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

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)