0

Newsletter #8

Newsletter #8

This past week, we played the circumlocution game as I prepare the children towards the “switch”. We are moving towards making the switch, which means having the children started saying Mandarin to the teacher, and to their peers as well. I have been talking about it and preparing the children towards the switch – I have introduced the individual incentives on top of the jar incentives we have as a class. It is my hope that the transition will go smoothly and your children will learn that they will be in a fully Mandarin Immersed experience – and all the times at school are opportunities to learn and practice Mandarin (snack, lunch, and play time<hopefully in January> included as well!)

I did tell the children that as we step into November, we are stepping towards the BIG switch – that means that soon, the children will be expected to communicate using Mandarin (with the teacher AND with their peers). We are starting small with merely vocabularies if they would like to say something, then slowly transitions to short sentences, and then expanding their sentences.

Please talk to the children about this at home – I tell the children that if they do not know a word/sentence in Mandarin – they can try to do motions, try to describe it (with colors, shapes, words that they already know), try to draw it. We are going to start slow and steady – we will practice asking questions in English (and what the teacher would say if the question is in English) and if we speak in English, what our friends would say to remind us to speak in Mandarin. Then, we practice how we can ask/say something with the limited Mandarin we have so far – and how the teacher will guide us to say the sentence in Mandarin, before giving us the answer in Mandarin.

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: This week, we started working intentionally on trying to speak in Mandarin (with/without the teacher’s help) as much as we can. We are also going to focus on looking at words and recognizing characters, especially on things that we encounter almost everyday (which includes numbers, colors, word wall words/high frequency characters). We are working really hard on making sure we are writing characters while saying the stroke, and saying what the character is after we finish writing. We are working to figure out the meaning of words and characters, thinking about them before assuming what they mean right away.

Bible: We have been learning the story of Joseph trough pictures as well as the Bible for Kids (ipad app). We talked about how even in midst of difficult things God is with Joseph and what Joseph is going through is a part of God’s plan. We continue to practice our October Bible Memory Verse as well, and talk about Joy as the fruit of spirit this month. At the end of this week/the beginning of the following week, I will be assessing their October Bible Memory Verse before Introducing November’s Bible Memory Verse, feel free to practice it at home with your children through the recording 🙂 It is intentionally recorded slower.

Math: We focused on practice number 4 and 5 this week, and we also practice different shapes and counting with dice. We constantly practice counting up at school, continue to review and explore shapes, and continue to discover numbers and math around us! We will learn more numbers next week and practice addition and subtraction.

Exploring God’s World (Sci/SocStu):  We continue to review directions and navigating around a space. The K team has put together a map with all the K classes and the special classes. We went around school and highlight some different places on our map to practice map reading and legend. We continue talking about maps and learning that we are in several places at one time (I am in my house, which it is part of my community, my city, my state, my country, my world). We are also learning directions through small practices while we transition from one activity to the next.

Writing: We continue to learn about the use of period, as well as practicing the sentence form “I see a/a few/some ….. in my classroom.” We started working on our book – My Classroom. We chose a couple of things to include in our book, and construct it (write it) in the correct sentence form and with period. The children also shared about their 4 day break and draw their story down, we will practice telling them through our picture, and then will slowly transition into writing stories.

Play: I am planning to teach children common phrases we often use in play, and have them say it in Mandarin. These phrases would include: Can I play with this/you, Let’s share our toys, Look at what I made, etc. The children are constantly learning to share and problem solve the different problems that they encounter during play time. We are learning to use gentle hands and gentle words especially when we really want to play something or when it’s harder to share 🙂

Things to Note:

Towel and Water Bottle: They were sent home on Friday, please clean them and return them to school tomorrow!

Parent Teacher Conferences: Please check your email for the note about signing up for conferences. Sign up starts on November 4th through an online signup system. Our time will be limited to 15 minutes on the appointment but please know that you can always email and/or talk to me if there is any questions/concerns 🙂 Parent Teacher Conference Questionnaire is due this Tuesday, Nov 1st.

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.

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.

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.

Mandarin Homework&Flashcard: Homework this week consists the word wall words for U1W5, and flashcard is on high frequency words as well as some animals. Please continue to keep your children accountable following stroke order and writing as close as possible following the characters proportion. Continue to practice flashcards with them as well – and just getting them more used to the idea that each Mandarin words they say have characters that goes along with it, giving them more exposure to explore the language as the demand rises!

Grandparents Day: Grandparents Day is coming sooner than we thought it is!  I have sent home the letter of explanation, and also an explanation of our map PBL and maps for grandparents this past weeks. Please help me pass the information to the grands! You can also send in Gifts of Being Grand as soon as the grands are done with them – we will keep this in the children’s spiritual journal until they are in 8th grade 🙂 Please let me know how many grandparents I should be planning on if you haven’t already! On Friday we will also have quick snack as a class together before welcoming our Grandparents, so you do NOT need to pack the children snack for Friday!

Book It: It is absolutely optional – but If your child has been doing Book It, I will take the return of the sheet latest tomorrow. Please know that if you do not turn in a sheet at the end of the month, it doesn’t rollover. I sent home November book it sheet this past Thursday!

What’s Coming Up?

Specials: Monday – Spanish, Art, Tuesday – Music, Spanish, Wednesday – Library, PE, Thursday – Spanish.

Reformation Day Chapel: October 31, Monday, 10AM.

Grandparent’s Day: November 4, Friday.

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: It’s early but I wanted to keep you in the loop since this requires a little more planning – 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.

Featured Friend: We are starting our Featured Friends in less than 2 weeks! Please read the page under “Featured Friend” learn more about how it works. Our first featured friend is 程浩宇 easton, and he will be featured on the week of November 7th!

 Prayer Request:

I can hardly believe we are heading into November! The children are getting used to routines and getting much more comfortable with their friends – please continue to pray for relationships that are developing and the learning that is constantly happening in the class. Please also pray for preparation as we start heading closer to the BIG switch! Please pray that the children will be brave and continue to try out the language, to not be discouraged when things seem very tough, and strength get through some days that seems harder 🙂

谢谢!

- 黎老师

 

 

0

Newsletter #7

Newsletter #7

We are constantly learning new words and phrases in Mandarin and producing the ones we already know. What I have learned is that with higher expectations, the children learn to rise to the occasion! It might seem hard the next couple of weeks as we continue to lay foundation on Mandarin, <and especially when we make the BIG switch> but I assure you, it is worth it :) I am already starting to see more connections made here and there – which is why I am positive that we are where we need to be and the children are ready for more challenges!

Next week is a shorter week with only 3 days of school – We are not going to dive into a new week of framework because there isn’t enough time for children to learn the new words and get familiar with them at the end of the week like we usually do. Instead, we are going to review on the things we have been learning so far. Please make sure you read the homework information below to know our plans for homework next week. This newsletter is also for 2 weeks – so there will be no newsletter this coming week.

What did we learn and What will we learn?

Mandarin/Language Arts: We are being really intentional in looking at words, saying them out loud, understanding what they are, and attempt to use them at the right time. Our Incentive Jar has also shifted from getting fill over phrases that I now expect children to say – instead, it is when they say or recognize word wall words in their reading/in talking, or when they say the weekly phrase or say something that I tell them is our goal for the week!

Did you know? Mandarin characters evolved from drawings. This week I showed the children this video that shows them some very basic characters that evolve from drawing! I thought I’ll show you as well.

This coming week, we will work on reviewing our framework u.1-3 that we have learned so far, and also review words we often use such as colors, shapes, animals, things in our class through “word hunt activities. I will also introduce the “circumlocution game” – which is a game that we play in purpose to help children discover how can they tell me something they do not know in Mandarin through drawing, describing, showing motions. After we come back from our 3 days week, we will continue learning framework.

Bible: We talked Jacob’s stories this week, and also talk about Jacob, Laban and Rachel. As we discussed how Jacob had a dream, Jesus told him – I will be with you, which is our October bible memory verse! Next week we will start telling the story of Joseph.

Memory Verse/Fruit of the Spirit:  We have started discussing our fruit of spirit – JOY, and continue to practice the song 耶稣爱我 Jesus Loves Me (in Mandarin). We also practiced the Fruit of the Spirit Song that hopefully will help the children remember what are the fruits of the spirit better (It can be found on our Bible Memory Page). Also, we have started learning and practicing each day our October bible memory verse – Genesis 28:15. 我也与你同在、你无论 往那里去、我必保佑你、 领你归回这地、总不离 弃你、直到我成全了向 你所应许的。 (创世纪 28:15)

We talked about how the song “Jesus Loves Me” and our bible memory verse this month reminded us of how God loves us and He is always with us – which gives us a lot of JOY 🙂 It is different than happiness or feeling happy because of getting or doing something. We are joyful because God love us!

Just a suggestion: The fruit of the Spirit and Memory Verse can be a part of your daily devotion with your child.

Math: We continue to explore numbers and practice writing/counting and working with numbers. This week, we started practicing writing numbers (specifically 1,2 and 3 so far) If you notice your child writing numbers the wrong way, try asking them, does that number look okay? Now that we are very familiar with our 1-10 in Mandarin, we started diving more into looking at and exploring 11-20 in Mandarin. We continue to practice counting with our fingers, through visuals and drawings. We will be practicing numbers 4-6 the next following week after the 3 days week.

Exploring God’s World (Sci/SocStud): This week we continue our conversation of map and learn bird eye view specifically. We also learn different directions and went out on a class tour to draw different places at ZCS. We will explore more about maps, directions and regions this coming week, and then we will take one final tour with the map that all Kindergarteners have put together in preparation to bringing our grands around during Grandparents Day!

Writing: We continue to share small stories and explore the role of speaker and listener. We continue to learn about the use of period, as well as practicing the sentence form “I see a/a few/some ….. in my classroom.” We talked about how we will be writing/drawing a book about what we have in our classroom to share with our parents and friends. When we come back from the break, we will start writing our classroom book together.

Play: I am planning to start our Play Time with mini lessons in the coming weeks that will include common phrases we use during play, what toys are called (even including the different colors, food, shapes, etc.) and as the year move further along it will be like a scenarios act out – for example, who would we have when we are “opening a restaurant”? What would they say? (if you are a water, cook, manager, people visiting restaurant,etc.)

Things to Note:

Immersion Education Discussion:

  • Are you new to immersion education?
  • Have you watched your older children advance through the immersion program but have questions about this approach to education?
  • Are you wondering what is expected of you as an immersion parent?

You are invited to learn more about immersion education and meet the coordinator of the language immersion programs. This will be an informal round table discussion time for parents to learn and ask questions about immersion education. Please consider reserving one of the following times to attend: October 24 at 9:00am, October 24 at 7:00 pm We will meet in the media center classroom (the back corner of the library). 

Grandparents Day: Grandparents Day is coming sooner than we thought it is! It’s such an exciting event of the year, and I am sure we will be blessed by the presence of the grandparents. I will be sending home a sheet with detailed information of the event this coming Tuesday, please read it and make sure you pass on the important information to the grands! It will also come home with 4 sheets of papers (2 grandpas, 2 grandmas) for the grandparents to fill in – we will keep this in the children’s spiritual journal until they are in 8th grade 🙂

Working at Home with your children: Please continue to work with your children at home too – Especially with their Mandarin word practice and recognition. Word recognition is going to help them as we continue to move towards reading, and recognizing words that the teacher is writing while teaching contents. Mandarin is a complex language with characters <that are totally different from English> and I know personally how much practice it takes – PLEASE help me keep your children accountable of following the stroke orders of the characters as well as the proportions of the characters in the square. What they are learning now are foundations that they will take in and build upon as they learn more words that are harder and more complex. Mandarin has basic strokes and components of a word(character) that are in many different characters, and if they get the stroke/proportion wrong now, it will potentially create habits that will last a long time.

Have your children teach you what the different word wall words/high frequency characters/words that they learn. What are the week’s phrases? What are new words they learn? 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.

Busy Bees at School/Home: At the start of the year some of you have signed up to be Busy Bees at School and/or at Home to help preparing different things we need in the classroom! Please know that I really appreciate it a lot. Let me know if you would like to get on the list to help our class 🙂

Mandarin Homework: Our Mandarin homework this coming week will be a stroke booklet and your child’s name! I am starting to notice that some of our friends really want to start writing Mandarin names – which is exciting!! I have also uploaded the pdf version of their names – you may download and print them as you need. Please help me keep your child accountable on following the stroke order and the “proportion” of the characters in the box. NOTE: This week’s Mandarin homework is optional, you do not need to hand them back, but you are welcome to do so – we continue to practice strokes at school, and soon enough will spend some morning work time to practice writing our Mandarin names.

The homework for the following week will resume to normal as the children practice the word wall words for framework u1w4.

Flashcard: Our flashcard consist of words that are frequently used in Mandarin. This coming week, your child will be getting the flashcard that consist the shapes! Please practice flashcard really intentionally with the children as I am realizing that many times, the children are able to identify what things are through drawings, but not so much through the characters.

The framework for the following week will resume to normal as well – high frequency characters for u1w4 along with some animals.

Gift Wrap Sale: You may shop from the catalog that came home with your student last week or shop online at http:// gaschoolstore.com/landing.aspx?SID=2504850. All money raised will go to offset the cost of tuition at ZCS. Email jschafer@zcs.org if you have any questions. Thanks for your support! Orders are due on Monday, October 17.

What’s Coming Up?

Specials: Monday – Spanish, Art, Tuesday – Music, Spanish, Wednesday – Library.

NO School (CEA Convention for Teachers): October 20-21.

Reformation Day Chapel: October 31, Monday, 10AM.

Grandparent’s Day: November 4, Friday.

Picture Retake Day: November 11, Friday.

NO PM Busing or Hot Lunch: November 9 and 10.

NO AM/PM Busing or Hot Lunch: November 11.

Parent Teacher Conferences: November 21st and 22nd. I am sending home a sheet for you to fill in so that our conversations coming up can be relevant and meaningful. Please send in the things by Tuesday, November 1st. You will get information soon on how to sign up for parent teacher conferences.

Thanksgiving Plan: It’s early but I wanted to keep you in the loop since this requires a little more planning – 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.

Featured Friend: We are starting our Featured Friends in 3 weeks! Please read the page under “Featured Friend” learn more about how it works. Our first featured friend is 程浩宇 easton, and he will be featured on the week of November 7th!

 Prayer Request:

I can hardly believe that we are almost at the end of October! The children are getting used to routines and getting much more comfortable with their friends – please continue to pray for relationships that are developing  and the learning that is constantly happening in the class. Please also pray for strength and perseverance as we dive more and more into Mandarin, your children will come home tired but I assure you it’s all worth it!

Please also pray for health – you might have heard that the teacher (as well as some friends) are a little sick right now, which they did such great job listening to the teacher even when her voice is softer 🙂 As the weather and temperature changes, please send your child to school with layers so they are ready for the weather as well! I’ve learned over my years of staying here that Michigan’s weather is really unpredictable 😀

谢谢!

- 黎老师

0

Newsletter #6

Newsletter #6

Wow! What a week 🙂 This week was so exciting as we start enjoying the change in the weather and have the kindergartener’s picture day! We have started practicing some sentence frames in class and I started hearing some friends speaking those phrases and trying new things out too! The children are working hard learning, taking in, producing Mandarin while adjusting to the fact that school is all in Mandarin. I think most of the children are aware of that fact by now, and we continue to work on “not translating for our friends” or saying Mandarin phrases/words (that I am certain they know because we say/practice it all the time).

I am so looking forward in seeing the continue growth of the children! Thank you so much for letting me know that I have parents who are supportive and continue to work hard with your children at home too! Please do not hesitate to email or talk to me if you have any questions or are wondering about different resources to help the children (check out our resources page for some ideas!) – especially when Mandarin is a total foreign language to you too!

What did we learn and What will we learn?

Mandarin/Language Arts: Now that we have had a couple weeks of getting used to hearing Mandarin, repeating Mandarin and seeing Mandarin, I am raising the bar a little higher. We are doing less repeating, and more of the children actually saying Mandarin phrases and words (without the help of the teacher). The children are practicing writing, saying, recognizing words in class and out of class constantly! Our Incentive Jar has also shifted from getting fill over phrases that I now expect children to say – instead, it is when they say or recognize word wall words in their reading/in talking, or when they say the weekly phrase or say something that I tell them is our goal for the week! We started the school year with a lot of repeating Mandarin and understanding it, now we are moving more towards using it, and soon enough we will shift to a full Mandarin environment (Student to teacher, and hopefully student to student too!)

*We are also working very intentionally in LOOKING and THINKING at what the words are and what in means instead of merely guessing phrases just because something sounds similar.*

Bible: We talked about Isaac and Rebekah, as well as Jacob and Esau. We talked about how God has a plan for all of us, and He always know what is ahead of us even when we don’t know anything about it.

Memory Verse/Fruit of the Spirit: I will be assessing the children’s September bible memory verse this coming week, then after that we will start practicing October’s bible memory verse. For September fruit of the spirit, We talked about how we have shown love to our friends, families and God. We will be talking about the fruit of spirit Joy soon, and talk about how having God in our life gives us joy!

Just a suggestion: The fruit of the Spirit and Memory Verse can be a part of your daily devotion with your child 🙂

Math: This week we specifically look at squares and rectangles and talk about how they are similar and different. We also identify different shapes (mainly circle, squares and rectangles) but also learn what other shapes are called. During math small groups, we also work on drawing our friend’s faces to count 1-5, then later drew our favorite food in our favorite color for 6-10. Next week, we will start practicing writing the numbers 1 to 3.

Exploring God’s World (Sci/SocStu): We are starting our Social Studies Unit, which is actually a Project Based Learning (PBL) Unit. The unit is “Where Am I?” We center it around the idea of having the children help their grandparents find our classroom during grandparents day through “constructing a school map” – that we will collaborate along with other Kindergarten classes. Along with this unit, we will learn about concepts such as location, place, region – through our daily environments such as our homes and our school.

What is PBL? PBL is an exciting, innovative instructional format in which students are encouraged to select aspects of their assignment and are motivated by real-world problems that can, and in many cases will, contribute to their community (Barell, 2007,2010; Baron 2011; Grant, 2010).

Featured Friend: We started going through Li Laoshis featured friend topics as we explore the different topics that are near and dear to our Kindergarten friends’ hearts (the things that they love!) The schedule of the kids’ featured friend is on the blog – please check it and read it through! I’ll let you know when we start featured friend!

Writing: We continue to share small stories and explore the role of speaker and listener. We continue to learn about the use of period, as well as practicing the sentence form “I see a/a few/some ….. in my classroom.” We talked about how we will be writing/drawing a book about what we have in our classroom to share with our parents and friends. We also got a chance to draw and talk about our first field trip experience.

Things to Note:

Immersion Education Discussion:

  • Are you new to immersion education?
  • Have you watched your older children advance through the immersion program but have questions about this approach to education?
  • Are you wondering what is expected of you as an immersion parent?

You are invited to learn more about immersion education and meet the coordinator of the language immersion programs, Jodi Pierce. This will be an informal round table discussion time for parents to learn and ask questions about immersion education. More information will come but for now please consider reserving one of the following times to attend: October 24 at 9:00am, October 24 at 7:00 pm

Towel and Water Bottle: Towel and water bottle were sent home this week. Please clean them and send them back to school on Monday!

BOOK IT: Book It for October was send home and you can start participating in our book it reading challenge/incentive (IT IS OPTIONAL)! I wanted to clarify that each month, you will get a NEW sheet of Book It, and if a sheet is not completed or turned in to me at the end of the month, the sheet DOES NOT rollover to the next month – which means if a sheet is not completed within a month, your child loses a chance to earn the Pizza Coupon that month. Let me know if you have questions about Book It.

Mandarin Homework: Our Mandarin homework this coming week will be on words that are on our word wall for unit 1 week 3. The goal is for your child to be able to produce – knowing how to write it, and the meaning of the word (including writing it with the correct stroke orders) at the end of the week <usually Friday>. Please help me keep your child accountable on following the stroke order and the “proportion” of the characters in the box.

Flashcard: Our flashcard consist of words that are frequently used in Mandarin. This coming week, your child will be getting the flashcard that consist our words from high frequency Unit 1 Week 3 and some animals. Please take time to regularly have your child practice to actually recognize these words specifically for the week! And continue to practice Mandarin at home with flashcards from previous weeks 🙂  *Find the audio recordings on our Resource Page!*

I will be CHECKING their Mandarin Homework on Fridays, Please make sure homework is turned in with your child’s name is on it (English name is fine).

What’s Coming Up?

Specials: Monday – Spanish, Art, Tuesday – Music, Spanish, Wednesday – Library, Thursday – Spanish, PE.

NO School (CEA Convention for Teachers): October 20-21.

Reformation Day Chapel: October 31, 10AM.

Grandparent’s Day (start passing the date on!): November 4, Friday.

Prayer Requests:

Please continue to pray for our class and the children as we adjust to school, how to do school, and adjust to learning everything in Mandarin. I am so proud of the children and know that they work really hard each and every day, and I am aware and not surprised that they are exhausted after school certainly. I would like to assure you that this is a phase that the children go through as well! The children will continue to adjust to it and they are great on taking challenges! Please continue to pray for peace for the children that has a harder time during drop off.

谢谢!

- 黎老师

0

Newsletter #5

 Newsletter #5

We had our first field trip this week and it was so wonderful to see the children learning and interacting outside of our usual school setting!

The children also had a week of learning components of framework and practicing writing characters! Mandarin characters is such an essential part of the language and we are working hard to develop good characters writing habit early. Framework learning starts on Mondays as we introduce new radicals/word wall words/high frequency characters each week, different discover, explore and practice activities Tuesday-Thursday, and (soon) assessments on Friday.

We ended our week with K-5 worship and it’s so wonderful to see the children praising God! On weeks when we don’t have K-5 worship we have Kindergarten worship along with our friends from other Kindergarten classes 🙂

What did we learn and What will we learn?

Mandarin: We continue to practice strokes, and it was a big week of learning with the framework! There are many different elements in framework, which includes, Radicals, word wall words, high frequency words, grammar and writing, as well as culture and language. We have poems, interactive read aloud and shared reading that goes along with the framework. The homework I send home weekly consist of our word wall words (that have the same radicals – we work on one/two radicals each week). The flashcard consist of our high frequency characters (and or phrases that we use a lot in Mandarin on daily communication). We start our U1W1 framework this week and though it’s overwhelming, the children will pick up the pattern really quick and start to understand all these different components that they are learning and growing in Mandarin!

Math: We learned to count up to thirty this week! We are also practicing our numbers in Mandarin – we continue to learn counting with our fingers, through visual representations, and drawing scenes. We continue to explore the concept of addition and subtraction – looked at how numbers become “more” when we add, and how it become “less” when we subtract. We played a little game of hi and goodbye with our friends to show how when more friends come it’s addition, and when friends leave it’s subtraction. We also explored circles (along with size and colors) as you have seen from the paper that was send home this week.

Bible: We told the story of Isaac and Rebecca – we talked about how God has a plan for Isaac and God has a plan for all of us! We talked about how God created us, and knows us since we are young and will continue to know us as we grow up. I have introduced Esau and Jacob and we will be talking about their story next week.

We continue to practice our bible memory verse and talk about how we show “love” through our actions and words. I wanted to let you know that I will start assessing their September Bible Memory Verse nearing end of next week (or the following week).

Exploring God’s World (Sci/SocStu): We reviewed our five senses and what each of them help us do as we explore God’s world. Our first field trip helped us apply our knowledge in real world! The students experience the nature and animals and Degraaf nature Center and had so much fun!

Play: The children continue to play creatively and learn to share and problem solve when they run into conflicts during play. They love to make tall buildings, fly planes, construct houses and play house. Art has also been a big hit! If you have any art materials you would like to donate we would LOVE to take them! (They don’t have to be new :))

Things to Note:

Ready for Fall: The weather has been quite cloudy and rainy at days. Please make sure the children have layers and are properly dressed for the weather 🙂 If they brought rain boots for the day, I always tell them to put it on when they head outside. When they get back in the building they will change to their PE/indoor shoes. This is a new routine we are practicing now that a new season is here!

Mandarin Homework: Mandarin Homework this coming week is on our word wall words for U1W1 and U1W2. Please continue to watch and guide your child through their Mandarin Homework by helping them follow the stroke order (you will be able to see it on the paper, and it starts left to right most of the time) and word proportion. Let me know if you have any questions about this! We started practicing writing in class too and since we are trying to create good habits for the long run, there are times when I would have the children erase strokes or characters that are written far from how it’s suppose to look like. We do talk about how more practicing will help making the characters look better, and what’s important is to follow the stroke/proportions and try our best and not rush!

Flashcard: Flashcard will also be coming home. Please make sure that you keep the flashcards that I send home each week (in the ziplock bag that I gave last week) so children can keep practicing! The goal is for the children to recognize the characters! Please take a couple of minutes to review it with them – the more exposure they get the more they will be able to remember.

You can check our Resource Page for the audio recordings of the flash card each week.

I will be CHECKING their Mandarin Homework on Fridays, Please make sure your child’s name is on it (English name is fine).

School Pictures: Our class is scheduled to have our school picture taken on Tuesday, October 4th. If you plan to order individual pictures for your child please be sure to fill out the information correctly on the form, and feel free to return it to me on Monday too (I’ll help keep it safe until we need it on Tuesday).

  • School Picture Make-Up/Retake Day – If your child is sick or gone on the original date OR you are not happy with the original pictures, your child may return on this date (Thursday, November 10) for a retake.
  • Ordering Options:
    • Portrait Packages: You may order online with credit card OR via paper order form with cash/check.
    • ONLINE Orders:Please have your online order placed before or by your child’s original scheduled date and time.
      • Please still have your child come to school with the paper order form filled out with name, grade, and teacher and write at the very top ONLINE ORDER in bold letters. You do NOT have to fill in the order portion of the form.
      • PAPER ORDER FORM:You may send a check or cash with the paper order form completely filled out with your child the day of his/her scheduled photo.
      • Yearbook Orders:
        • At this point in time you are NOT be able to order yearbooks online. The paper order form is the only option right now.
        • Please check box #14 on the paper order form if you would like to order a yearbook.

We will do a picture exchange in November for Thanksgiving, but you do not necessarily have to order pictures from this to participate. You may use pictures printed from home or any other source. More information about picture exchange will come home soon.

Bookworm orders: The book order from Baker Book House is due Oct 6, Wednesday.

What’s coming up?

Specials: Monday – Spanish, Art, Tuesday – Music, Spanish, Wednesday – Library, Thursday – Spanish, PE.

Mandarin Framework Learning: We have had a week of exploring/learning what the different components of our Mandarin framework are, and we will start diving right in!

Book It: Starting in October! An information sheet and the first book it opportunity was sent home on Friday 🙂 I encourage you to read!

Picture Day: October 4, Tuesday.

NO Hot Lunch or PM Bussing: October 7, Friday.

NO School (CEA Convention for Teachers): October 20-21.

Grandparent’s Day (start passing the date on!): November 4, Friday.

Prayer Requests:

Please continue to pray for our class and the children as we adjust to school, how to do school, and adjust to learning everything in Mandarin. I am so proud of the children and know that they work really hard each and every day, and I am aware and not surprised that they are exhausted after school certainly. I would like to assure you that this is a phase that the children go through as well! The children will continue to adjust to it and they are great on taking challenges! Please continue to pray for peace for the children that has a harder time during drop off.

Many of you have heard about the Witte family and have personal connections to them as well. Please keep the Witte family and friends in your prayers (including HCS and ZCS, as well as the community) as we go through the grieving period.

谢谢!

-黎老师

0

Degraaf Nature Center Field Trip

We went to Degraaf Nature Center for our first field trip, and we had fun learning more and applying our five senses 🙂

The children started off with listening to Ms. Lisa as she talked about and help scaffold connections between five senses and the animals, and we also got the chance to pet and touch some different animals!!

We then went on the nature walk and discover different things in the nature (plants,water,animals) and got to use our five senses (we see, we hear, we touch, and we smell too) as we go through the walk! It was definitely a different kind of experience to be learning outdoor 🙂

Before the end of the field trip, we got the chance to explore some little animals, science games and stations indoor at the Nature Center.

I would encourage you to ask your child what did they learn and to have them tell you about the field trip. They were really enthusiastic as they tell me their favorite parts of the field trip!! I will let your children tell you the details of the field trip!

Special thanks to our 3 chaperones Carrie, Ann and Geilyn for this field trip, and our room moms Carrie and Geilyn for donating our classroom snack and drink.

Enjoy the pictures 🙂