九月 in Chinese class
We began the school year by reading a book about Zheng He, a Chinese mariner, explorer, diplomat, fleet admiral, and court eunuch during China's early Ming dynasty.
We began the school year by reading a book about Zheng He, a Chinese mariner, explorer, diplomat, fleet admiral, and court eunuch during China's early Ming dynasty.
Expanding upon Zheng He’s story, we talked about his family and what life was like in ancient China from one dynasty to another. And best of all, we discussed what it was like to explore the Indian ocean in 15th century with a fleet of hundreds of ships.
In preparation for elementary Chinese class, the first-year students worked very hard to learn to write their Chinese name and Chinese numerals. Chinese numerals are very important in Chinese language. We use numerals to write years, dates and weekdays, in addition to basic counting and math.
Here is an interesting article from The Wall Street Journal that explains basic ideas of addition and multiplication in Chinese number names:
From second-year through Upper elementary class, our main goal is learning to write and read more Chinese, introducing new characters every week along with new sentences has been an important goal.
To keep our students interested in practicing writing characters, we have a great tool: shui mao bi (water calligraphy brush) on a reusable magic calligraphy paper.
This month, my students gathered on the International Day of Peace to recognize the beauty of peace. I translated the song “Sing peace around the world” into Chinese and the students learned it in less than two weeks! Singing familiar songs is a great way to learn a foreign language like Chinese. I have shared the lyrics with you below, if you’d like to sing it with your children at home.
Light a candle for peace
点燃和平的烛火
dian ran he ping de zhu huo
Light a candle for love
点燃爱的烛火
dian ran ai de zhu huo
Light a candle that shines all the way around the world
点燃一盏烛火 照亮世上的角落
dian ran yi zhan zhu huo zhao liang shi shang de jiao luo
Light a candle for me
点燃我的烛火
dian ran wo de zhu huo
Light a candle for you
点燃你的烛火
dian ran ni de zhu huo
That our wish for world peace will one day come true
祈求世界和平 为你和为我
qi(chi) qiu(chio) shi jie he ping wei ni he wei wo
Sing peace around the world
和平给你和我
he ping gei ni he wo
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