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Kai-Yao To teaches her students at Berkeley’s Shu Ren International School (photo by Hali McGrath)

On a crisp December afternoon at Berkeley’s Shu Ren International School, eleven squirming five-year-olds are sprawled out on the rug. Kai-Yao To’s kindergarten classroom looks much like any nice kindergarten room — bright, cheerful colors; student art masterpieces in Crayola and felt-tip marker; and an easel where the day’s itinerary is written on chart paper. What sets this classroom apart isn’t especially subtle. Just about everything is written in Chinese, from the morning greeting that Kai Laoshi (“Teacher Kai”) has written out for the students to read aloud together, to the labels underneath pictures of a dreidel and a menorah on the whiteboard. Even at the height of the holiday season, there probably aren’t too many other kindergarten classes learning about Hanukkah and Kwanzaa in Mandarin.