A Mandarin Learning Program for Children Age 5 to 12 years

Our Mandarin Chinese program for 5 to 12 year olds are offered at either mid week After School Clubs or at Weekend Clubs on a Saturday/ Sunday. This program has been created by very experienced educators and bilingual teaching staff and is also continually researched and developed- we call upon the expertise of professional Education Consultants globally to advise us on our curriculum and delivery techniques.

Our curriculum has been developed so that our students are able to develop the confidence to express themselves in Mandarin. In an immersion style environment, we introduce the children to relevant themes and topics that are interesting and engaging to our young Australian minds.

Children are introduced to age-appropriate concepts about themselves, their daily routines, their interactions with others and their surroundings. In order to keep students inspired, we 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.

Our Mandarin Chinese program for primary school age children is stimulating, fun and inspiring.

The Mandarin Stars program for 5 to 12 years olds offers:

• 1 hour Mandarin classes that are held mid week at After School Clubs or Weekend Clubs

• Small class sizes to ensure individual attention  

• A curriculum that has been especially developed for both native and non-native Chinese speakers

• Activities including language building role play activities, music, movement, singing, dramatic play, puppets, dancing, story telling, games, puzzles, art and craft, poems and rhymes to captivate and involve your child

• Interactive play with ‘Ding Ding’ the Panda, 'Ling Ling' the Monkey and 'Dong Dong' the Lion. Your child will become great friends with Mandarin Stars’ lovable mascot animals who will help to reinforce you child’s learning

• Sub group activities of up to 6 children led by a teacher. These groups are divided according to age and level of Mandarin. From here, the children begin (age and level of Mandarin appropriate) activities to reinforce the particular themes and vocabulary for that term. Thus your child will be learning at his/ her own pace

• An ‘immersion’ approach to teaching- we speak Mandarin 90% of the time and use gestures and pictures for reinforcement. Our focus is on enabling children to practice their listening and speaking skills in a modern immersion-based environment

• A celebration of Australian and Chinese festivals including: Chinese New Year, Lion Dancing, Moon Festival, Mid-Autumn Festival, Dragon Boat Racing, Christmas, Easter, Mother and Father’s Day.

• Special invited guests teaching Chinese Calligraphy, Kung Fu, Painting and more!

• A cultural educational service that will encourage a lifelong interest in multicultural knowledge.

• Experienced, trained bilingual staff from the following fields:

          o        Early Childhood Education

          o        Translation/ Interpreting Studies (Masters level)

          o        Cross-cultural communication (Masters level)

          o        Chinese studies

          o        Teaching Community Languages

          o        Playgroup Co-ordination and Leadership

Our Program Development Team (PDT) are constantly researching the latest materials, books, resources and updates in teaching Mandarin to young children. They keep our classes fresh and exciting to inspire curiosity and a lifelong interest in multicultural learning. We also regularly call upon the expertise of professional Education Consultants (more recently from ANU, The University of Sydney and the University of Melbourne) to ensure that we are developing a first class Mandarin program for children. More recently this year, we have been engaging the consultation of Deidre O'Reilly (M.Ed. B.Ed. Montessori Dip. A.M.I).

Access to the Mandarin Stars Activity Centre!

Upon enrolment for the term, your child and you will be able to access the online Mandarin Stars Activity Centre. Here you will be able to download an abundance of material including:

- Flashcards related to the themes taught for the term

- Sound/ Voice recordings of the flashcards (This aids our non-background speaking parents so that they check their pronunciation)

- Guides of useful phrases in Mandarin (with sound/ voice recordings) for parents to try and use at home.(This helps to support parents in developing their own Mandarin language skills and to foster our immersion approach in teaching our program)  

- Chinese and Australian nursery rhymes (with sound, translations and Pin Yin)

- Traditional Chinese recipes shared by our wonderful teaching staff. The recipes that are shared with you are local to the provinces that our teachers come from

- A weekly Activity Sheet for you and your child/ your child to complete together. This is not intensive homework- we use these activities to reinforce the themes for the term.

- The latest developments and research updates on bilingualism

- Newsbites and reviews on recently published books about bilingualism.

BOOK YOUR FREE TRIAL CLASS NOW!

© 2008 Mandarin Stars Pty Ltd (ACN 131 157 670). All rights reserved.