Welcome back to the last term of the school year for 2021. We trust you have enjoyed the break with your family and have had opportunities to build incredible memories together.

We would like firstly to take this opportunity to thank you for your ongoing support and understanding during the LFH. We are looking forward to getting back to face-to-face teaching this term! Can't wait to see everyone back and how our students have grown! We bet there will be a lot of long hair and very tall students.

It has been wonderful to see the enthusiasm and joyfulness from the students in our first few weeks back. In Term 3, there was a sharp focus on the Olympics and students were looking at the different sports participating in the 2021 Olympic game. They also learned about the Mid-Autumn Moon Festival and its traditions to gain more insight into Chinese culture. During Term 4, students will continue building their language skills in a multicultural environment and learn Mandarin at different levels. There is much exciting learning planned and coming up. Please check the following and stay tuned.

Prep

In Term 3, we explored the Chinese pinyin of farm animals and applied the skills to introduce these animals to others. In this new term, we will deepen this topic and learn how to enhance communication by describing detailed features of animals and people. In everyday life, we need to communicate through facial expressions and body language, such as making gestures, swinging our bodies, or nodding and shaking our heads. How much fun it would be if we could accurately describe expressions and movements! We will display our language ability through designing information boards for people and animals using words such as head, body, hand and foot.

Year 1

In Term 3 Year 1 students gained and applied the ability to communicate with others about their most and least like vegetables in Term 3. To encourage the expression of personal feelings, in Term 4 we will explore the ways to describe the tastes of vegetables, such as delicious, a little sweet, or too sour. In order to be able to talk about our food preferences with our family, we will explore ways to express the tastes of our food and how much we like them. By asking family members and peers how they feel about the taste of food, students will create a booklet documenting each person's food preferences.

Year 2

Through the revision of Term 3, Year 2 students have developed a comprehensive grasp of the knowledge they have learned. The fourth term focuses on the expression and sequencing of time. We often talk about dates, such as holidays, family birthdays, or plans for the weekend. Recognising a calendar in the Chinese language will help us to manage our time better. Students will be expected to create a birthday calendar for their family to display their ability to express year, month, day, yesterday, today and tomorrow in Chinese pinyin and characters.

Year 3

Students in Year 3 will be focusing on the language around introducing the countries they come from and their nationalities and the languages they can speak in Chinese. They will learn to identify the essential vocabulary for the target topic and develop metalanguage to talk about language structures. In addition, students will be practising the learned skills by interacting with others orally to exchange information about nationalities and languages. By the end of this unit, they will be creating a poster of a celebrity/fictional character by giving information including name, age, their nationality, where they live, the languages they speak, likes and dislikes, etc. as this would allow the students to recall learning from previous units.

Year 4

This term, the Year 4 students will learn to describe their interests, passions, and to ask useful questions about someone else's likes and dislikes in Chinese. They will learn the names of various hobbies and then develop these more deeply into sentence structures. During the learning, they will also be exposed to the correct pronunciation of the questions and answers in Chinese. By the end of the term, students will interview peers/family members and conduct a piece of report writing to record the responses. To deepen their cultural knowledge and understanding, they will be given a learning opportunity to inquire about a wide range of Chinese leisure activities and create a virtual presentation to showcase their learning.

Year 5

Students in Year 5 will develop the ability to use complex sentence structures in Chinese to introduce their school setting and learning environment. As part of an inquiry study, students will research the similarities and differences in schools around the world, highlighting their preferences and opinions about what is quality education. This study will cover the vocabulary and sentences needed for students to provide information about their school. Students will design their own school and make a poster or brochure in Chinese, English and their mother tongue. Provision for a presentation to promote their school in front of the whole class will be provided.

Year 6

After the pandemic we will be able to travel around and visit our families in different parts of the world again, experiencing different cultures and views. This year students have learnt about many topics in Chinese: shopping, clothes and footwear, exploring cities and lots of everyday language. During term 4, previous learning will be used by students to develop a comprehensive travel plan for a trip. Students will need to develop a comprehensive plan in Mandarin, including: how to apply for a visa; booking of airline tickets and hotels, itinerary of cities and famous sights to visit; what the weather will be like and what kind of clothes and luggage will be taken. Students will also be asked to create a personal dictionary to help with their travel. At the end of term, students will present a PowerPoint and talk about the plan for the trip. Learning evidence in Mandarin presented will include a passport, airline ticket, a ticket for a famous tourist attraction and a local food menu.

Glen Waverley Primary School Specialist Newsletter

DREAM. BELIEVE. ACHIEVE. SUCCEED.

Issue 4 · 22 Oct 2021

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