11/15 Class Review

   Today we started class with a traditional Chinese game: 击鼓传花! Students sat in a circle, and one student was picked to be the "drummer". The drummer would have his back to the circle and pound his or her fists on the floor while the rest of the students passed a balloon around the circle. When the drummer stopped his pounding, whichever student held the balloon must go into the middle of the circle and sing/recite one of the songs we have learned. Many students had the chance to be the drummer and the singer!

   Next we learned several new characters: 几 , 口 , 人, 三，四. The teacher also showed the students a more complicated character: 家. Students are not required to know how to write this character at this point, but since it does show up in the textbook reading, it is best if they can recognize it. 

   To make practicing writing the characters a little more interesting, the teacher gave students a plate covered with a thin layer of salt. Students partnered up and took turns using their pencils to write the characters in the salt. They found this activity very fascinating! Students who are interested can also practice writing like this at home.

Happy Thanksgiving everyone! See you in two weeks!

11/8 Class Review

     For this lesson, we jumped right into learning new characters and saved review for end of class. Students were taught a poem that celebrated the beauty of autumn. Among the new words in that poem were: 秋 (autumn), 地 (ground), 手 (hand), 起 (together, to get up). These characters are not easy to write, but students paid careful attention and for the most part, mastered how to write them with correct order of strokes. We also added a couple more PinYin cards to their collection: sh, ou, q.

     For the latter half of class, we played Bingo to review nine of more difficult characters that students have learned. Nine characters were placed in the middle of the classroom and students were asked to fill out their own Bingo board with the nine characters. When everyone finished, the TAs read out characters and students had to find and mark the character on their own board. Students that got three characters marked in a row received a sticker! 

11/1 Class Review

As usual, we began class with a review of what students learned in the last lesson. Students took turns writing the four characters 子, 这,不, 你 on the whiteboard. Then the teacher gave students pointers on how to improve their calligraphy. Overall students did good job today reviewing/writing those characters.

Next, we learned four new characters: 王 (king). 老 (old), 师 (master/teacher), 没 (none). To learn the pinyin of these characters, students were asked to piece together the correct pinyin using the Pinyin Cards they have. Students also made four more Pinyin cards: sh, i, m, ei. We played several rounds of "Beat the Teacher" to test how well the students know the correct order of strokes for each of the four new characters. Students successfully beat the teacher in several rounds! They are definitely getting much better at this game!

Since it was raining during recess, we asked the students whether they thought rain was 好（good） or不好（ bad）. We took a vote, and interestingly, most students believed rain is good. They justified their choice by saying rain helps plants grow taller, helps alleviate the drought, can wash cars, and is fun to play in. Those were some very thoughtful answers!

Near the end of class, students read from their textbooks: "对不起" (page. 40). The passage shares many characters from 礼貌歌, which students learned earlier.