Mandarin News

During Term Two Year 5/6 students learnt about Chinese calligraphy. They also learnt how to use a Chinese calligraphy brush to write the word for dragon(龙 lóng) in Mandarin. 

Here are some reflections on what they learnt in class.

Chinese calligraphy is a form of Chinese art. There are three tools used in calligraphy: the ink brush, ink stick and the ink stone. From my experience I learned that calligraphy takes a lot of skill and precision to write Chinese characters. Calligraphy was used in ancient China and is still used today. The way you hold the brush is to hold it vertically and hold it like you hold chopsticks. I wrote the character 龙 lóng(dragon). It is a challenge holding the brush and putting the right amount of pressure on the piece of paper you write on it. If you don’t put the right amount of pressure the character you're doing will turn out not as you wanted it to be. During this experience I felt nervous that I would mess up. 

By Zachary T 5/6MB

For two weeks we learned how to write the character 龙. My thought of writing the character was very calming and relaxing. I learned that you use the brush straight 

down, gracefully and lightly. The difficult bit was not pushing it down too hard. If you do it won’t be a writing brush, instead it will become one for drawing. 

By Ariel M 5/6MB