Chinese calendars and western calendars are hanged around the classroom.
Culture /comparison : Differences between Chinese calendar and Gregorian calendar. Chinese New Year is approaching at that time. It’s good opportunity to explain why Chinese New Year is located at a different date every year. How Chinese celebrate birthday. (滿月 & 祝壽) Special features of Chinese Lunar calendars (農民月曆)
Task 2 : Total physical Response Activity : 几月大, 几月小?
Chinese people remember how many days there are in each month by memorizing this chant. Da 大 means that it’s a “big” month of 31 days, Xiao小 means that it is a “small” month of 30 days or in the case of February, 28 days (or 29 days in a leap year).
Total Physical Response : Teacher shows 几月大, 几月小?
一月大, 二月小
三月大,四月小
五月大,六月小
七月大,八月大
九月小,十月大
十一月小,十二月大 。
Note : Chinese remember how many days there are in each month by memorizing this chant. Da 大 means that it’s a “big” month of 31 days, Xiao小 means that it is a “small” month of 30 days or in the case of February, 28 days (or 29 days in a leap year).
Students follow the teacher to practice几月大, 几月小?repeat 3-4 times.
3. Review numbers from 1 to 31 by counting. Then teacher uses the Chinese calendar pointing out the days from 一日 to 三十一日。Students speak loud along with teacher. Teacher shows all Chinese festival days in the powerpoint with pictures and repeats the date of each festival.
4. Teacher asks students when is Xmas? When is final exam? When is next rally? When is spring break?...etc
Wallet size calendar is given to each student so they are able to answer the questions.
Task 3 : Flashcard. Show students Chinese characters/words and have students listen to and repeat each character/word. Show word in Chinese on the reverse side in English. Students write pinyin on the reverse side.
Task 4 : Review numbers from 1 to 31. Then teacher uses the Chinese calendar repeating days from 一日 to 三十一日。
Task 5 : Look at several examples of calendars. Identify holiday and festival dates and speak aloud. Repeat this activities several times.
Task 6 : Review question formation and how to respond to questions. Teacher gives a wallet size calendar to each student. On the board the teacher writes several questions using different forms (幾) 月 (幾) 日是星期 (幾)? 你的生日是 (幾)月(幾)日? (聖誕節)是幾月幾日?誰的生日在 ( ) 月?誰的生日在 ( )年?誰的生日在 ( )月? 誰的生日在 ( )月( )日?誰的生日在同一年出生?哪年? 誰的生日在同一月出生?哪月?
Based on the questions, the teacher reviews how to respond correctly to questions. The teacher responds to several of the questions (modeling). The students then respond to the remaining questions. After several minutes, students are asked individually to answer the questions aloud.
Check for understanding Yes/No questions : e.g. 十一月十五日是星期一嗎?
Important days answers (Listening): When is your birthday? When is your mother’s birthday? When is your father’s birthday? When is New Year? When is Easter Day? When is Thanksgiving? When is Xmas? When is homecoming? When is school Rally? …etc
Birthday sorting games (Listening): Students sort their birthdays per group based upon their month, day and year of birth and line up.
Holiday and Festival worksheet (Listening): Teacher reads the sentences twice slowly for students to find the connection between holiday/festival and date. Students write down the date月, 日. Students find 星期 information from the wallet calendar and then they make sentences in the date sequential orders according the information.