Chinese Program

All categories

Tongue Twisters to Understand the Four Tones

In our first few weeks of Mandarin WLP class, the students began by exploring the four tones in Mandarin through fun body movements and tongue twisters. The tones are critical…

Sep 23, 2023

Meaningful Mid-Autumn Moon Festival

This year, the Mid-Autumn Festival (中秋节 Zhōng qiū jié, sometimes called the Moon Festival in the West) is next Friday, September 29. It is one of the most important, family-centered holidays in…

Sep 22, 2023

In-Service Days—A Deep Learning Experience

On Monday, March 13, the Preschool and Kindergarten Chinese teaching teams visited our neighboring school, Silicon Valley International School, to visualize the possibilities of how indoor and outdoor space at 19th…

Mar 23, 2023

Back to the Future

Last week saw the welcome return of a pre-pandemic ritual—the departure of CAIS fifth graders for their two week Taiwan experience at the Chingshin Academy Middle School. Three years ago at…

Mar 22, 2023

CAIS Co-Hosting Sixth Annual Early Childhood Chinese Immersion Forum

Six years ago, CAIS spearheaded the creation of a conference for early childhood educators to share best practices and innovations in Mandarin immersion. Working once again with our outstanding peer…

Jan 11, 2023

Keeping Our Focus on Chinese Current Events

Like many of you, I have been spending more time thinking about China lately, based on recent events there.  This would include the apparent unsustainability of China’s “Zero Covid” policy,…

Dec 16, 2022

No Mandarin (Yet)? No Problem

We are excited to announce that we will be offering a limited number of openings for qualified 6th-8th students through a Mandarin World Language Pathway at Middle School beginning next…

Dec 13, 2022

Sharing Our Best Practices

Second/Third Grade Green Chinese Teacher ChiChi Su, Third Grade Red/Gold Chinese Teacher Wei Song and I presented at a national forum in October, sharing our expertise with ground-breaking work on “Standards-Based Reading and Writing…

Nov 11, 2022

Happy Teachers’ Day on Confucius’s 2,573rd Birthday

Conventional wisdom has it that today, September 28, is Confucius’s 2,573rd birthday. That makes him even older than I am. In Taiwan, Teachers’ Day is also celebrated on Confucius’s birthday. …

Sep 28, 2022

Celebrate the Mid-Autumn Festival, the CAIS Community and Belongingness

中美社区 ~ 归属中秋节特写 CAIS Community & BelongingnessFeaturing Mid-Autumn Festival When it comes to September, people in Asian countries look forward to celebrating one of the most important festivals, 中秋节 (zhōng…

Sep 18, 2022