Mid Autumn Festival 中秋节

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Mid Autumn Festival

 

mid-autumn_festival

 

The Mid-Autumn Festival, 中秋节 zhōng qiū jié, is the second most important festival to Chinese people after the Chinese New Year or Spring Festival, 春节 chūn jié.  In 2015, Mid-Autumn Festival is on September 27.  Every year, Chinese people will go home from every corner of the country and the world for family reunions.  On Mid-Autumn night the harvest moon is supposed to be the brightest and fullest of the year, so the festival is also known as the “Day of Reunion” and the “Moon Festival“.  Chinese people believe that the full moon is a symbol of peace, prosperity, and family reunion.

 

中秋快乐

 

To wish someone a happy Mid-Autumn Festival you can say 中秋快乐, zhōng qiū kuài lè or 中秋节快乐, zhōng qiū jié kuài lè.  To celebrate this holiday I am sharing a must read picture book called: 爸爸,你能给我月亮吗? (bà ba, nǐ néng gěi wǒ yuè liang ma?), Papa, Can You Give Me The Moon?  This is a beautiful story about a Father’s love for his son with a heartwarming ending.  Simply hover over a Chinese character that you don’t know to see its definition in English and pinyin.  Click here to read this picture book about how a Father will move heaven and earth for his son!

 

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Finger Painting 指印画

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Finger Painting Art Book

 

Finger painting is an age-old activity that never fails to excite kids… yes even older kids!  Flip through the pages of a very cute Chinese Finger Painting book here to get fun and easy ideas for teaching.  On the top of each page is a full scenery that kids can create.  Make this Mandarin related by teaching kids Mandarin vocabulary for each finger painting or kids can even write a short story in Mandarin when they create a picture.  Tons of possibilities to make this both fun and educational!

 

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Some sample pages from this book!

 

 

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High Quality Household Items Vocabulary Cards For Printing

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Download 4 pages of high quality common household items with pictures and pinyin.  These cards will look beautiful printed  on card stock paper.  You can separate the cards into picture and words only cards, and then  have kids match the pictures to the words.  Click Subscriber Page to download the PDF of the vocabulary cards for free. Enjoy!

 

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Three Little Pigs 三只小猪

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Three Little Pigs 三只小猪

A Play In Mandarin

three little pigs

At this year’s Chinese Summer Camp, my students worked very hard to learn and act out the play, Three Little Pigs, in just 3 days.  In between memorizing lines, students were busy designing and building their own props such as the straw house, wood house, and brick house.  They performed the play on the 4th day of camp.  Take a look at their amazing performance below!

Three Little Pigs Performed in Mandarin

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The 3 little pigs rehearsing.

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The Big Bad Wolf reading her lines.

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Measuring the cardboard to build the brick house.

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The brick house even has doors that open!

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The straw house can stand on its own!

 

If you enjoy the play and would like to get the script in both Chinese and pinyin, please visit my Teachers Pay Teachers page by clicking on the picture below.

three little pigs in Mandarin 三只小猪

Move Those Fingers To Learn Mandarin

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 Learn Mandarin With Fingerplays

finger play

Music is a powerful tool in learning a new language.  For young children, it is also a powerful tool to help them learn new thinking skills.   Fun fingerplays, songs and rhymes can help children learn Mandarin by increasing vocabulary, learning the sounds of words and hearing the rhythm of language.  Young children can also gain large and small motor skills by performing movements required in fingerplays.  Memory of Mandarin words can be learned by participating in fingerplays, songs and rhymes.  Just think about some popular Western kids songs like “The Itsy Bitsy Spider” or “The Wheels On The Bus, ” I bet your fingers start moving as soon as you sing the words.  I have uploaded 3 videos of Chinese fingerplay videos for young children.  The videos were made for preschool aged children in China, but can easily be adapted for children learning Mandarin as a foreign language.

 

Finger Play For Learning Mandarin 1

Finger Play For Learning Mandarin 2

Finger Play For Learning Mandarin 3

9 Animal Rhyme Posters 看图学歌谣

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9 Animal Rhyme Posters 看图学歌谣

 

chinese animal sounds

The theme of my Chinese Summer Camp this year is animals.  As I am creating and planning fun projects and activities related to animals, I wanted to share 9 colorful animal rhyme posters with pinyin on subscribers page.  Also please note that the subscriber password will change August 20.  The new password is listed on top of the subscribers page.  Have a great weekend!

 

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Coloring Packets For Young Kids

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Color Color Color

paintbrush drawing

Summer is almost over!  I would like to share 2 coloring packets related to Chinese topics for younger kids to keep busy.  The first coloring packet is on the 12 Zodiac animals.  The second coloring packet is based on the popular Chinese cartoon, 喜洋洋与灰太狼, Pleasant Goat and Big Gray Wolf.  Please scroll down to watch the first 3 episodes of this popular cartoon with English subtitles.

 

十二生肖系列 Zodiac Animals

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喜羊羊与灰太狼系列 Pleasant Goat and Big Gray Wolf Screen Shot 2015-08-13 at 12.26.30 AM

 

Watch the first 3 episodes with English subtitles translated by user Zhongwentranslator

 

Episode 1

 

Episode 2

 

Episode 3

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Learning to cook Chinese food

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During our food unit, my Chinese students learned to express our likes and dislikes for food in Mandarin with various activities like games, skits and writing original songs.  Here is a short video of an original song written by a student.

 

 

We also learned to cook Chicken Chow Mein 鸡丁炒面.  Before we started cooking, we learned important cooking vocabulary in Mandarin.  After we cooked the food, each student made a little book in Chinese with step by step instructions on cooking this dish.

 

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Students were involved in every aspect of cooking.  Look how hard they are working!

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This is what the noodles looked like before and after!  Yummy!

 

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Learn To Say Supervillains In Mandarin 超级反派

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超级反派

chāo jí fǎn pài

 

super villains

 Last week I shared how to say superheroes in Chinese.  This week I am sharing how to say my favorite supervillains in Chinese.  Supervillain in Chinese is 超级反派 “chāo jí fǎn pài.”  超级 means super and 反派 means villain.  I made the poster below with my favorite villains.  Learn how to pronounce their names with interactive flashcards and other activities by visiting the Supervillain Page.

 

super villains in Chinese

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Learn to Say Superheroes in Mandarin 超级英雄

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Superheroes

超级英雄

superheroes

Superhero in Chinese is 超级英雄 “chāo jí yīng xióng.”  超级 means super and 英雄 means hero.  I made the poster below with some of my favorite superheroes.  Now you can learn how to say the following superheroes in Mandarin Chinese with interactive flashcards and activities here.

 

Super Heroes in Chinese 超级英雄

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