Well the kids have grown a bit, but we did used to love the old Wiggles 🙂 So we translated the Wiggles’ version of ‘One Finger One Thumb Keep Moving’ for our Mandarin Motion Song and Story Time, which we had fun singing today 🙂

Here is the Wiggles’ English version to help you sing the Chinese version.  Just replace our Mandarin lyrics below.  My kids plan to make a Mandarin version video for you 🙂

手指大拇指 动动动

我们都很高兴 (repeat after each verse)

手指大拇指 胳膊 动动动

手指大拇指 胳膊 腿 动动动

手指 大拇指 胳膊 腿 点着的头动动动

手指 大拇指 胳膊 腿 点着的头 站起来 坐下来动动动

手指 大拇指 胳膊 腿 点着的头站起来 转个圈 坐下来 动动动

shǒu zhǐ dà mǔ zhì dòng dòng dòng

wǒmen dōu hěn gāo xìng (repeat after each verse)

shǒu zhǐ dà mǔ zhì gēbo dòng dòng dòng

shǒu zhǐ dà mǔ zhì gēbo tuǐ dòng dòng dòng

shǒu zhǐ dà mǔ zhì gēbo tuǐ diǎn zhe de tóu dòng dòng dòng

shǒu zhǐ dà mǔ zhì gēbo tuǐ diǎn zhe de tóu zhànqilai zuòxialai dòng dòng dòng

shǒu zhǐ dà mǔ zhì gēbo tuǐ diǎn zhe de tóu zhànqilai zhuàn ge quān zuòxialai dòng dòng dòng

One finger One Thumb keep moving
We’ll all be happy and bright.
One finger, One Thumb, One Arm, keep moving
One finger, One Thumb, One Arm, One Leg, keep moving
One finger, One Thumb, One Arm, One Leg, One nod of the head, keep moving
One finger, One Thumb, One Arm, One Leg, One nod of the head, Stand Up, Sit Down, keep moving
One finger, One Thumb, One Arm, One Leg, One nod of the head, Stand Up, Turn around, Sit Down, keep moving

We will read ‘The Pet Dragon’ by Christoph Niemann this week, as requested from one of our students 🙂 It is a lovely book to introduce Chinese characters through clever illustrations.

We might see if we can be just as clever and make some of these characters with our bodies, on our own or as a team 🙂 Here is the illustration for 上下 in our book.

And here are our kids making them with their bodies:

We sing lots of songs that have 上 (shàng) ‘up/above/over etc.’ and 下 (xià) ‘down/below/under etc.’ in them. A good song and video to keep watching for ‘Up/Down’  is the Groovi Pauli ‘Going Up Going Down’ song, which you can watch by clicking on the song name! And don’t forget our ‘Where is the teacher?’ song that has ‘Up there’ and ‘Down there’ in it.  We move our shoulders ‘Up and down’ in our Clap hands song.  Our ‘London Bridge’ activity too has ‘falling DOWN’ in there.  And our Jelly Fish song has Up/Down in it! Here is a video I forgot I had of my kids a couple of friends singing this a few years back! You can watch it here but click on the London Bridge link for more details and lyrics of the song. There are no excuses for getting our 上 and 下 mixed up 🙂

So come along for some kinesthetic character learning fun!

This week at our Mandarin Motion Song and Story Time we will read 好饿的毛毛虫  (hǎo è de máo mao chóng) ‘The Very Hungry Caterpillar’.  We have all the food ready to feed our very hungry caterpillar!

This book is great for kids to make so many connections in Mandarin!  It has days of the week, counting, and lots of different measure words to hear!

We can also sing along to these two cool Groovi Pauli songs , salsa to the fruit song, and listen to our bellies 咕噜咕噜叫 (gū lu gū lu jiào) ‘rumble’!

苹果，苹果，苹果 (píng guǒ, píng guǒ, píng guǒ) apple, apple, apple
香蕉，香蕉，香蕉 (xiāng jiāo, xiāng jiāo, xiāng jiāo) banana, banana, banana
葡萄，葡萄，葡萄 (pú táo, pú táo, pú táo) grapes, grapes, grapes
橘子 (jú zi) tangerine

水果，水果，水果 (shuǐ guǒ, shuǐ guǒ, shuǐ guǒ) fruit, fruit, fruit
营养 (yíng yǎng) nutritious
水果，水果，水果 (shuǐ guǒ, shuǐ guǒ, shuǐ guǒ) fruit, fruit, fruit
水果 好吃 (shuǐ guǒ hǎo chī) Yummy fruit

草莓，草莓，草莓 (cǎo méi, cǎo méi, cǎo méi) strawberry, strawberry, strawberry
西瓜，西瓜，西瓜 (xī guā, xī guā, xī guā) watermelon, watermelon, watermelon
梨，梨，梨 (lí, lí, lí) pear, pear, pear
柚子 (yòu zi) grapefruit

水果，水果，水果 (shuǐ guǒ, shuǐ guǒ, shuǐ guǒ) fruit, fruit, fruit
营养 (yíng yǎng) nutritious
水果，水果，水果 (shuǐ guǒ, shuǐ guǒ, shuǐ guǒ) fruit, fruit, fruit
水果 好吃 (shuǐ guǒ hǎo chī) Yummy fruit

 What sound is that? 什么声音 shén me shēng yīn
Are you hungry? 你饿吗 nǐ è ma

I’m hungry 我饿了wǒ è le
I want to eat something 想吃东西 xiǎng chī dōng xī
So hungry.

Ah-ya. I’m so hungry. 哎呀。我好饿。āi yā wǒ hǎo è
My stomach is rumbling. 我肚子咕噜咕噜叫。wǒ dù zi gū lū gū lū jiào
I want to eat eat eat eat something. 我要吃吃吃吃东西。wǒ yào chī chī chī chī dōng xī
I want to eat til I’m full. 我要吃到饱。wǒ yào chī dào bǎo

I’m hungry 我饿了wǒ è le
I want to eat something 想吃东西 xiǎng chī dōng xī
So hungry.

See you Wednesday!

We love stories and songs about bottoms 🙂 So we will read 谁的屁股? (shéi de pìgu) ‘Whose Bottom?’ this week, Wednesday 10am in our Mandarin Song and Story Time. For more posts on bottoms check out our wiping bottoms page, who did the poo page, tones and poo page, and poos and water page!

Lucas has also been busy this week playing with iMotion, and has made a little video to go to our 开门关门 song.  We have been singing this song for years in our story time, I wrote it when my kids were little and used to enjoy ‘Open Shut Them’ at regular library story time, and I wanted to try and write a similar action song in Mandarin to the same tune.  So here it is to enjoy at home 🙂 Well done Lucas 🙂 The words to the song are underneath the video.

Kāimén guānmén Kāimén guānmén,  Pāi Pāi Pāi Pāi shǒu

Kāimén guānmén Kāimén guānmén, mōmō jiǎozhǐtou

Zhànqǐlái zuòxià Zhànqǐlái zuòxià, Pāi Pāi Pāi Pāi shǒu

Zhànqǐlái zuòxià Zhànqǐlái zuòxià, mōmō nǐde tóu

开门关门开门关门, 拍拍拍拍手

开门关门开门关门, 摸摸脚指头

站起来坐下站起来坐下, 拍拍拍拍手

站起来坐下站起来坐下, 摸摸你的头

English translation is : Open the door, shut the door, open the door, shut the door, give a little clap, Open the door, shut the door, open the door, shut the door, touch your toes, stand up, sit down, stand up, sit down, give a little clap, stand up, sit down, stand up, sit down, touch your head.  Children put hands in prayer position and open and shut them to imitate a door opening and shutting for the first verse.  Children respond immediately as they know the tune so well.

We often, as with other songs, choose to sing this one 快 kuài /fast or  慢  màn /slow.  Kids love doing movement songs in speed and skow motion, and the slow version allows them to listen to and sing the song with very clear drawn out syllables.

See you Wednesday 🙂