Chinese

At the Circus

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App 5 overview

At the Circus

The Polyglots at the Circus takes children into a magical space of performers and performance. Combining special lighting, music and costumes, the Polyglots performers entertain as children experience language related to body parts. This app also reinforces vocabulary included in the first four apps.

Language learning features

  • Repetition: Chinese (Mandarin) language is repeated in meaningful contexts, providing many opportunities to hear the language.
  • Visual cues: visual cues and gestures are aligned with spoken language to reinforce and emphasise meaning. The app uses the interactive functionality of the tablet.
  • Production: children have opportunities to produce the language. The learning experiences encourage children to mimic and play with Chinese sounds, words and short phrases.

Cultural references

Language learning experts emphasise the importance of linking language to culture. To inspire children’s curiosity about Chinese culture, the learning experiences feature Chinese cultural items and characters.

Unique learning experiences

Each preschool group and community is unique. Educators may find a variety of ways to apply the learning experiences in The Polyglots at the Circus apps to a particular child, group of children, preschool or community.

Links to the Early Years Learning Framework (EYLF) and Australian Curriculum

In the Admin area, children's educational outcomes are linked to the EYLF and to the Australian Curriculum: Languages content descriptions for schoolchildren in Foundation – Year 2 as well as to the language of each learning experience. Educators can use this data to support planning or can print the outcomes for children’s portfolios. 

Belonging

‘Children belong first to a family, a cultural group, a neighbourhood and a wider community.’ (EYLF)

All children have the right to belong. This is reflected in the cultures and relationships of the characters in The Polyglots at the Circus. In this app, children are reunited with familiar characters from the first four apps. These characters are portrayed as belonging to a community, just as the children do.

Being

‘Childhood is a time to be, to seek and make meaning of the world.’ (EYLF)

The Polyglots at the Circus provides play experiences that parallel children’s own experiences of circuses or other performance events. 

Becoming

‘Children’s identities, knowledge, understandings, capacities, skills and relationships change during childhood.’ (EYLF)

When children engage with the apps, they can broaden their knowledge, understandings, capacities and skills. The apps expose children to Chinese (Mandarin) language and culture and provide for many other learning experiences.

Resources

Resources to extend ELLA into your playspaces

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Have a question or need some help?

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[email protected] 1800 468 303 (9 am – 4 pm AEST, Mon–Fri)