LOTE

Welcome to Term Three! We hope everyone enjoyed a restful and pleasant holiday break. Last term, students immersed themselves in language learning connected to their Inquiry topics and deepened their understanding of the cultural significance of the Dragon Boat Festival. This term, we will focus on strengthening their language skills and embarking on new inquiry-driven learning. In addition, students will explore the origins and global celebrations of the Mid‑Autumn Festival, also known as the Moon Festival.

Prep

In Term Three, Prep students will focus on ‘Colours’. They will learn to recognise and pronounce familiar colours such as red, yellow, green, blue and black, and apply their knowledge to talk about the colours of surrounding objects. To transfer their learning, students will create a rainbow poster that contains learned vocabulary and sentences.

Curriculum Links:

Develop oral language skills through exploring and listening to the sounds, tones and intonation patterns of the language (VC2LC2E02)
Participate in a range of guided language activities using formulaic expressions, and visual and spoken cues (VC2LC2C02)

Key Vocabulary:

Colour

Dislike

Year 1

Year One students will focus on ‘Vegetables’ this term. They will learn to pronounce and recognise vocabulary such as chilli, potato, carrot, and tomato, as well as discuss what makes a food healthy. They will transfer their learning by talking about their most and least liked vegetables. To celebrate their learning journey, students will create a foldable vegetable book to deepen their understanding of the topic.

Curriculum Links:

Recognise and respond to greetings, instructions and language relating to their personal world using one- or 2-word responses and/or single-idea phrases (VC2LC2E03)
Create spoken and written texts using words, familiar phrases and modelled language using some Hanzi with Pinyin as support (VC2LC2C05)

Key Vocabulary:

Vegetable

Like (to eat)

Do not like (to eat)

Year 2

This term, Year Two students will focus on different places in our community. They will learn vocabulary such as home, school, park, and supermarket, and practise using sentences to ask, “Where are you?” and respond appropriately. Through application and transfer, they will demonstrate their learning by designing an ideal community. Learners will explore and reflect on what an ideal community means to them, and the purpose and function of different places in our lives.

Curriculum Links:

Explore and make meaning from sounds, words and phrases for familiar objects or terms in Chinese through play, and discover how languages influence each other (VC2LC2C04)
Identify that written and spoken Chinese has grammatical structures and other language features that may be similar to or different from English and/or other languages (VC2LC2U04)

Key Vocabulary:

Community

Where are you

I am at

Year 3

This term, Year Three students will focus on language related to describing various rooms within a house. They will practise identifying vocabulary associated with different types of rooms and develop the ability to discuss relevant language structures. Students will then apply their understanding by creating a presentation in Mandarin about their dream house. Additionally, they will explore how cultural differences influence architectural design in a globalised world, culminating in a poster presentation to communicate their findings.

Curriculum Links:

Recognise sound combinations, using Hanzi and/or Pinyin as support. (VC2LC4U01)
Exchange information, using a range of familiar phrases and modelled structures. (VC2LC4C02)

Key Vocabulary:

Home

Room

Siheyuan

Year 4

This term, Year Four students will explore hobbies and leisure activities. They will practise expressing their interests and asking about others’ preferences in Chinese. Students will learn vocabulary and phrases related to a range of hobbies, and gradually progress to forming complete sentences. They will apply their learning in real-life contexts by engaging in conversations about hobbies in Chinese. In addition, students will investigate leisure activities from diverse cultures to deepen their cultural awareness, culminating in a virtual presentation to showcase their understanding.

Curriculum Links:

Use patterns of pronunciation and intonation to form words, phrases, and simple sentences, using Hanzi and/or Pinyin as support. (VC2LC4U01)
Identify connections between personal identity, language, and aspects of culture. (VC2LC4U04)

Key Vocabulary:

Interest

Hobby

Traditional Games

Year 5

This term, Year Five students will develop an understanding of the origins of Chinese characters and explore how they have evolved over time. They will learn about the radicals within Chinese characters and gain insight into their structure and composition. Learners will transfer their understanding by practising Chinese handwriting using the correct stroke order. By the end of the unit, students will complete a Chinese Spelling Inquiry poster to deepen their knowledge of Chinese characters and the history and meaning behind them.

Curriculum Links:

Create and present spoken and written texts, using a variety of vocabulary, modelled sentence structures and conventions appropriate to text type, using familiar Hanzi with Pinyin as support VC2LC6C05
Apply combinations of sounds, tone syllables, pronunciation and intonation patterns, stress and phrasing to develop fluency in words, phrases and sentences, using some Pinyin for support VC2LC6U01

Key Vocabulary:

History of character evolution

Character structure

Writing order

Year 6

This term, Year Six students will extend their Term Two learning about Chinese food. They will explore Chinese dining etiquette and learn how to order food in a restaurant. Contemporary Chinese food delivery apps and their key functions will be introduced. Students will also learn how to use adjectives and verbs to speak and write more complex sentences, and how to order food in everyday situations. They will inquire into the key aspects of Chinese dining etiquette and compare different dining customs across cultures. At the end of the term, students will create a virtual presentation to showcase their learning

Curriculum Links:

Locate information and ideas in a range of spoken, written, viewed and multimodal texts, and respond in different ways to suit purpose VC2LC6C03
Apply strategies to interpret and convey meaning and/or intercultural understanding in Chinese in familiar non-verbal, spoken and written contexts VC2LC6C04

Key Vocabulary:

How can you support your child’s Language Education learning at home?  

Sing or exposure to Chinese Songs to gain interest in the language 
Practice writing Chinese characters via App “Writer” 
Borrow bilingual Chinese storybooks from the school library or local library