Nine years, one path
This page is the whole program on one screen: what each grade covers, how many characters students carry with them, and what “good” looks like at every stage. It’s written for the adult in the room — teacher, tutor, or parent.
Why Chinese is sequenced differently from Spanish
Spanish is alphabetic — a Kindergartner who can say a word is most of the way to reading it. Mandarin splits that into three separate skills, so this program is built around four decisions:
- Tones are taught explicitly and early. Kindergarten Unit 2 is nothing but tones, and tone colour-coding follows students through all nine years.
- Pinyin is a bridge, not a destination. K and Grade 1 read pinyin only. Characters begin as recognition in Grade 1 and become a writing expectation in Grade 2.
- Stroke order and radicals get their own units. Character literacy is a motor skill, not just memorisation — so it gets taught like one. If you read one background page before anything else, make it How Chinese Characters Work — it explains the three ways characters are built, including the sound-and-meaning pattern that covers about 85% of them.
- Character count is the spine. Everything else spirals, but the character load below is what actually paces the program.
Character load & proficiency by grade
“Recognise” is cumulative — a Grade 5 student should read all 400, not 400 new ones. Active writing runs roughly half of recognition at every level, which is normal and intentional.
| Grade | Theme | Units | Recognise | Write | Proficiency target |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| K | 你好，朋友！ Hello, Friends! | 10 | 0* | — | Novice Low — listening & speaking only |
| 1 | 我的家人和朋友 My Family & Friends | 10 | 40 | 20 | Novice Low |
| 2 | 我的学校和社区 My School & Community | 10 | 100 | 55 | Novice Mid (emerging) |
| 3 | 我的日常生活 My Daily Life | 8 | 180 | 100 | Novice Mid |
| 4 | 我的城市和传统 My City & Traditions | 8 | 280 | 160 | Novice Mid → Novice High |
| 5 | 桥梁 Bridges | 8 | 400 | 240 | Novice High (emerging) |
| 6 | 交流行动 Communication in Action | 6 | 550 | 340 | Novice High |
| 7 | 故事与社区 Stories & Communities | 6 | 720 | 460 | Novice High → Intermediate Low |
| 8 | 我的中文声音 My Voice in Chinese | 6 | 900 | 600 | Intermediate Low — exit target |
* Kindergarten requires no character reading. About ten pictographs (人 大 小 日 月 山 水 口 手 木) are shown as pictures for fun — recognised, never tested.
What each grade actually covers
你好，朋友！
Greetings · the four tones · colors · numbers 1–10 · family · body · animals · food · classroom · feelings & weather
Grade 1 · 10 units我的家人和朋友
Greetings again · number characters · strokes & pictographs · family at home · counting to 100 · age · likes · describing friends · nature characters · Chinese New Year
Grade 2 · 10 units我的学校和社区
School · supplies · teachers & classmates · days of the week · telling time · community helpers · position words · getting around · radicals · Mid-Autumn Festival
Grade 3 · 8 units我的日常生活
Daily routine · house & rooms · three meals · sports & hobbies · weather & seasons · clothes · first short texts · All About Me capstone
Grade 4 · 8 units我的城市和传统
My city · asking directions · shopping & money · festivals · animals & habitats · at the restaurant · verbs in action · My Region capstone
Grade 5 · 8 units桥梁
Travel · the Chinese-speaking world · health · responsibilities · comparisons · the near future · bridge review · portfolio capstone
Grade 6 · 6 units交流行动
Identity · school life · food & culture · the digital world · opinions & preferences · IPA: My World
Grade 7 · 6 units故事与社区
Narrating the past · the city and me · our environment · everyday heroes · service learning · IPA: Stories of My Community
Grade 8 · 6 units我的中文声音
Then and now · future plans · global cultures · media & messages · friendly debates · portfolio & exit
Three modes, every grade
The three communication modes
- Interpretive — listening to and reading Chinese. Assessed with picture-matching in K–2, short texts from Grade 3.
- Interpersonal — unrehearsed two-way conversation. Assessed with partner tasks and teacher check-ins.
- Presentational — prepared speaking and writing. Assessed with the end-of-unit projects and the grade capstone.
From Grade 6 each year closes with an IPA — an Integrated Performance Assessment where all three modes are tested around a single theme.
What progress looks like
Tone accuracy and character recall both plateau before they jump. Expect:
- K–1: big confidence gains, wobbly tones. Normal.
- 2–3: character writing feels slow. This is the hardest stretch — it eases once radicals click.
- 4–5: reading speeds up noticeably as known characters start recombining into new words.
- 6–8: the ceiling lifts — students can say things nobody taught them.
Not one country
Mandarin is spoken across mainland China, Taiwan, Singapore and Malaysia, and in Chinese communities worldwide — including large Chinese-American ones. Festivals, foods, stories and place names in this program are drawn from across that whole map, and where practice differs by region, the lesson says so rather than picking one version and calling it “correct.”
Choose a gradeA note on simplified vs. traditional
This program teaches simplified characters, used in mainland China, Singapore and Malaysia, and standard in most U.S. school Mandarin programs.
Students in Taiwanese or Hong Kong heritage families will see different characters at home. From Grade 4 the units flag the traditional form whenever it differs noticeably — the goal is recognition, not confusion.