The summer holiday has already reached its halfway point, and many families have probably gone to various places to explore new and exciting things. Now, children may have returned to their cozy homes, resting and preparing for the upcoming school days. For those who have returned home, besides reminiscing and sharing their experiences from the journey, why not pick up some books to read?
Reading is another wonderful form of travel that can take us to different worlds and experiences without leaving our homes. It allows us to embark on various adventures and emotions. Through reading, children can expand their knowledge and imagination, develop their language skills, and cultivate their understanding with words.
Choosing books that are suitable for one's age and interests is crucial. Whether it's adventure stories, science fiction novels, or picture books, they all help children develop reading habits and cultivate a love for books. Parents can explore the library or bookstore with their children, selecting some classic works that will immerse them in the books.
To help the incoming students at VPA better adapt to the bilingual environment in the upcoming semester, our teachers have compiled a summer reading list for both the middle school and elementary school divs. Of course, we encourage all children to read more books at any time, whether you are a new or returning student at VPA, or even just curious about our school.
We have curated different books categorized by subjects. Here are some recommended titles for students who will be entering the sixth and seventh grades:
Subject Recommendations:
Pay attention to current affairs and accumulate literary terminology
Understand different media and exercise critical thinking and analytical skills through reading classic literary works
Feel the charm of mathematics through stories
Math games for middle school
Pay attention to focus on improving reading skills in mathematics vocabulary
Roald Dahl 15 Book Box Set
Cultivate children's life-long reading habits, allowing them to comprehend the main content while also exposing them to new vocabulary and grammatical structures
A Little History of The World
Familiarize children with maps of China and the world, and guide them to repeatedly explore the topography, continents, oceans, major countries, cities, and more on the maps together
Chinese National Geography
Read the special feature on "Beauty of China" in the National Geographic China magazine
Develop the habit of checking new words and build up scientific terminology
The Everything Kids' Science Experiments Book
Read the two books to continue building their knowledge and understanding of science
‘Whoosh! Lonnie Johnson’s Super-Soaking Stream of Inventions’
Summer themed and suitable for those with basic English level (4-10 year old native)
Students can spend some time on visiting museums, art galleries, and exhibitions during summer time
They can also use photography or painting to record the people and scenery encountered during travels
Getting Things Done for Teens
This book introduces many methods for task and time management, framing life as a game and offering simple techniques to help teenagers succeed. It is very helpful for children to cope with the demanding learning process of IB with multiple tasks.
For children preparing to enter the first grade of primary school, we also have some Chinese and English reading recommendations:
Little Linguist (with Pinyin)
English book recommendations are also diverse, and everyone can choose their favorite books based on their preferences:
Reading has always been a prominent feature of VPA. We are committed to cultivating children's reading interest and helping them develop good reading habits, making reading an essential part of their lives.
In addition, we utilize Renaissance Reading, an authoritative online English teaching software with a powerful database that aligns with international standards. This software effectively unleashes students' potential in English learning.
By conducting comprehension quizzes and careful reading activities on books, teachers can obtain timely and accurate feedback on students' abilities and learning progress. This allows them to provide appropriate guidance to students, helping them make rapid progress and achieve their learning goals, while strengthening their reading skills.
Students in third grade and above use Renaissance for their reading activities, while students in first and second grade use Raz Kids for leveled reading.
Raz-Kids is an award-winning teaching product that provides comprehensive leveled reading resources for students. With hundreds of eBooks offered at 29 different levels of reading difficulty, it's easy to put the right content in every student's hands.
Every eBook is available in online and mobile formats, and allows students to listen to, read at their own pace, and record themselves reading. Students then take a corresponding eQuiz complete with an extended answer response to test comprehension and determine future instruction needs. Once a child has read ten or more of the leveled eBooks and passed each of the corresponding eQuizzes, they advance on to the next reading level where they have access to lengthier and more difficult text.
Overall, the softwares we use provide students with a diverse range of reading materials and personalized learning experiences while offering teachers effective teaching support and data analysis tools to help students succeed.
On the last day of the special summer course prepared for the new students, Dr. Koong also encouraged them to read more during the vacation. Each child was encouraged to borrow a few English books to take home, further promoting their English reading skills.
We are looking forward to seeing the achievements of our students during the summer break when we return to school. We will continue to support their learning, providing the highest quality educational resources and environment, so that they can explore their potentials and become excellent lifelong learners!
