may encounter problems that they don’t fully understand. Please ask them to read the words that they know, take a guess, and try their best. There are thousands of sight words in Mandarin. They have only learned three or four years of it. It’s our learning reality now that they will often encounter unknown words. But I think it’s natural and ok. Also, students have learned most of these math contents in class. These are reviews and new ways of looking at these contents. Even though they might not understand every problem, the core math concepts stand out throughout the videos and the exercise.  Even though they struggle, I think they will still get the main math teaching points.

If there are problems that your kids need help with, you may also record it and let me know.

• For second graders, please watch the two learning videos first. Then, go to https://quizlet.com/_87x3gy?x=1jqt&i=2eu679. This quizlet lists the important vocabulary that you might need when you do the exercise. Go through this list. Look at the vocabulary word, press the audio button, listen to its Mandarin pronunciation and English definition, and take a look at the picture. Go through every word. You may go back to this list if you need to when you are doing exercise. Afterwards, go back to Khan Academy and do the 4 exercises.  You may go back and watch the learning videos whenever you need to.
• For third graders, please watch the four learning videos first. Then, do the three exercises. You may go back and watch the learning videos whenever you need to.

4. Mandarin Language Arts- Writing. Please do the character-practice sheet for 20 minutes. If you are done with the sheet, you may use a blank paper to practice those words. If you forget how to say each word, please go to https://quizlet.com/496759781/3162020-flash-cards/  I’ve put those words in this quizlet. While practicing, please follow the stroke order indicated on the sheet. Please pay attention to the word structure while writing. Please write neatly. When you are done with the sheet, if possible, please send me a picture of your kids’ work (both sides) via email or text ( 616-238-8189). Kids often miswrite characters. I usually check their work and correct their errors in class. If you send me a picture, I will let you know their wrong characters. Afterwards, I will make a video to talk about their common errors so they know what part specifically that they get wrong. Also, I’m planning to give them a quiz of these words some time next week. They should be able to write these words correctly by then.  

5. Mandarin Language Arts- Reading and Writing. Please find the fill-in-blank sheet (as shown below) in your kids’ homework folder. Read the vocabulary on the first line. Then your kids should start reading each exercise and choose a word from above to fill in the blank. I’ve recorded an audio of me reading all of these exercises. If your kids get stuck with an exercise, he/she may listen to my audio. But please let them read it by themselves first before listen to my recording. When your kids are done, please take a picture of their work and send it to me via email or text ( 616-238-8189).  If he/she has extra time, please make a sentence using 模仿. Please go to https://flipgrid.com/e953e04e to make a video to record your sentence of 模仿.

 

Thank you very much for your understanding, cooperation and patience in this new learning adventure!! Please let me know if you have any questions, concerns or suggestions. Thank you!

Danchao