May and June News
-Dragon Boat Festival

On Friday May 31, students once again experienced the fun of the annual dragon boat race celebrated at RSA. After the race, they watched a video on Duanwu Festival as well as ate mini zongzi made of sticky rice and red beans, a traditional food for the holiday. 

-Eighth Grade Graduation Ceremony 
What a beautiful night and wonderful performances! Congratulations to Julia for winning the citizen scholarship, Jenna the visual arts scholarship, and Avery the academic scholarship. I'm very proud of you my amazing students!

March and April News
HSK Test
These couple of months we have been focusing on studying HSK (Chinese language proficiency test) vocabulary and practicing model tests. Students made flashcards for words they didn't know and practiced using them in sentences. We did a few model tests together and talked about some useful test skills that would help students identify the correct answer. 


January & February News
During these two months, we focused on learning about Chinese culture. We studied famous Chinese idiomatic stories, learned to play Chinese checkers, and practiced Chinese calligraphy.

February 5th was the first day of Chinese New Year. We cooked sweet dumplings and visited elementary school classrooms to perform a New Year song "Selling Sweet Dumplings!" to younger students (we brought sweet dumplings with us!). During the celebration of Chinese New Year, we also tried other Chinese New Year foods and wrote spring couplets. 

December News
Writing back to Shasta High School Mandarin Class students:

Students were excited to receive letters from the Shasta High School Mandarin class students for the first time. Each one of them wrote back to their pen pal. Many of them put in a lot of effort to writing the letters. Students will write to each other again during Chinese New Year and share what fun activities they do to celebrate this important holiday.


November News
This month we studied stories about animals -- students loved to listen to the real story "Wolf Friend" on DVD with animation. Even though the story was long, students were still engrossed in the plot. Later, they did group projects constructing a scene of the story using construction paper. Then with the help from their visual aides, retold the story individually or as a group. They did an excellent job!


October News
This month we studied the stories of famous Tang dynasty poets - Li Bai and Han Yu. 

​"Grinding Iron Rod into a Needle" is a story about Li Bai when he was little. One day he saw grandma grinding an iron rod. He was curious and asked her why. She told him she is grinding the iron rod into a needle. He asked her how it was possible, and she replied saying that with persistence, she would succeed. Li Bai was deeply touched and understood the reason behind it. Since then he studied hard and later became the most famous Tang poet.


September News
Moon Festival Celebration

This year for the Moon Festival performance our classes sang a popular Mongolian folk song: "The 15th Moon." The two students Ruby and Lavender who sang the duet dressed in Mongolian clothes.

Here is the translation of the song:
Boy: "The 15th Moon rose to the sky,
Why are there no clouds by its side?
I'm waiting for a beautiful girl,
Why haven't you come yet?"
Girl: "If there is no rain from the sky,
Flowers will not bloom by themselves.
As long as you wait patiently.
The girl on your heart will run to you."


August News

Back to School Night

Introduction of Middle School Mandarin Program

Goal: Help students develop language skills in listening, speaking, reading, and writing as well as interest in and appreciation for Chinese culture, and to prepare students for advanced Mandarin in high school.

Textbook: Chinese Language and Culture Course
- Students will listen to, read, and understand the story.
- Learn new vocabulary and be able to use them in sentences. 
- Be able to arrange words into sentences.
- Retell the story with the key words given.
- Create a skit based on the text.
- Write summary or skit for oral presentations.

Cultural Activities: 
- Celebrate traditional holidays : Moon Festival, Spring Festival, Dragon Boat Festival
- Chinese songs and calligraphy
- Write letters in Chinese to sister school students
- Cultural history lessons

Homework and Tests:
- Daily homework Monday to Thursday
- Vocabulary quizzes and review quizzes
- Oral presentations (tests)
- YCT / HSK test in May