Welcome to Yinghua Academy Kindergarten

1. Welcome to Yinghua Academy Kindergarten

2. Main Topics for Tonight • Chinese Language Arts curriculum • Singapore Math • Science • Whole School and Classroom Expectations • How to get involved at school • Important Events

3. Kindergarten Chinese Language Arts Curriculum My First Chinese Words 36 Book set from Better Chinese I Love Chinese: The 14 book set from Better Chinese 青(qīng) 田(tián)story books Singapore reading materials Reading materials from China

4. Basic Concepts of Immersion Education Language acquisition vs. Language Learning Chinese immersion environment Connect sound to print and connect print to meaning (Same as MN English Language Arts standards)

5. Immersion Teaching Strategies • Use daily routine phrases • Visual aids • Body language • Facial expressions • Sing Chinese songs • Recite Chinese poems • Nursery rhymes • Read stories

6. How to Get off to A Good Start Writing Chinese Characters Be familiar with the 18 basic strokes Follow the writing rules Use the proper stroke order when writing characters Practice is the key

7. What are Chinese Characters? Multiple types of characters (e.g. pictographs, ideographs, compound pictographs, compound ideographs, semi-phonetic compounds, etc..) Starting with simple characters, such as pictographic characters

8. Examples of Pictographic Characters

9. Example of a Chinese Character

10. When Your Child Graduates from YA Kindergarten Your child-- Will be able to understand the classroom directions from teachers in Chinese Will be able to express their needs and wants with Chinese speakers Will understand the basic strokes and formation of characters Will be able to write at least 80 Chinese characters Will recognize at least 150 Chinese characters

12. Singapore Math • Singapore Math Method - follows a spiral progression - Principles: Three step learning model, moving from the concrete, to the pictorial, to the abstract -consistent and strong emphasis on problem solving and model drawing

13. Singapore Math Suitable for immersion program -Builds upon preceding levels. -Explanations of math concepts are exceptionally clear and simple.

14. Science • Follows the MN Science Standard • Follows the Core Knowledge Scope and Sequence • Integrates with Chinese Language Arts in the immersion classroom ,e.g. observe plants growth • Fosters a science attitude: "The success of science has more to do with an attitude common to scientists than with a particular method. This attitude is one of inquiry, experimentation, and humility before the facts." - Paul G. Hewitt, Conceptual Physics, Second Edition, p. 3 • Hands on activities, experiment experiences

15. Science Elementary school children are in a concrete operational stage of their development. (Piaget, 1958) --Invisible things must be represented in concrete form to enable these children to grasp the concepts.

17. In Your Handout • Kindergarten Curriculum Map • School Wide Calendar • Class Schedule • Class List • Kindergarten Classroom Rules

18. A Happy and Successful Year • Read to your child everyday • Good rest and eat well • Check sent home folder every night • Check our Classroom Page weekly (password: welovechinese) • Arrive at school on time and pick up on time • Individual snack in the backpack • Turn in homework on time • Learn with your child • Be involved

19. Exciting Events • Three field trips • Star of the week • Grandparents’ Day- October 23 • Chinese New Year Performance-2/08/2013 • Academic Performance-5/17/2013

20. Communicate with Us via… • E-mail • Notes in the folder • Class Coordinators KG4 Coordinators are: Ana Ly, Carrie North Casey Piersma, JeralynThelen, Matt Hinton • Kinder Campus Office (Kinder cell 612-212-4463) • Report an Absence”- go to the Yinghua home page and scroll to the bottom, there is a link in the black bar at bottom. Click on that link and fill in the form, the school will receive an email with the information.

21. 谢(xie)谢(xie)