十个小朋友 Ten Little Friends!

My kids made these next 2 videos for our older students to understand the concept of measure words! But little kids will enjoy watching them too!

This song is a favourite because the kids know the tune and hence the meaning very easily.  (Lyrics are at the bottom of post). When the kids know it well, it can be used in their Mandarin learning journey over and over, replacing the noun friend with whatever noun you want!  The beauty is that the measure word 个 (ge) will change, depending on what is being counted.  After the kids have heard the song with several different nouns throughout their journey, they will notice the change of the measure word too.  This is just one little piece of their learning which will make measure words not such a bizarre concept for them when they get older!  It also helps students remember that 二 (èr) ‘2’ changes to 两 (liǎng) when counting things.

For the older kids, it may seem pretty basic…but learning this basic song will help them with the concept of measure words as they come across them and make connections with the song.

This next video adds a game element to the song:

The words in the video are:

现在大家玩游戏   (xiàn zài dà jiā wán yóu xì) Now everybody lets play a game.

Start to sing the song again.  This time the last line changes to:

第七个小朋友跳跳跳   (dì qī gè xiǎo péng yǒu tiào tiào tiào) The seventh friend jumps

Students then have to find the seventh friend and make him jump.  Students can play this game with whatever they are counting and change the number, noun, measure word and action.  Students can also play this game in class using themselves, changing the action, and the correct student (the third, fifth or whomever has been called) needs to stand and do the action.

The lyrics to the song in the first video are:

一个两个三个小朋友 (yí gè liǎng gè sān gè  xiǎo péngyǒu) 1,2,3 little friends

四个五个六个小朋友 (sì gè wǔ gè liù gè  xiǎo péngyǒu)4,5,6 little friends

七个八个九个小朋友 (qī gè bā gè jiǔ gè  xiǎo péngyǒu) 7,8,9 little friends

十个可爱小朋友 (shí gè kěài xiǎo péngyǒu) 10 cute little friends

Remember another song that we have done in class that helps us build the concept of measure words and 二 (èr) ‘2’ changing to 两 (liǎng)? Remember 两只老虎 (liǎng
zhī lǎo hǔ) – those two tigers??  Here is the video again, and the words underneath.  In this case the measure word is 只 (zhī), which is a common measure word for many animals. After you have listened to the tiger song again, could you replace the ‘little friends’ song with ‘tigers’ in Mandarin?  Don’t forget to change the measure word!

两只老虎,两只老虎
跑得快,跑得快
一只没有耳朵
一只没有 尾巴
真奇怪,真奇怪

liǎng zhī lǎo hǔ, liǎng zhī lǎo hǔ
pǎo dé kuài, pǎo dé kuài
yī zhī méi yǒu ěr duǒ
yī zhī méi yǒu wěi bā
zhēn qí guài, zhēn qí guài

Two Tigers, Two Tigers
Running very fast, Running very fast
One has no ears, One has no tail,
How strange! How strange!

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