We will read this book this week: 听, 是谁在唱歌？ (tīng, shì shéi zài chàng gē ?) ‘Listen, who is singing?’
It is full of Onomatopoeia, or words that make a sound like the sound they are trying to describe. They are called 拟声词 (nǐ shēng cí) in Chinese, or literally ‘imitating sound word’. These are great for young learners of Chinese, because just like in first language acquisition, these words can allow children to explore the ‘sounds’ of a language. You will notice that most of the characters in the table below for these ‘sound’ words, have the 口 radical on the left side of the character, which is the ‘mouth’ radical…often giving a clue it is an onomatopoeia word!
The children will have to try and guess which animal is making the singing noise!
The following table has a list of the animals, and the animal sounds that the children will enjoy while reading this book.
Cow
牛
niú
Moo
哞哞
mōu mōu
Duck
鸭子
yā zi
Quack
嘎嘎
gā gā
Dog
狗
gǒu
Wuff
汪汪
wāng wāng
Cat
猫
māo
Meow
喵喵
miāo miāo
Lion
狮子
shī zi
Roar
嗷呜
áo wū
Sheep
羊
yáng
Baa
咩
miē
Rooster
公鸡
gong jī
Crow
喔喔
wōwo
Horse
马
mǎ
Neigh
嘶嘶
sī sī
Pig
猪
zhū
Oink
哼哼
hēng hēng
Frog
青蛙
qīng wā
Croak
呱呱
guā guā
Here is a familiar song to help us make those animal sounds! The first sound in the song is a chicken, which is not in our book (we have a rooster in our book crowing ‘wōwō!’. The chicken says 叽叽 ‘jījī’, more like the ‘cheep cheep’ sound of a baby chicken. Lyrics to the song are under the video. Old MacDonald in Chinese is 老王先生 lǎo wáng xiānsheng, the ‘lǎo’ is a polite address of a senior, the ‘wáng’ is his surname, and ‘xiānsheng’ is the word for ‘Mr.’ In Chinese we say ‘Wang Mr’, not ‘Mr Wang’ 🙂 Enjoy!
wáng lǎo xiān shēng yǒu kuài dì yī yā yī yā yōu
王老先生有块地，咿呀咿呀呦
tā zài tián lǐ yǎng xiǎo jī yī yā yī yā yōu
他在田里养小鸡，咿呀咿呀呦
zhè lǐ jī jī jī nà lǐ jī jī jī
这里叽叽叽，那里叽叽叽
zhè lǐ jī nà lǐ jī dào chù dōu zài jī jī
这里叽，那里叽，到处都在叽叽
wáng lǎo xiān shēng yǒu kuài dì yī yā yīyā yōu
王老先生有块地，咿呀咿呀呦
Literal English Translation:
Farmer Wang had a plot of land, yiya yiya yo
On his land he raised little chicks yiya yiya yo
With a cheep cheep here, and a cheep cheep there,
Here a cheep, there a cheep, everywhere a cheep cheep
We went to an environmental centre last Tuesday to learn all about recycling! It is something we need to learn how to do better to help contribute to the achievement of the Global Goal of Responsible Consumption and Production. We also learned how to talk about recycling in Mandarin, so that we could share our learnings to both the English and Mandarin speaking communities of Brisbane 🙂
So from their research, the kids learned that Australia is not recycling as well as we could, and it seems mostly to do with confusion of what can and cannot be recycled, especially when each City Council has its own rules! So we thought we would start with finding out what we can and cannot recycle in the Brisbane City Council area…we learned things we didn’t know! So the kids made a video to share their findings about ‘Recycling’ in Brisbane. They made this one in both English and Chinese, so that we could share these findings with both the English and Chinese speaking communities in Brissie!
Words to the song in our video are same as Groovi Pauli’s version below…but we had to change the words in our version to reflect our Council’s classifications! 🙂 Our classifications are Plastic 塑料 (sù liào) Glass 玻璃 (bō li) Paper 纸 (zhǐ) Cardboard 纸板 (zhǐ bǎn) and Metal 金属 (jīn shǔ). There are tables in the video that show examples of what can and cannot be recycled in each classification, in both English and Mandarin. These tables are copied in this post at the bottom, but unfortunately I cannot colour code them on this page like they are in the video!
Some piks from the Recycle talk at Osprey House Environmental Centre:
The song that the kids sing in the video is taken from Groovi Pauli’s ‘Recycle song’ on his ‘Go Green’ album (top album to buy and listen to!), they had to change the lyrics a little to suit our Council’s classification and rules! But here is Groovi Pauli’s version to listen to:
Lyrics to Groovi Pauli’s Recycle song are:
我说嘿！
垃圾分类
要资源回收
看看你的垃圾
你有没有回收？
OH哦，没有没有
分类一下
回收容易了
瓶子玻璃
纸电池
都可以回收
不要乱丢
wǒ shuō hēi ！
lā jī fēn lèi
yāo zī yuán huí shōu
kàn kan nǐ de lā jī
nǐ yǒu méi yǒu huí shōu ？
OH ò ， méi yǒu méi yǒu
fēn lèi yī xià
huí shōu róng yì le
píngzi bōli
zhǐ diànchí
dōu kě yǐ huí shōu
bù yào luàn diū
I said ‘Hey’
separate your rubbish
you must recycle natural resources
look at your rubbish
have you recycled it?
Oho, no, no
sort it
recycling is easy
bottles, Glass,
paper, batteries (NB lyrics/materials in our kids’ version changed to reflect Brisbane City Council’s classifications)
all can be recycled
don’t throw it away!
The following tables were created to give examples of what can and cannot be recycled in each classification of the Brisbane City Council..in both English and Mandarin 🙂
Our older group is learning a play, and this song might help them to learn some of the vocab, by grouping the words into opposites! Enjoy this video put together by Jacky Tse, try and learn the words for our opposites game next week 🙂
Three cheeky cows jumping on chicken’s sofa again this week!
This is a great book by Jan Thomas, as children just have this innate desire to jump on the sofa, and so relate to the cows’ inability to control themselves, their regret as they are reminded they shouldn’t do it, and how they get around promising not to do it again! It’s also really a great book to use repetitive and meaningful Chinese to the children. It reinforces lots of phrases we use in the classroom regularly, apologising, and reinforces ‘Up Down’. It will help the students talk about the location of things by using the location marker 在 (zài). Eg.
牛在哪里？ niú zài nǎ lǐ？ literally ‘Cow is located where?’
you can then answer with exactly where they are:
牛在沙发上。 niú zài shāfā shàng. literally ‘Cow is located sofa on’
To get this location marker stuck in your head, don’t forget our teacher song!
You can download a lovely finger puppet activity to act this story out at home, on the author’s website Jan Thomas Books.
Here are some of the words the children hear when sharing this book in Chinese:
小鸡 xiǎo jī Little chicken
小牛 xiǎo niú Little cow
沙发 shāfā sofa
准备好了吗？ zhǔnbèi hǎo le ma? Are you ready?
准备好了！ zhǔnbèi hǎo le！ Ready!
跳上跳下 tiào shàng tiào xià Jump up and down
跳舞 tiàowǔ Dance
扭来扭去 niǔ lái niǔ qù Wiggle around
在沙发上 zài shāfā shàng on the sofa
Here is the song the older students were introduced to last week to understand the really common usage of 上下 (shàng xià) or ‘Up / Down’ in Chinese. Another cool song by Groovi Pauli! Little kids will like singing the main part of this song! Lyrics are below.
shàng shàng shàng going up up up, xià xià xià going down down below
上上上going up up up, 下下下going down down below.
Activity
In the up down song we sing in class, a few examples of shàng and xià are explored. Use these around the house /community. Let Groovi Pauli help you pronounce these by watching the video lots of times!
shàng chuáng – Getting in bed
shàng chē – Getting in the car
shàng lóu – Going up the stairs
shàng kè – starting class
xià chuáng – getting out of bed
xià chē – getting out of the car
xià lóu – going down the stairs
xià kè – finishing class
It’s Easter this weekend, so after you have made some Hot Cross Buns, sit back and enjoy this rabbit song! We will learn it in our story time this week. Remember there is no Thursday Story Time this week while the school hols are still on, but please feel welcome to come to our Wednesday 10am session 🙂
小兔子乖乖 (Xiǎo tùzǐ guāiguāi) ‘Little Good Rabbits’ is a popular Chinese story and song. A Mummy Rabbit tells her kids not to let the door open to anyone while she goes and gets them radishes to eat, and a wolf tries to trick them into thinking he is their mum, but the rabbits are so good and clever they’re onto it! Kids will enjoy this video and song! Here are the words to sing along to:
Translation: Little Good Rabbits, Open the door, quickly open the door, I want to come in, No, No, we won’t open it, Mum hasn’t returned yet, we won’t open it for anyone, Little Good Rabbits, Open the door, quickly open the door, I want to come in, of course we will open it, Mum has returned, quickly open the door.
复活节快到了！我们做十字面包吧！(fù huó jié kuài dào le ！ wǒ men zuò shí zì miàn bāo ba ！) ‘Easter’s coming! Let’s make Hot Cross Buns!’
Happy Easter! As a gift, kids have translated their favourite Hot Cross Bun recipe into Chinese, and made a video for you to follow!
So….how do you follow a recipe in Chinese??? See below the video for help!
Aurora and Lucas have tried their hardest to make a cooking video, that clearly points to each ingredient as they say it in Chinese, and clearly shows you what to do as they recount the method. On top of that they have made a downloadable hot cross buns 1 Powerpoint that has the ingredients and key verbs and measurements used in the recipe, with the pinyin, English and images to help you work out the vocabulary! Bear in mind they are learning how to talk about ‘dough rising’ in Chinese and video techniques too as they do this project, but making a video to help others learn, we think this is the best way for us to learn! They used an iPad as a camera, and iMovie app to create the video. Aurora and Lucas hope that this video will help:
beginner to intermediate learners of Chinese learn a little more Chinese by having fun making Hot Cross Buns for Easter, and saying each step out loud as they make them!!
inspire other students of Chinese to make their own cooking or instructional videos in Chinese.
inspire Chinese teachers to show the video to their students to inspire them to do a similar project together.
inspire Chinese people to have a go at making a Western traditional recipe!
Here is the list of ingredients and method in Chinese and pinyin, you will need to work out the English from the video actions and the powerpoint (linked above)! Good Luck!
While in Melbourne we got to visit ‘China Books’ for a few more additions to our Chinese library! One of our new books is 袋熊日记 (dàixióng rìjì) ‘Diary of a Wombat’. We thought it was a good book seeing as we looked out for Wombats on our hike! It is a diary, written by the Wombat, his perspective, and helps us to 思考人类与动物的相处 (sī kǎo rén lèi yú dòng wù de xiāng chǔ) ‘ponder ways for humans and animals to get along’.
Of course the main reason for our visit was our 4 day hike in Wilson’s Promontory NP, but our journey did allow us to ponder our connection with nature, the environment and the animals we met along the way. S0…using this book as a springboard, the kids wrote their own picture diary of our hike. I have asked them to make a visual diary of our hike to display on our wall (still working on that one), but also to make an electronic version to share on social media using any program they wished. They chose iMovie. This is a great task to do with your students, as children want to express things in a diary that they may not need to do in a regular structured Chinese class. They needed to use many online tools, and research other blogs about hiking in Chinese, to find out ways to express things that they didn’t normally have to talk about in Chinese! They needed to find tourist websites in Chinese to find out the names of the places. Their skills in producing videos are also getting better each time they make one!
They would like to share their video of our awesome hike in Wilson’s Prom. I am very proud of my kids to tackle this challenging task with such confidence, knowing that every little task they do their Chinese improves each time. The video only has Chinese, but beneath the video is the text with English together with the images, and the pinyin is below that.
威尔逊角半岛远足 (Wilson’s Prom Hike)
一趟长距离的徒步旅行, 四天走36公里 (沿着紫色的线)
A long distance hike, 36km in 4 days (follow the purple line)
第一天 (Day 1) ：十公里 10km
从潮汐河（from Tidal River）到海豹猎人湾（to Sealers Cove）
第二天 (Day 2)：七公里 7km
从海豹猎人湾（from Sealers Cove）到庇护湾（to Refuge Cove)
第三天 (Day 3)： 七公里 7km
从庇护湾（from Refuge Cove) 到小滑铁卢湾（to Little Waterloo Bay）
第四天 (Day 4)： 十二公里 12km
从小滑铁卢湾（from Little Waterloo Bay）到潮汐河（to Tidal River）
第一天 (Day 1)
我们开始出发啦！下雨了！We set off on our hike! It’s raining!
在林地停下来吃了一个小吃。 第一天我们步行了十公里。In woodlands we stop for a snack. Day 1 we walked 10km.
我们脱下靴子穿过了潮汐河口。我们没看见一只袋熊。We took off our boots to cross the tidal estuary. We didn’t see a wombat.
在海滩边附近搭起了帐篷。从帐篷的窗口我们可以看到大海的美丽风光。We set up tent near the beach. From our tent window we had a lovely view of the ocean.
我们吃午饭，喝咖啡，探险海滩。我们吃了晚饭，意大利面和吞拿鱼。我们的厨房是很美丽的大自然！We ate lunch, drank coffee, explored the beach. We had dinner, pasta and tuna. Our kitchen was nature’s beauty!
我们骑一条鲸鱼。（骑一块岩石看起来像鲸鱼一样！）我们睡觉了。 夜里：整夜下大雨。We rode a whale. (Well, rode a rock that looked like a whale!). We went to bed. It rained all night!
第二天 (Day 2)
衣服和露营设备湿透了，我们第二天开始步行。Our clothes and camp gear were soaking wet! We set off on our second day.
休息时间！小吃的景色！继续走。我们没看见一只袋熊。Rest time! Morning tea’s scenery! On we go. We didn’t see a wombat.
我们新的客厅！ 我们在海洋洗澡！很冷！ 妈妈不愿意在冷水里游泳！Our new living room! We bath in the sea! very cold! Mum was reluctant to swim in the cold water.
第三天 (Day 3)
继续走吧！ 海边的林地很美丽。小吃美丽的景色另一地方。继续走吧！我们没看见一只袋熊。On we go! The coastal woodlands were beautiful. Another beautiful snack spot. On we go! We didn’t see a wombat.
小吃美丽的景色，午饭美丽的景色另一地方！A beautiful morning tea spot, lunch at a another beautiful spot!
我们在小滑铁卢湾到了！又搭帐篷。We arrive at Little Waterloo Bay! Set up tent again.
喝热巧克力。 探险海滩。Drink hot chocolate. Explore the beach.
第四天 (Day 4)
又开始步行。 美丽的沼泽地。Set off again. Beautiful wetlands.
一块岩石看上去好像要掉下来似的，一块岩石看起来像脸一样。我们没看见一只袋熊，但是看见了针鼹鼠！A rock that looks like it’s going to fall off, a rock that looks like a face. We didn’t see a wombat, but we saw an echidna!
远足结束了！Remote hike finished!
Wēiěrxùn jiǎobàndǎo yuǎnzú
yī tāng chángjùlí de túbùlǚxíng , sì tiān zǒu 36 gōnglǐ ( yánzhe zǐ sè de xiàn )
dì yī tiān ： shí gōng lǐ 10km cóng cháo xī hé （ TIDAL RIVER ） dào hǎi bào liè rén wān （ SEALERS COVE ）
