A new term with some new faces! A great chance to integrate Mandarin into an activity that helps the students relax and make ‘Friends’.
So the value of “Friendliness” or ‘友好’ will be used to connect with each other and our learning. I will use this artwork as a springboard (taken from Monica Bastiste website, where you can purchase her Yoga for Little Bears book).
友好的姿势
The students will do this activity together many times over the term, and will become familiar with the following language:
小朋友们，手拉手。
看你的朋友的眼睛。
闭上眼睛。
呼吸, 呼吸, 闭上眼睛， 让我们变得朋友，
让你的脚变成地球的朋友， 让我们变成地球的朋友
Xiǎopéngyǒumen, shǒu lāshǒu,
kàn nǐ de péngyǒu de yǎnjīng。
bì shàng yǎnjīng
Hūxī, hūxī, bì shàng yǎnjīng, ràng wǒmen biàn dé péngyǒu 。
ràng nǐ de jiǎo biàn chéng dìqiú de péngyǒu / ràng wǒmen biàn chéng dìqiú de péngyǒu)
Everyone (little friends), hold hands.
Look into your friends eyes.
Close your eyes.
Breathe… lets be friends!
Let our feet be the earth’s friend / let’s be the earth’s friend.
There are lots of connections to prior learning, especially ‘friend’ language, body parts, and I often use the ‘地球’ in class (my blow up world!) for games in class. As children learn more and more about how to talk about Saving the Environment in Chinese, the world, or 地球 (dìqiú) will become a familiar word!
Another connection, you may have seen this episode of 巧虎 before, on the 剪刀石头布 (Paper Rock Scissors) post. But before it gets to that segment, there is a cool segment to watch about how to make friends in Chinese, good viewing while we are talking about ‘friends!’ Here is how to make friends in Chinese. The language in the segment is typed out below.
要一起玩的时候， 可以说 “你好， 可以一起玩吗？” “好啊， 我们一起玩”
Yào yīqǐ wán de shíhòu, kěyǐ shuō “nǐ hǎo, kěyǐ yīqǐ wán ma?” “Hǎo a, wǒmen yīqǐ wán”
When you want to play with someone, you can say ‘Hello, can I play with you?’ (They say back ) ‘Yeah, let’s play!’