Chinese Made Fun

The IB PYP prepares students to become active, caring, lifelong learners who demonstrate respect for themselves and others while having the capacity to participate in the world around them. How can we teach this as a subject? How can we connect IB learner profiles when we teach the kids? This is an important job for teachers every day.

Ms. Bobo has prepared a series of courses in PYP Mandarin A classes to combine Chinese teaching with the IB learner profile.

In Grade 2 Mandarin A class, the students are learning how to write letters. The kids learn to make envelopes and letter paper. Amy wrote to her grandmother because her grandma was ill in the hospital. She hoped her grandmother would get better soon. Penny and Lisa wrote to their grandfathers who had passed. Although they have never see their grandfathers, they miss them very much. The children hope those who have passed away can be happy in the next world. Artie wrote to his father, who he has not seen for quite a long time. In the letter, he stated that he missed his father very much and that he hoped his father would come back soon. By writing letters to relatives, children learn how to be caring communicators.

In Grade 3 Mandarin class, the theme of this unit was fairy tales. Through the role-playing of stories, students not only could understand the content of a fairy tale, but also could better understand the connotations within the storylines. Arthur and Jonas finally decide to create one to show what they had learned. They coauthored a fairy tale titles “Good Friend,” which told the story of how a rose found a woodpecker doctor to cure its tree friend. By creating this story, children understood teamwork, cooperation, appreciation, creativity, respect, and risk-taking.

In the Mandarin A class of Grades 4&5, the theme of this unit was Chinese mythology. In this unit, Ms. Bobo cooperated with Mrs. Hobson in the “who are we” inquiry unit through an interdisciplinary theme “Characteristics of heroes in various cultures throughout history helping define individual beliefs,” where students can better understand the heroes within Chinese mythology. Through reading books and watching videos, students have learned countless myths. Finally, the students displayed group cooperation by creating a poster to show the mythical heroes. The students understood the differences between heroes by comparing Chinese mythical stories with Western mythical stories to better understand the commonalities and differences between Chinese and Western cultures and values. This is consistent with IB’s focus on the cultivation of open-minded knowledgeable thinkers.