Our topics in March are all about animals. Each grade has different activities to encourage learning about animals. First grade students learn vocabulary words about farm animals. Second to fourth grade students learn about pets, insects and zoo animals respectively. Students use sentence patterns to express their likes and dislikes for these animals.

Second graders ask and answer questions in a class survey to express whether they have pets. Third grade students compare sizes of different insects (big/ small) and share whether they are afraid of each insect. Fourth grade students use adjectives to describe zoo animals and explain the reason for picking  their favorite zoo animal.

March is Women’s History Month. Learning about famous Chinese women and their achievements gives students a better understanding of the obstacles women have had to overcome and the tremendous advances they have made in the fields of history, the arts, and sciences. 

First grade students learn about the story of Mulan, the bravest Chinese girl. Second graders learn the facts of 5 famous Chinese women and their achievements. Third and fourth graders talk about the story of two ancient Chinese Emperors -  Empress Cixi and Empress Wu Zetian.

This month students in first grade learn how to say the days of the week and 9 fruit vocabulary. Students express their likes and dislikes of fruits. They also make a caterpillar project and enjoy talking about what their caterpillar loves to eat on each day of the week.

Second graders are introduced to additional fruit vocabulary and learn about the names of twelve vegetables. Students conduct class surveys to find out their classmates' likes and dislikes for different fruits and vegetables.

After the long winter, third graders are so excited to learn about new signs of spring vocabulary. They create a spring landscape that includes pictures and words of spring either online or on a drawing paper. Third graders also review about fruits and vegetables vocabulary that they learned previously in first and second grade. Then they participate in a farmstand role play in buying and selling fruits and vegetables, which brings learning to a more fun and advanced level.

Fourth grade topics are sports and healthy eating. Students love to talk about sports. They ask and answer questions on the sports that they like to play and are good at. Guessing games, pairing up with partners and class surveys are activities that involve students speaking Chinese frequently during class. Healthy eating is another topic for this month. Using fake food items and designing a day’s meal with healthy food items makes this topic more practical. Students learn something about health and wellness that can benefit them in a lifetime.

The theme of May highlights popular Chinese food items and eating utensils. Students of all grades engage in dialogue with each other using some of the basic sentence patterns needed to order Chinese food items and eating utensils in a Chinese restaurant. Students also practice how to hold chopsticks. They survey their favorite food items and role play to take and place orders. This learning experience can encourage students to apply what they learn in class to a real life situation when the opportunity arises. Third grade students also learn to identify the names of nine popular American food items. They compare and contrast the eating cultures among American, Chinese, Korean and Japanese styles.

June marks the end of this school year, topics for this month is to prepare for the summer fun to begin. First grade students engage in learning about items to bring and what they see at the beach. Students have fun interacting with each other the items in a paper beach bag with beach vocabulary cards inside. 

Second grade and third grade students learn about leisure activities and summer vacation vocabulary respectively. Students practice saying the activities they like to do in their leisure time and in the summer. Guessing on classmates' favorite activities, acting out different activities and doing class surveys are some of the ways to engage students in memorizing the vocabulary and interacting with each other. 

Fourth graders learn about sea animals in the aquarium. They can tell their favorite sea animals and learn some fun facts about them.

Students of all grades learn about an important festival in Chinese culture , the Dragon Boat Festival. It is held on the 5th day of the 5th month on the lunar calendar. It falls on June 22nd this year. Students learn the story of the Dragon Boat Festival. They watch a youtube video and sing songs about the story. They compare the Moon Festival to the Dragon Boat Festival.  Students also make a hands-on art project of a paper dragon boat. 

As teachers of Chinese, it is our hope that students have fun in class learning about the language and culture. 

Have a wonderful and fabulous summer ever!