What’s new in CLCC this fall term?
Our new term-long project “my Chinese diary book” was a success!
This term, students kept track of the works they’ve done. Each student left CLCC this term with a diary book as a final product that demonstrates their accomplishments. In each diary book you will find character writings, paper cuts and drawings.
It’s a joy to see students feel excited and motivated to write in their diary book every time in class.
Name tag:
At CLCC, each student has a Chinese name. Making Chinese name tag is a tradition we do each term in the first class. It is proven to be one of students’ favorite activities. Many students decorated their name tags with art works they did throughout the term.
Character writing:
Many students expressed interest in writing Chinese characters. We integrate character writing in every lesson in our curriculum. It is always exciting to see students being able to write quite a bit of Chinese by the end of each term.
Sharing community:
We keep the classroom a safe and friendly learning environment. Students are encouraged to share their stories and thoughts. They are also expected to be respectful and helpful to others. In the past, students have brought in things from home that are related to China and shared their stories in class.
CLCC does not follow any existing Chinese textbook. With the funding support from CAPS and guidance from Dr. Keli Yerian, CLCC teachers put together a curriculum over the last two terms that contains balanced amount of language and culture content. The teaching content is delivered in interactive and interesting multimedia forms with games and craft activities that are appropriate for elementary school students.
Each term, we try to design the curriculum around topics that could be connected into larger themes. In the first term, CLCC took a trip around China. We visited major Chinese cities and areas such as, Beijing, Xi’an, Tibet and many more. Each place we visited has its unique culture and historical sites.
One of the spotlights is the Snow and Ice Festival in Harbin. Harbin is one of the largest and most popular cities in the northeast China. Known as the Ice City, Harbin is popular for its well-known winter tourism and recreations. Corresponding to this culture content, CLCC students learned how to say and write the four seasons in Chinese “春,夏,秋,冬”.
CLCC began in 2014 winter and 2015 spring terms. During those five months, we celebrated the two traditional Chinese festivals at Edison with the students.
Spring Festival (Feb. 19, 2015)
In celebrating the Spring Festival, we brought dumplings into the classroom. Chinese people usually make dumplings the night before and eat them with family on the first day of the Spring Festival. Eating dumplings at the beginning of the year brings good luck.
Lantern Festival (Mar. 5, 2015)
During Lantern Festival, Chinese people watch dragon dance and eat sweet dumplings. Children go out at night carrying lanterns to temples and solve riddles. At Edison, we made paper dragon lanterns to celebrate this holiday. The students showed great interest in this activity and displayed great artistic talent and creativity.
Chinese “fashion show”
When introducing the topic of clothing, CLCC teachers dressed up in Qipao and Hanfu to demonstrate traditional Chinese fashion. Students were given the chance to “walk down the runway” and introduce the clothes they were wearing in Chinese.
Paper cut workshop
A guest teacher was invited to Edison on the last day of winter term. Students and teachers all made paper cuts of the Chinese word “福”, which means ‘happiness and blessing’.