This is....

Today's focus was on the phrase "This is a _____" and asking "What is this?"

In a previous post I explained how to say these in Chinese, but repetition's the key to language acquisition right? So it bears repeating.

zhe shi ____= this is____

zhe shi shenme?= what is this (literally: this is what?)

"zhe" is the "this" word, "shi" is the "is/to be/equals" word, and "shenme" is "what" and is always a question. It can also be used alone to just ask "What?"

We're working with addition and subtraction with numbers up to ten. All children should be able to count to ten in Chinese at this point. If you realize your child can't quite do this, let me know so I can give them a little extra help. Most should be able to count past ten, but we're still working on it.

Also, Mrs. Strasser and I are available tomorrow  for conferences from 4 until 7:15 on a first come first served basis. Because I can't speak English with the student there, the conference will have a first part where I meet with both of you and let your child show you some of the chinese they know, then have them step outside in the hall where there will be a little supervised activity for them to do while I speak with you.

One other heads up is we'll be having parent meetings for all Calvin Smith immersion parents with Mrs. Crawley throughout the year to get feedback on what's going well and what you'd like to see happen with the program. We'll send home notes and I'll post the dates on here when they happen.

Thanks so much for having great kids!