Week of Oct. 1-5

This week:

Chinese Homework-Math- Addition

Chinese Homework-Chinese Writing- Volume 1, workbook A (page 5)

Chinese Homework-Chinese Reading- Lesson 3, How old are you? **Please keep the reading paper at home and practice everyday.

English Homework-Reading- Please continue reading every night 20 minutes and mark it on your calendar. Log on to raz-kids.com. Teacher username is A1-1 or A1-3. Your child should know their password.

In class, we are learning:

Math-adding to sum of 12

Language Arts- Looking for parts of a word we know to help us sound out a word, proper letter formation

Writing- sentence structure, verbs, nouns

Phonics-Short u

Chinese- What is your nationality?

Social/Science study-Culture, Similar & Different

Spelling Words: (Your child knows what group they are in.)

Blue: (long o) his, my, mole, was, rode, hope, globe, hole, toe, said

Yellow: (short u) fun, bug, run, gum, jump, us, just

Red: (long a) away, play, day, stay, say, rain, wait, mail, train, sail

Parent-teacher conferences are this week!

Wednesday, October 3rd 4:00 pm-7:30 pm

Thursday, October 4^th 9:00 am-7:00 pm

Friday, October 5^th 9:0 0am-4:00 pm

**Time slots will each be 20 minutes. Conferences will include; both teachers, parents and child. We look forward to this opportunity to have your child “show off” some Chinese, and set goals for this monumental year. We are so excited to meet with each of you!

**If you missed signups, please contact one of us ASAP. Times will be assigned Monday afternoon. Reminders will be sent home the day before your scheduled conference.

We have a filed trip coming up. October 23^rd. We will be visiting the HeeHaw Farm in Pleasant Grove. This will be an opportunity for students to “learn more about animals and agriculture in an authentic farm environment.” We are in need of 4 parents to chaperone from each class. First come, first serve. J Parents will need to be to the school by 10 am, and will ride the bus with us. We plan to be back by 1:30 or 2. Also, you will need to have a background check done in order to chaperone. ($15, see Mrs. Hoover in the office.) Please respond if you are interested. 

Miss BreAnn Wayman & Mrs. Rebecca Liston

Caterpillars in Chinese

Crazy Hair Day is... CRAZY! :)

Butterflies

Yesterday we had the opportunity to watch a butterfly actually emerge from its chrysalis. It was amazing, so much so, that most of the kids used their recess time to sit and observe.

The chrysalis turned so clear, it looked black right before the butterfly made it's debut! 

Our butterfly flew away faster than we could run. 

If you look close enough, you can see our butterfly!

Week of Sept. 24-28

-->

Chinese Homework-Math- Addition

Chinese Homework-Chinese Writing- Volume 1, workbook A (page 3 &4)

Chinese Homework-Chinese Reading- Lesson 2, What is your name? **Please keep the reading paper at home and practice everyday.

English Homework-Reading- Please continue reading every night 20 minutes and mark it on your calendar. Log on to raz-kids.com. Teacher username is A1-1 or A1-3

In class, we are learning:

Math-adding to sum of 12

Language Arts- Stop & Think Reading Strategy (Does it make sense? Look right? Sound right?), What is a verb? Proper letter formation

Writing- sentence structure, how to write a question

Phonics-Short o

Chinese- How old are you?

Social/Science study- Life cycle (butterflies)

Spelling Words: (Your child knows what group they are in.)

Blue: bike, white, nice, time, ride, side, father, mother, family, nine

Yellow: lot, job, hop, not, stop, dog, off

Red: March, who, when, where, why, what, lunch, much, do, see

MARK YOUR CALENDARS! Parent-teacher conferences will be held:

Wednesday, October 3rd 4:00 pm-7:30 pm

Thursday, October 4^th 9:00 am-7:00 pm

Friday, October 5^th 9:0 0am-4:00 pm

**Time slots will each be 20 minutes. Conferences will include; both teachers, parents and child. We look forward to this opportunity to have your child “show off” some Chinese, and set goals for this monumental year.

To schedule an appointment:

1. Visit the school website (http://alpine.alpineschools.org)
2. Under “Parent/Student” click the “Online Scheduler” link
3. Choose Alpine Elementary as the school and click “Go”
4. Type in the school password “eagles” and click “Login”
5. Type in your child’s student number or use the “Look-up Student ID” option
6. Follow the prompts to schedule an appointment for your child’s conference.

Miss BreAnn Wayman & Mrs. Rebecca Liston

Parent-Teacher Conferences

Parents,

Parent-Teacher conferences are a week and a half away. Appointments are October 3-5. Due to the high number of conferences that will be conducted, we are scheduling during the day (Thurs. & Fri) as well. To schedule your appointment:

1. Visit the school website (http://alpine.alpineschools.org)
2. Under “Parent/Student” click the “Online Scheduler” link
3. Choose Alpine Elementary as the school and click “Go”
4. Type in the school password “eagles” and click “Login”
5. Type in your child’s student number or use the “Look-up Student ID” option
6. Follow the prompts to schedule an appointment for your child’s conference.

The scheduling window will close on Saturday, September 29 so please schedule your appointments before then.

All conferences will be scheduled through Miss Wayman, however both teachers will be present. Please plan on bringing your child to the conference, so they can "show off" some Chinese!

What is Pinyin?

Most pages of your child's Chinese Reader will have Pinyin written next to, or beneath the characters. In an effort to provide a tool for you to help your children with their homework and other needs, I thought it might be helpful to write some information about Pinyin, what is it and how to use it.

Pinyin literally means "spelled out sounds", and is used to transcribe Chinese Characters into Latin script. I copied this chart from Wikipedia. As the pinyin doesn't correspond to all English sounds, use this chart to convert the sounds.

For an example of how to use this chart, here are some words that you may hear your child using this week:

Xie Xie - X = "sh", i as in "ee" and e and in "yet"
Zai - Z = Z, ai as in "eye"
Ni - N = N, i as in "ee"

Pinyin		Form withzero initial	Explanation
-i	[ɨ]	(n/a)	-i is a buzzed continuation of the consonant following z-, c-, s-, zh-, ch-, sh- or r-. (In all other cases, -i has the sound of bee; this is listed below.)
a	[ɑ]	a	as in "father"
e	[ɯ̯ʌ], [ə]	e	a diphthong consisting first of a back, unrounded semivowel (which can be formed by first pronouncing "w" and then spreading the lips without changing the position of the tongue) followed by a vowel similar to English "duh". Many unstressed syllables in Chinese use the schwa [ə] (idea), and this is also written as e.
ai	[aɪ̯]	ai	like English "eye", but a bit lighter
ei	[eɪ̯]	ei	as in "hey"
ao	[ɑʊ̯]	ao	approximately as in "cow"; the a is much more audible than the o
ou	[ɤʊ̯]	ou	as in "so"
an	[an]	an	as in "ban" in British English (a more open fronted a)
en	[ən]	en	as in "taken"
ang	[ɑŋ]	ang	as in German Angst (starts with the vowel sound in father and ends in the velar nasal; like song in some dialects of American English)
eng	[əŋ]	eng	like e in en above but with ng added to it at the back
er	[ɑɻ]	er	similar to the sound in "bar" in American English
Finals beginning with i- (y-)
i	[i]	yi	like English bee.
ia	[i̯ɑ]	ya	as i + a; like English "yard"
ie	[i̯ɛ]	ye	as i + ê; but is very short; e (pronounced like ê) is pronounced longer and carries the main stress (similar to the initial sound ye in yet)
iao	[i̯ɑʊ̯]	yao	as i + ao
iu	[i̯ɤʊ̯]	you	as i + ou
ian	[i̯ɛn]	yan	as i + ê + n; like English yen
in	[in]	yin	as i + n
iang	[i̯ɑŋ]	yang	as i + ang
ing	[iŋ]	ying	as i + ng
Finals beginning with u- (w-)
u	[u]	wu	like English "oo"
ua	[u̯ɑ]	wa	as u + a
uo, o	[u̯ɔ]	wo	as u + o where the o (compare with the o interjection) is pronounced shorter and lighter (spelled as o after b, p, m or f).
uai	[u̯aɪ̯]	wai	as u + ai like as in why
ui	[u̯eɪ̯]	wei	as u + ei;
uan	[u̯an]	wan	as u + an;
un	[u̯ən]	wen	as u + en; like the on in the English won;
uang	[u̯ɑŋ]	wang	as u + ang;
ong	[ʊŋ], [u̯əŋ]	weng	starts with the vowel sound in book and ends with the velar nasal sound in sing; as u + eng in zero initial.
Finals beginning with ü- (yu-)
u, ü	[y] ( listen)	yu	as in German "über" or French "lune" (To pronounce this sound, say "ee" with rounded lips)
ue, üe	[y̯œ]	yue	as ü + ê; the ü is short and light
uan	[y̯ɛn]	yuan	as ü + ê + n;
un	[yn]	yun	as ü + n;
iong	[i̯ʊŋ]	yong	as i + ong
Interjections
ê	[ɛ]	(n/a)	as in "bet".
o	[ɔ]	(n/a)	Approximately as in "office" in British accent; the lips are much more rounded.
io	[i̯ɔ]	yo	as i + plain continental[clarification needed] "o".

Week of 9/17 - 9/21

Parents,

Have you checked the blog lately? It has been updated with videos, pictures and more! Chinesewithlistonandwayman.blogspot.com

This week:

Chinese Homework-Math- Using counters to add and problem solve (due on Friday, students can turn in early) 

English Homework-Reading- Please continue reading every night 20 minutes and mark it on your calendar.

In class, we are learning:

Math-adding to sum of 12

Language Arts- Stop & Think Reading Strategy (Does it make sense? Look right? Sound right?), Determiners (a, an, the) proper letter formation

Writing- event order with temporal words

Phonics-Short i

Chinese- What is your name? & How old are you?

Social/Science study- School Helpers & Community Roles

Spelling Words: (Your child knows what group they are in.)

Blue: make, cake, stake, made, game, take, same came, her, he

Yellow: did, big, it him, in, will sit

Red: went, said, have, from, like, was, came, come, are, they

MARK YOUR CALENDARS! Parent-teacher conferences will be held:

Wednesday, October 3rd 4:00 pm-7:30 pm

Thursday, October 4^th 9:00 am-7:00 pm

Friday, October 5^th 9:0 0am-4:00 pm

**Time slots will each be 20 minutes. Conferences will include; both teachers, parents and child. We look forward to this opportunity to have your child “show off” some Chinese, and set goals for this monumental year.

Miss BreAnn Wayman & Mrs. Rebecca Liston

4th Grade Reading Buddies

Signs

Math with Mrs. Liston

Homework & 3 Chinese Words

Chinese Homework

Mrs. Liston has asked that I remind all parents to make sure their children are bringing back their homework folders. AM class is orange and the PM is red. She sent home their first assignments yesterday. If your child did not bring it home, they either left it in the cubby or, their folder may be at home.

The assignment is lesson 1 in their Reader and involves both reading and writing. We have gone over the concepts in class, however, if your child doesn't understand the assignment, please don't hesitate to email us.

Yesterday Mrs. Liston introduced the children to "station rotations." I was amazed at how quickly the children understood and followed her directions after only hearing them in chinese. They will be working at these stations 2-3 times each week on activties that they are alread familiar with.

Book Orders

Don't forget about book orders!

It's every child's dream to be the one to get a book from the book order. 

For every online order, you receive a free book ($5 value)!!!
AND
Our class receives a free book!!!

Here is the link: https://orders.scholastic.com/GZMQ7

It's so easy!

Our class code is: GZMQ7

All catalogs are available to view online. 

THANK YOU! 

9/4 - 9/7

Greetings! First, let me introduce myself - I am Tucker's mother, Bianca Collings, and have been hired as Mrs. Liston's AM Aide. I am going to try and update this site every couple of days with the happenings in Chinese class. I will keep my posts brief, with the intention of helping parents understand what the children are learning in class.

This past week the children were introduced to the numbers from 1-100 in Chinese. They are also taking time each day to write the numbers in English from 51-80. At home, Mrs. Liston would like all parents to continue working with their children writing their numbers 1-100 in English. They participated in some fun activities using Chinese numbers including a small group game of BINGO. 

The children seem to thoroughly enjoy learning the characters. This past week we worked on Ni Hao (hello), and Jian (to see). They also started reading from the Chinese Readers and most can identify at least 5 phrases. 

I am so thrilled to have the opportunity to work with your children in this unique setting. Please feel free to contact me if you have any questions.

Bianca Collings

bdcollings@comcast.net

(801) 980-0361

Character Writing!