Monday, April 11, -May 2011

Dear Families:

April and May should be fun months for the third grade students to create writing for a Chinese play. They will explore mysterious Chinese characters, “The Chinese Dragon”, “China’s City Gates”, “China’s Archways”, China Sacrificial Altars”, “The Hutong of Beijing”, “The Siheyuan of Beijing”, “Map of China”, “The Great wall”, “Chinese Traditional Costumes” and “Dragon Boat Festival”, “Chinese Folk Music”, “Chinese Clay Sculptures”, “Chinese Shadow Plays” and China’s Dough Figurines”, “China Local Snacks” “Beijing Roast Duck” and “China’s Flour products”. Students will discover and research “The Four Chinese Treasures of the Study” (brush pen, ink stick, paper and ink stone). The “Four treasures of the study” are used to do calligraphy and traditional Chinese painting. To Chinese scholars those four are their treasures. Third grade students will integrate Chinese learning with art, music and culture project in our Chinese classroom. We will watch Peking opera, which is performed with melodies and movements accompanied by traditional musical instruments. Students will draw four main character roles in the Peking Opera.

For April the third graders learned foods and speaking with a native Chinese student. They had read Children’s poems from China, singing folk songs. They had learned to write and translate their conversations and reading.

In May third grade students will continue to learn characters with stroke order and Pinyin. They will learn to create their play of speaking, reading and singing. They will share their play of speaking, reading and singing in the class. I hope your daughter/son can share and practice with you at home with that play at home, too.

Our third graders will continue to practice new conversations and poems. They will continue being exposed to many Chinese children songs and folk songs. They will continue to learn children games and activities. At the end of the school year each third grader is going to publish a Chinese books titled “Chinese Language and Culture”.

Thank you so much for listening to our third graders reading, sharing their learning of Chinese culture, appreciating their beautiful writing and art drawing! Your children are doing a great job involving learning activities. I am so proud of them. They are preparing so well for the transition of the fourth grade.

Sincerely,

Amy Wang

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Beautiful Minnesota Has Four Seasons and Translation

“Grandparent’s Day was awesome” exclaimed our third grade Chinese students. Our third grade Chinese students appreciate our “Grandparent’s Day” which creates the emotional landscape through our passionate Chinese language students, share their joy of singing, reading and telling their “Bunny Family” story to grandparents and friends. I was so proud of every one of your darlings who so eagerly shared their writing and translation to their grandparents and friends.

December is a wonderful month for our third graders to continue to enjoy singing, speaking, reading and writing. It is amazing to hear our third graders discovered songs from Chinese children’s choir; ferret them out and sing with them. They even gulped at a Chinese comedian’s speaking down with discriminate pronunciation and tones. They enjoyed the story of “皮皮”. Soon you may will hear their talking about “皮皮”。 And they may use some words at home to commend you such as “起床！ 你的头发臭呀！ 刷牙！…” “Get off the bed ! Your hair needs to be washed because it smells! Brush your teeth!......” Enjoy your children’s imaginary play at home. Listen to their humming tunes and songs in Chinese! In a very short time our third graders have also learned a new song called “Beautiful Minnesota Has Four seasons” We will learn a series of greeting and wishing “Happy Holidays” conversations during the holiday season. We will continue to learn how to create a conversation; how to write sentences; and how to recognize words. We will continue to review what we have learned and play and have fun in our “Bunny Family”.

Every day your child brings his/her best smile and happy moment to my Chinese classroom. They seem to be relishing every opportunity to speak and find brand new information to research and learn. I am so privileged to guide your children on the road towards every challenging of learning Chinese culture and language. I hope you and your family have a cheerful holiday season!

Sincerely,

Amy Wang

Julia Kurth and Ayo Olagbaju's group: Bunny School.




Julia Javinsky and Violet Garvis's duet: 洗我的脸！




Alex Mckenna, Roberaa Ayana and Julian Bergerson's trio ：拍拍手！


Cole DeChellis, Lilly Visaya, Taylor Nelson and Mary O'Grady's team

October to November 2010

Dear Families,

I had two enjoyable conference days sharing your children’s learning in our Chinese classroom. You amazed me by the questions you asked about what your children learned in Chinese. Your interest in your children’s learning allows me to reflect on those questions, which profoundly influenced my teaching of Chinese to your children in September and October such as: "Why can't the Chinese language be more like our American English?" And why "Teacher " in Chinese characters has to have a meaning like "Experienced Master" and "American" in Chinese character means "People from the beautiful country"? Simply, those interesting questions stir our students’ interest of learning China. With that question we explore the map, the location and the history of the language with culture and children's activities. Learning to speak, read, write combined with thinking and asking questions about Chinese culture, history and people's life in China made our Chinese class more interesting and fun. Nothing brightens up the Chinese learning environment like our third graders who are loved, respected and responsible. It is a safe harbor for our students to practice and learn how to speak, read, write and recognize five tones &Chinese characters plus translation of Bunny story. In September and October we had learned the Moon-festival is the 15th day of the 8th Month lunar calendar. Our third graders shared their observation of the moon on that night and told me that the shape of the moon was unusually round and the color was mesmerized bright. That is why people in China want to eat round shape Moon cakes. We observed how people in China celebrate their Moon-festival. Singing, dancing, Chinese instruments and costume introduction of the Chinese cultural activities made our Chinese culture learning a rich experience. We soaked up Chinese conversations, characters, tones and stories. Reviewing and practicing conversations increased our understanding of the meaning of the text. Your children enjoyed playing an imaginary bunny, mom, dad, grandma, grandpa and wolf. I am so content to be their teacher every day. Back and force they have learned how to ask questions and reply the answer. Here are some short conversations I hope your children will teach you how to speak and answer:

A.同学们，上午好！ B.王老师，上午好！ A.请坐！B.谢谢王老师！

A.不客气！

A.起立！ 同学们，再见！B.王老师，再见！

In October and November our third graders are learning songs and poem about bunny’s family and school.

小兔 B：

洗 我 的 脸，拍 拍 我 的 手，眼 睛 看 看，

耳 朵 听 听。

鼻 子 闻闻，嘴 巴 说说，

捶 捶 爷爷 奶 奶 的 背。

Using my hands washing my face and clap my hands.

Using my eyes see the world. Using my ears listening to the surrounding. Using my nose smelling the food. Using my mouth speaking nicely. Using my hands tapping my grandpa and my grandma’s back.

小兔的学校

Bunny School

一．你好！

Hello!

二．你叫什么名字？我叫小兔…。

What is your name? My name is rabbit ….

三．你几岁 ？我八岁。我九岁。

How old are you? I am eight years old. I am nine years old

四．你上几年级？我上三年级。

What grade are you in? I am in third grade.

五．你上什么学校？我上博瑞学校。

What school are you in? I am in Breck school

六．你是哪国人？我是美国人。

What nationality are you? Or where are you from? I am an American.

中文，中文，好容易！

Chinese, Chinese is very easy to learn!

你好！我是小白兔。

Hello, I am bunny.

我叫（ your Chinese)

My name is…

我九岁。

I am nine years old.

我是美国人。

I am American.

我上三年级。

I am in third grade

这是我的学校。

This is my school.

我喜欢学中文.

I like to learn Chinese. Chinese.

中文，中文，好容易！

Chinese, Chinese is very easy to learn!

We are also learning hygiene to express how to take care of our hands, eyes, nose, mouth, teeth, hair and how to take care of our body by washing our hands before eating. They will also learn how to take care of their body by eating nutritional food such as eating vegetable, drinking milk and exercising. They will watch and listen to the story of 皮皮。We will prepare a skit for our “Grandparents Day” to bring our joy of learning Chinese to your friends and grandparents. We are going to learn about friends and grandparents express our love and thinking of the people who care of us.

美丽的明州有四季

Beautiful Minnesota has four seasons.

美丽的明州一年有四季：

Beautiful Minnesota has four seasons in a year.

春季，夏季，秋季，冬季。

Spring, Summer, Fall and Winter.

春季我去跑步，打网球。

Spring I go to run and play tennis.

夏季去湖边游泳，钓鱼。

Summer I go swimming and fishing in the lake.

秋季我去放风筝.

Fall I will go to fly a kite.

冬季我去滑冰，滑雪。

Winter I go to skate and ski.

明州明州，魅力的明州！

Minnesota, spectacular Minnesota.

美丽的明州一年有四季：

Beautiful Minnesota has four seasons in a year.

春季，夏季，秋季，冬季。

Spring, Summer, Fall and Winter.

美丽的明州一年有四季：

Beautiful Minnesota has four seasons in a year.

明州明州我爱你！

I love you， Minnesota!

魅力的明州，我爱你！

Spectacular Minnesota, I love your beauty!

is the song we are going to sing on that day and I hope your child will sing it to you in case you are not able to come. Enjoy your child’s beautiful voice in Chinese song!

Thank you to you for your tremendous support for our children’s learning in Chinese and culture

Sincerely,

Amy Wang

Dear Families:












Tommy Ryks and Chip Specker's group



Grace Kelms' group

William Ott and Derek Turner's group

Olivia Pluhar's group
Julian Moyer and Michael Johnson's group
Lindsay Shermeta and Makayla Stevenson's duet
Ethan and Phillip duet


Philip Soderberg, Gunnar Evenstad and Dominic Frerichs's group

Welcome to what I am sure is going to be a great year in third grade Chinese class. It is my privilege to teach your children Chinese in speaking, reading, writing, singing and cultural activities. My name is Amy Wang. Your children call me Wang Lao shi. This is my 18th Year teaching at Breck. I teach 2nd, 3rd and 4th grade Chinese.

This summer I was writing new Chinese plays with songs, poems, dialogues, short narratives, and conversations for my third graders, -according to the Lower School 6 day new schedule. Right now I am presenting those new plays titled "The Bunny's Family" to my third grader. Our third graders will continue inventing, changing and improving new plays.

What a fun month we had in our third grade Chinese classroom! We learned how to say our Chinese names. We learned Chinese class greetings. We also learned three new songs:


中文天地



我往中文天地走，练习嘴眼耳和双手。

I am on the road towards learning Chinese. I train my mouth to speak, train my eyes to see, train my ears to listen, and my hands to write.


小兔 A：
拍 拍 我 的 头，梳 梳 我 的 发，眼 睛 看 看，
耳 朵 听 听。
鼻 子 闻 闻，嘴 巴 吃 吃，洗 我 的 脸，
拍 拍 手。
Bunny A:
Using my hand tap my head. Using my hand brush my hair.
Using my eyes see the world. Using my ears listening to the surroundings.
Using my nose smelling the things. Using my mouth to eat. Using my hands washing my face and clap my hands.



（狼） 小兔儿乖乖，把门开开，快快开门，我要进来。（小兔）不开不开我不开，妈妈没回来，谁来也不开。

Wolf: Dear little rabbit, open the door, hurry up, let me inside.
Little Rabbit:I will not open the door. Mama is not back. I won't let you in.


Our third graders learned not only how to sing, say them but also how to write them in Chinese. Through many practicing singing, reading writing and reviewing I hope your children enjoy sharing their Chinese stories with you at home, too.

We celebrated Chinese Moon-festival with stories, presentation of Moon-festival activities, and drawing art.
I truly enjoyed every moment teaching your wonderful children. I hope your children have a smooth transition from second to third grade Chinese class.


Sincerely,


Amy Wang