Monthly Archives: October 2014

老师在哪里？ Where is the teacher?

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The kids are loving this song and I have been ordered to put on the website!  Here is a Powerpoint made by Sylvia Duckworth to go with the song, together with the cool song.  You can buy the song from iTunes and similar by searching ‘Basho and friends mandarin’.  They have a whole album of fun songs, so worth the investment to listen to in the car to learn together!!  They also do these catchy songs in lots of other languages too, so support them so that they can make some more cool learning stuff for our kids!

Lyrics in characters, pinyin and English translation are on the video, so just follow along.

A simple song, but such common language around the classroom, so asking where anything that you or a child needs can be replaced in the tune till children are confident asking and answering this question in Chinese.

 

拍拍手歌！ Clap hands song!

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Here is our ‘Clap hands song’ that we have been singing in class.  Just another layer of having fun moving our bodies in Mandarin!

Lyrics are on the video in characters, pinyin and English, so just follow along!

The powerpoint that goes with it is made by Sylvia Duckworth.  You can buy the song from iTunes and similar by searching ‘Basho and friends mandarin’.  They have a whole album of fun songs, so worth the investment to listen to in the car to learn together!!  They also do these catchy songs in lots of other languages too, so support them so that they can make some more cool learning stuff for our kids!

没有森林没有家！ No forest no home!

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This Groovi Pauli song is a project springboard for my year 7 students : 没有森林没有家！

koala save forest

You can purchase the song on iTunes by searching ‘Groovi Pauli the green album’, the track is called  ‘no forest no home’, but the whole album is great learning for Chinese – saving the planet is an issue close to our kids’ hearts.

Click here No Forest No Home for a PDF with the lyrics in Chinese characters, of the Powerpoint that we use in class for the song.

The song has many things we can explore:

  • comparing cultural/geographical differences to the issues around animal and environmental protection in Australia and China, Koalas and Pandas!
  • character components 木，虫 (林， 森， 树， 样， 蚂蚁， 蛇）
  • location 上， 下， 里 and springboard to practice other location words
  • verbs 有， 没有， 住  How have we used these personally?
  • homonym alert!  砍树 v  看书 ，   毛 v 猫
  • compound word fun 毛毛虫 = hairy hairy worm = caterpillar     猫头鹰 = cat headed bird of prey = owl
  • students can choose a medium to create an educational awareness poster

Character lyrics followed by pinyin lyrics with literal translation are:

我家在森林， 森林森力
不要乱砍树
没有森林没有家

上面住鸟
下面住蚂蚁蛇
树里住猫头鹰
树干有毛毛虫

有人砍树
这样不行
很多动物住那里
没有森林没有家

Chorus:

Wǒjiā zài sēnlín, sēnlín sēnlín   (My home is in the forest, forest forest)
bùyào luàn kǎn shù                      (No need to randomly chop trees)
méiyǒu sēnlín méiyǒu jiā            (No forest, no home)

Verse 1 :
shàngmiàn zhù niǎo                     (at the top live birds)
xiàmiàn zhù mǎyǐ shé                  (at the bottom live ants, snakes)
shù lǐ zhù māotóuyīng                 (in the tree live owls)
shùgàn yǒu máomao chóng         (tree trunks have caterpillars)

Verse 2:
yǒurén kǎn shù                                (some people chop trees)
zhèyàng bùxíng                              (this way is not OK)
hěnduō dòngwù zhù nàlǐ              (lots of animals live there)
méiyǒu sēnlín méiyǒu jiā              (no forest, no home)
 

圣诞老人！Santa Claus!

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We learned this song last year and will practice it again so that you can all song it together as a family over Xmas Dinner!  Groovi Pauli has since shared his video of his Chinese version…. So here it is! Don’t forget you can buy Groovi Pauli’s albums on iTunes, he has a whole album of celebration festival songs!

Below the video are the pinyin lyrics and literal translation, but you can find the Chinese characters on the attached santa claus coming to town images for song that I created.

Xiǎopéngyǒu, nǐ bùyào kū
wǒmen lái yīqǐ, hāhā dà xiào
shèngdàn lǎorén jìn chéng lái liao

tā zhīdào nǐ shuìjiàole, tā zhīdào nǐ méi shuì
tā zhīdào nǐ guāi bù guāi, suǒyǐ nǐ yào guāi

literal translation:

little children, no need to cry

lets get together and be happy

santa Claus is coming to town

he knows if you are asleep, he knows if you’re not asleep

he knows if you are good or not good, so you need to be good