Newsletter Highlights:

- New classes and timetable updates (Stay updated with the latest class options, times and locations- click here for more details).

- Group Reports for our students- have you received and read yours?

- Program updates

- Interesting read: The Chinese language and the languages of China- click here for more details.

- Mandarin lessons to become compulsory in Pakistan- click here for more details.

- Seminar- Raising a child in more than one language (Melbourne).

- Special offer for all Mandarin Stars parents from Love Learn Mandarin (www.lovelearnmandarin.com.au).

- Follow Mandarin Stars on Facebook and Twitter!

________________________________________________________________________

Ni hao!

We hope you are enjoying the Spring school holidays!

Mandarin Stars classes commence again in the week beginning Monday 10^th October. If you have not already re-enrolled for Term 4, can you please make payment of your invoice that was distributed in the last classes of Term 3, so that we can secure your place. If you wish to change your class time or need your invoice re-sent to you, or will not be able to make payment in the next week but want us to hold your place please email our Enrolments team at: enrol@mandarinstars.com.au

We look forward to seeing you back for Term 4!

New classes and timetable updates

We are excited to announce new After School Mandarin Stars Language Club at both Epping West Public School and Our Lady Help of Christians Catholic Primary School. To see the days and time of these classes and all other class times/ options, please click here.

We have a lot of class options available to parents including Bubs & Tots Classes, Toddler Classes, Preschool Classes, Primary School Classes and classes for After School Clubs. Furthermore, if you are keen to have an After School Club arranged for your school, please contact will@mandarinstars.com.au and we can discuss this with you.

Group Reports

In our commitment to providing a first class Mandarin program for our students and service offering to our parents, we hope you have enjoyed the group reports that have been written for Term 3. These are provided in conjunction with the individual reports that are sent out in Terms 2 and 4. If you have any questions about your child’s Mandarin program or language acquisition with Mandarin Stars, please do not hesitate to contact us to discuss. Parent communication and feedback is very important to us as we plan and deliver our emergent based Mandarin program for children.

Updates about our Mandarin Stars program and Workbooks

As our Mandarin Chinese program for children has developed over the last 3.5 years (and as we have carefully monitored the experiences and successes of our program), we are proud to announce that we have seen some exciting results in terms of just how much our non-native learners can absorb. As a result of these promising results we have seen in our program, we decided in Term 2 of this year to re-create our program to formally include more of a reading and writing focus in our classes. As a result, our Mandarin Chinese program for our Mandarin SuperSTARS students is now composed of an average 50% Listening and Speaking and 50% Reading and Writing.

Children have continued to be introduced to age-appropriate concepts about themselves, their daily routines, their interactions with others and their surroundings. In order to keep students inspired, we have continued to offer a variety of activities to maintain the interests of children including language building role play activities, music, movement, puzzles, games and subjects such as art, science and Chinese festivals and folklore.

As reported by Vicky Sun (GM- Teaching Services), ‘Our Playgroup Workbook contains flashcards, weekly activity sheets and ‘homework’ sheets. The activity sheets are created for different ages. There are also extra colouring sheets for our under 3’s and there are character sheets for those children who are keen to start writing Chinese characters.  The weekly activity sheet is closely related to the flashcards taught for the week. It is also used in class to reinforce students’ memory of the new vocabulary and sentences they have learnt, and equally importantly, to encourage children to use the basic vocabularies they have learnt in previous classes as well, such as colours, numbers, and body parts. We now have 4 levels of Workbooks for our SuperSTARS classes. Each book covers the same weekly topics however vocabulary, sentences, Chinese characters, activity sheets and homework are increasingly complex as each level progresses.  This means that students of differing ages and Mandarin levels in the same class can learn from a more persoanlised book according to their own learning needs. Furthermore, as we introduce new topics each term, we also aim to strengthen students’ competence in terms of self introduction. The form below shows an exanple of some of the questions our children in each level able to ask and answer in Chinese.

Level 1	What is your name?  How old are you? Where are you from?
Level 2	What is your name?  How old are you? Where do you live?  Where are you from? My birthday is on…
Level 3	What is your name?  How old are you? Where do you live?  Where are you from? When is your birthday? My birthday is on… What is your Chinese Zodiac? What is your phone number?

It has been wonderful to see our Mandarin Stars grow, learn and progress in their Mandarin language skills. We are looking forward to a very productive term 4. Our teaching staff have worked hard in creating the new Workbooks for this term and we are sure students will feel a real sense of achievement in completing them.’

New Mandarin Chinese Workshops/ Incursions for daycares, preschools and schools!

I am pleased to annouce that Mandarin Stars is now also offering new Mandarin Chinese Workshops/ Incursions for daycares, preschools and schools. In term 3 we also welcomed KU Chatswood West Preschool to our learning community. If you think your school/ daycare may be intersted in this service, please contact Will at will@mandarinstars.com.au and we will discuss this with you. We have already been running a few workshops and incursions for several schools, daycares and preschools and can tailor programs to suit the individual needs of the education provider we are working with according to their curriculum/ program/ timetable planning for the term.

Interesting read: The Chinese language and the languages of China- click here for more details.

Read this article to learn more about the Chinese language and its teaching implications.

Mandarin lessons to become compulsory in Pakistan- click here for more details.

Lessons in Mandarin could become compulsory for schoolchildren in parts of Pakistan under ambitious plans to capitalise on the growing influence of Chinese companies.

Seminar: Raising children in more than one language (Melbourne)

The University of Melbourne are looking at hosting a free seminar on Raising children in more than one language (11th Dec- date TBC).
If you would like more details on the seminar, please contact Professor John Hajek (j.hajek@unimelb.edu.au). I myslef hope to attend the seminar and will ask John for the papers for the seminar. If you would like a set of the papers- please email me directly and I will have some emailed to you.

Special Offer from Love Learn Mandarin

I am pleased to announce that Love Learn Mandarin (www.lovelearnmandarin.com.au) are offering all readers of our Mandarin Stars newsletter a 10% discount off all orders- just mention code MSTARS when you order! Love Learn Mandarin sell quality Mandarin resources for children. To see their latest order form- please click here.

Follow Mandarin Stars on Facebook and Twitter!

To keep abreast of the latest changes in our timetable and to keep up with the latest articles about bilingualism and the learning of Mandarin, sign up to our Facebook and Twitter pages at:

Facebook page URL: http://www.facebook.com/pages/Mandarin-Stars/324817502794

Twitter page URL:http://twitter.com/mandarinstars

All the best,

Xie xie!

Regards,

William Gibb
Operations Manager
Mandarin Stars

Ph: (02) 8437 2498
Em: will@mandarinstars.com.au
Visit us at www.mandarinstars.com.au

- Finalist for the 2010 Business Achiever Awards (North Shore Times)

- Highly Commended in 2008 for Outstanding Innovation (Working Women’s Network)

- Proud member of the Australian Tutoring Association

- Asia Literacy Ambassador (Asia Education Foundation)

If you would like to opt-out from receiving any further messages, please reply to this message with the words OPT-OUT in the subject line.

© 2010 Mandarin Stars Pty Ltd (ACN 131 157 670).

All rights reserved.

“Learning to Read And Write in the Multilingual Family”
by Xiao-lei Wang (Pace University)
This excellent book draws on the latest research to explain how multilingual literacy learning can be fostered at different ages from early childhood to adolescence. Parents will discover how to work together with their child to devise a range of creative activities that bring literacy alive through games, role play, literature and multimedia. The author shows that literacy development in more than one language is intellectually challenging and expands children’s cultural knowledge, thus enhancing their learning. Real-life examples from families around the world stimulate the reader’s thinking throughout. Dr Charmian Kenner, Goldsmiths, University of London
Drawing on interdisciplinary research, as well as the experiences of parents of multilingual children, this book walks parents through the multilingual reading and writing process from infancy to adolescence. It identifies essential skills at each developmental stage and proposes effective strategies that facilitate multi-literacy, in particular, heritage-language literacy development in the home environment.
Content:
Chapter 1: Introduction
Chapter 2: Understanding the Multilingual Reading and Writing Process
Chapter 3: The Importance of Active Planning
Chapter 4: Infancy and Early Childhood (Birth–5 Years)
Chapter 5: Middle Childhood (6 -11 Years)
Chapter 6: Adolescence (12 -18 Years)
Chapter 7: Parents’ Practices, Voices, and Concluding Remarks-
Xiao-lei Wang received her doctoral degree from the University of Chicago in 1992. She is a full professor in the School of Education at Pace University in New York. Her research covers a wide range of topics such as cultural parenting styles, effects of nonverbal communication in teaching and learning, multilingual acquisition and development, and moral development. Her recent book Growing up with Three Languages: Birth to Eleven documented the simultaneous trilingual development of her own two children. Dr. Wang is a regular speaker on child development and parenting in local, national and international parents’ associations and academic conferences.
For more information and to order please go to

http://www.multilingual-matters.com/display.asp?isb=9781847693693