Week 8 (Wednesday) 学校活动 School Activities

We all lead a very busy life, in particular our children, who have a series of after school activities everyday. This week we looked at some of the popular activities such as Piano lesson, football, ballet, taekwondo, Mandarin lesson, swimming etc. Here are the list of activities we practiced today:

学中文 (Xué Zhōngwén) -   Mandarin lesson

学吉他 (Xué jítā) - learn guitar

游泳 (Yóuyǒng) - Swimming

跆拳道 (Táiquándào) - Taekwondo

篮球 (Lánqiú) - basketball

体操 (Tǐcāo) - gymnastics

学钢琴 (Xué gāngqín) - Piano lesson

足球 (Zúqiú_ - football

学芭蕾舞 (bālěi wǔ) - ballet 

Please complete the worksheet here. Some of you might have completed during class so please remember to bring it back this week.

The sentence structure of the week is 下课后，我得... (xià kè hòu , wǒ Déi...)

下课后，我得学中文 (xià kè hòu , wǒ déi Xué Zhōngwén) - After school, I have Mandarin lesson.

Homework for the week is the passage on page 17 of text book. You can practice all the new words in the reading set here.

Have a lovely week!

Week 7 (Saturday) 我有什么? (Wǒ yǒu shé me?) What Do I have?

The term has certainly whizzed by quickly. After learning about getting ready to school we have now moved on to looking at measure words (量词) on Lesson 2. The key words for this lesson are 

"个”、“张”、“本”、“支” 和 “台” (all measure words) as well as 张、本、支、台、笔、白、纸、问、题、回、答、里、杯、 电、脑. You can find out how to read them HERE.

We also get to know the items in our school bags, such as 本子, 书，尺子，橡皮，铅笔 (exercise book, book, ruler, rubber, pencil etc). The sentence structure is 我有...(I have...)，我没有...(I do not have...). Examples are 我有书 I have book, 我没有尺 I do not have ruler. 

The task of the week is to practice the passage on page 15. Here is the audio file for reading.

Have a lovely weekend!

Week 7 (Wednesday) My Family - Learning Radicals

We had a quick test on recognising the family members today, and I'm proud to say that quite a number of you have achieved 10/10, what a great effort!

We looked at some new radicals today and how they appear in characters, they include 言 radical and the associated words 说, 请, 谢, 课 (say, please, thank you, lesson), as well as 女 radical with 婆, 妈, 姨 (grandma, mother and aunt).

Drawing Competition

The children have been issued with an A3 paper for their drawing competition. They can work on it during the school holiday and hand in their entry at the start of Term 2. Students are free to choose the theme of their work and may use any medusa they wish.

I look forward to seeing all the wonderful works after the school holiday.

Week 6 (Saturday Class) Learning Grammar

Now that we now all the key words that are associated with going to school, we started to look at the grammar in our lesson. We learnt how to expand our sentence in the following example:

帽子 (màozi) - a hat (a noun)

我戴帽子 (Wǒ dài màozi) - I wear a hat (stating a fact)

我要戴帽子 (Wǒ yào dài màozi) - I want to wear a hat (express desire to wear a hat)

我在戴帽子 (Wǒ zài dài màozi) - I am wearing a hat (in progress)

我戴上帽子去上学 (Wǒ dài shàng màozi qù shàngxué) - I put on my hat and go to school (action completed and is usually follow by another action to complete the sentence.

Notice each of the sentence look similar but they have completely different meaning. More information on page 4 in text book.

We also learn to use question, here is an example:

你看見我的書包了嗎?
 Nǐ kànjiàn wǒde  shūbāo le ma? (Have you seen my school bag?)

The answer is usually 我看見你的書包了 or 我没有看見你的書包. 了(le) is usually added to the end of sentence meaning the action is over.

There are a couple of tasks for the children this week, a word search as well as writing task on page 5 of the work book.

Chinese idiom of the week is 守株待兔 (Shŏu zhū dài tù) Trust to chance and luck in one's actions; hope for gains without pains. Here is how the story goes:

There was a farmer in the Song Kingdom in ancient China. He worked in his field day after day. In good harvest years, he could only have enough food to eat and enough clothing to wear. If the field failed to produce enough crops, he had to go hungry. This farmer wanted to improve his life. But he was too lazy and too cowardly. He always dreamed of having unexpected fortune.

A miracle took place at last. One day, when he worked in the field, some people were hunting nearby. They shouted loudly one after another. Some little animals were running desperately. Suddenly, a hare dashed itself headlong against the stump of a dead tree in his field and died. That day, he had a good meal.

From that day on, he no longer worked in his field. From morning till night, he stayed by that miraculous stump, waiting for another hare. Will the miracle happen again?
People often use the set phrase “staying by a stump waiting for more hares to come and dash themselves against it" to refer to persons dreaming to reap without sowing.

Week 6 (Wednesday Class) My Family Members 我的家人 Cont.

This week we review the terms on our word cards. The children can now recognised most of the characters in the card. You can give them a little test by using the word cards here. We also played a word messenger games where the students relaying the words and recite them afterwards. It was a lot of fun and our two groups are always trying to outdo each other!

We also practice sentence making this week using "是...也是" (Shì...yě shì) meaning "is...is also". The children are asked to find a sentence example this week that uses the same term. Have a go and see what they come out with.

The children have also been issued with a G300 CD this week. This is a study aid for the series and it contains reading practice, quizzes, and games. Please take some time to go through it with them and let me know if you have any questions.

The homework for the week is on page 3 Q4 and Q5 and page 5 Q8 where they can practice writing some of the new words learnt.

Have a good week!

Week 5 (Saturday Class) Going to School 我去上学 (Wǒ qù shàngxué) Cont.

Hello! Another busy week for our students in Saturday class. We practiced the passage on page 3 this week. You can read along here.

They are now able to read it out even without the pinyin, I'm so proud of them! This week we learnt the different between 穿 (wear, dressed in), 戴 (to put on), and 拿 (to take). Feel free to quiz them and see if they could all appropriately use the term! We had a lot of fun practicing in class. You can also practice the characters with them with the study set.

This week's homework - Please have a go on the writing on page 5 of work book and matching the picture with appropriate words on page 6. I know we are still a few books short and they will arrive next week so please bear with us. 

Our Chinese idiom of the week is Blind man and the Elephant 盲人摸象 (máng rén mō xiàng). Here is the story:

Once upon a time, there lived six blind men in a village. One day the villagers told them, "Hey, there is an elephant in the village today." They had no idea what an elephant is. They decided, "Even though we would not be able to see it, let us go and feel it anyway." All of them went where the elephant was. Everyone of them touched the elephant.

  

"Hey, the elephant is a pillar," said the first man who touched his leg. 

"Oh, no! it is like a rope," said the second man who touched the tail. 

"Oh, no! it is like a thick branch of a tree," said the third man who touched the trunk of the elephant. 

"It is like a big hand fan" said the fourth man who touched the ear of the elephant. 

"It is like a big bed," said the fifth man who touched the belly of the elephant. 

"It is like a carrot," Said the sixth man who touched the tusk of the elephant. 

They began to argue about the elephant and everyone of them insisted that he was right. It looked like they were getting agitated. A wise man was passing by and he saw this. He stopped and asked them, "What is the matter?" They said, "We cannot agree to what the elephant is like." Each one of them told what he thought the elephant was like. The wise man calmly explained to them, "All of you are right. The reason every one of you is telling it differently because each one of you touched the different part of the elephant. So, actually the elephant has all those features what you all said."

Have a good week ahead!

Week 5 (Wednesday Class)  My Family Members 我的家人

Week five already! This week we learnt everything about family tree and the various salutation of the relatives. I particularly enjoyed the family tree presentation by our students, good work! 

We talked about the different between the grandparents from both mom's side and dad's side and why mom's mom is called 外婆 (Wàipó) and mom's dad is called 外公 (Wàigōng) whiles days mom is call 奶奶 (Nǎinai) and dad's dad is called 爺爺 (Yéyé). You can practice reading each of the character and the lesson flash cards here. To practice reading, click here for the passage.

Our language focus this week is 是....也是 (Shì,,, yěshì). For example 她是我的中文老师, 也是我哥哥的中文老师 (She is my Chinese teacher, she is also my brother's Chinese teacher). We are also able to separate the relatives into male 男 (Nán) or female 女 (Nǚ). Quick tips - in some Chinese characters you can tell by the radical (部首). For example if the character shows the radical 女, such as 姐, 媽, 姨, 奶奶, 妹妹 (older sister, mother, aunty, grandma, younger sister), it is certain that the gender is female. 

This week's homework is on page 2 of their workbook, question 2. Students are require to separate all the maternal relatives and paternal relatives into the 2 spaces provided. Have fun!