回收! Recycle!

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 🙂

(for more insight into the Global Goals see our blog posts Heroes for Change, sending light , a day without electricity, and using milk to make plastic)

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

        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 🙂

Metal materials that can be recycled:

Metal 金属 jīn shǔ
Tin cans 罐头 guàn tou
Soft drink cans 软饮料罐 ruǎn yǐn liào guàn
Foil trays 银箔托盘 yín bó tuō pán
Aluminium foil 铝箔 lǚ bó
aerosols 喷雾罐 pēn wù guàn
Paint tins 颜料罐 yán liào guàn

Metal Materials that cannot be recycled:

Metal 金属 jīn shǔ
Batteries 电池 diàn chí
Gas bottles 煤气罐 méi qì guàn
Metal wire 金属线 jīn shǔ xiàn
Scrap metal 废钢铁 fèi gāng tiě
Stainless steel cutlery 金属制的餐具 jīn shǔ zhì de cān jù
White goods 白色家电 bái sè jiā diàn

Glass Meterials that can be recycled:

Glass 玻璃 bō li
food bottles and jars 食物玻璃瓶和玻璃罐 shí wù bō li píng hé bō li guàn
Drink bottles 饮料玻璃瓶子 yǐn liào bō li píng zi
Perfume bottles 香水瓶 xiāng shuǐ píng

Glass Materials that cannot be recycled:

Glass 玻璃 bō li
Drinking glasses 玻璃杯 bō li bēi
Heat resistant glass 耐热玻璃 nài rè bō li _
Mirror glass 镜玻璃 jìng bō li
Window glass 窗玻璃 chuāng bō lí
Light bulb 灯泡 dēng pào

Plastic Materials that can be recycled:

plastic 塑料 sù liào
Soft drink bottles 软饮料瓶子 ruǎn yǐn liào píng zi
Takeaway containers 塑料容器 sù liào róng qì
Butter/yoghurt tubs 黄油/酸奶包装容器 huáng yóu / suān nǎi bāo zhuāng róng qì
Disposable plates /cutlery 塑料餐具 sù liào cān jù
Shampoo/detergent bottles 洗发水/洗涤剂瓶 xǐ fà shuǐ / xǐ dí jì píng
Biscuit / sushi trays 饼干/寿司盘 bǐng gān / shòu sī pán
Milk /juice bottles 牛奶 /果汁瓶 niú nǎi / guǒ zhī píng

Plastic Materials that cannot be recycled:

plastic 塑料 sù liào
Hard plastics (eg. toys /toothbrushes) 硬质塑料 (比如玩具/牙刷) yìng zhì sù liào ( bǐ rú wán jù / yá shuā )
Straws 吸管 xī guǎn
Plastic bags 塑料袋 sù liào dài
Cling wrap 保鲜膜 bǎo xiān mó
Chip packets 薯片包装 shǔ piàn bāo zhuāng
Toothpaste tubes 牙膏管子 yá gāo guǎn zǐ
Bubble wrap 气泡包装 qì pào bāo zhuāng

Paper Materials that can be recycled:

paper zhǐ
newspaper 报纸 bào zhǐ
Junk mail / advertising brochures 垃圾邮件/广告邮件 lā jī yóu jiàn / guǎng gào yóu jiàn
Office paper 办公废纸 bàn gōng fèi zhǐ _
Gift wrap 礼物包装纸 lǐ wù bāo zhuāng zhǐ _
Note books 笔记本 bǐ jì běn _
magazines 杂志 zá zhì _
Phone books 电话簿 diàn huà bù
Greetings cards 贺卡 hè kǎ
Paper bags 纸袋 zhǐ dài
envelopes 信封 xìn fēng

Paper Materials that cannot be recycled:

paper zhǐ
Padded envelopes 软包装的信封 ruǎn bāo zhuāng de xìn fēng
photos 照片 zhào piàn
Wax coated paper 蜡纸 là zhǐ
tissues 纸巾 zhǐ jīn
Toilet paper 卫生纸 wèi shēng zhǐ
Baking paper 烤纸 kǎo zhǐ

Cardboard Materials that can be recycled:

cardboard 纸板 zhǐ bǎn
boxes 纸箱 zhǐ xiāng
milk / juice cartons 牛奶箱 /果汁箱 niú nǎi xiāng / guǒ zhī xiāng
Egg cartons 鸡蛋箱 jī dàn xiāng
Toy boxes 玩具纸板包装 wán jù zhǐ bǎn bāo zhuāng
Pizza /cereal boxes 比萨饼盒 /谷物盒子 bǐ sà bǐng hé / gǔ wù hé zi
Detergent boxes 洗涤剂盒子 xǐ dí jì hé zi
Tissue boxes 纸巾盒 zhǐ jīn hé
Cardboard coffee cups 纸板咖啡杯 zhǐ bǎn kā fēi bēi

Cardboard Materials that cannot be recycled:

cardboard 纸板 zhǐ bǎn
Wax coated boxes 蜡涂层的纸板箱子 là tú céng de zhǐ bǎn xiāng zi

Happy Recycling!

反义词 Opposites!

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 🙂

The lines in between are pronounced as follows:

反义词歌

现在我们做什么?

大家说说反义词

反义词    反义词

大家说说反义词

fǎn yì cí gē

xiàn zài wǒ men zuò shén me ?

dà jiā shuō shuo fǎn yì cí

fǎn yì cí fǎn yì cí

dà jiā shuō shuo fǎn yì cí

Mandarin Motion Song and Story Time Wednesday 19th April 2017

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.

哪里? niú zài nǎ lǐ? literally ‘Cow is located where?’

you can then answer with exactly where they are:

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

别!                              biè!                                                   Don’t!
别跳!                          biè tiào!                                           Don’t jump!
别跳舞!                      biè tiào wǔ!                                     Don’t dance!

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

复活节快到了!我们做十字面包吧!Easter’s coming! Let’s make Hot Cross Buns!

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!

配料:

四茶匙酵母

四分之一杯糖

一杯半 温牛奶

四杯面粉

黄油80克

一个鸡蛋

一茶匙肉豆蔻

一茶匙肉桂

一杯葡萄干

十字糊: 四分之一杯水、两茶匙糖、四分之一杯面粉

做法:

  1. 把酵母放在温牛奶中化开。加入糖混匀。放在温暖处十分钟。
  2. 将面粉和黄油,放在碗里,搓成屑状。
  3. 倒入酵母混合物,搅拌。加入鸡蛋、肉豆蔻、肉桂和葡萄干。 搅拌,然后揉面团。放在温暖处进行发酵一个小时。
  4. 预热200℃ 的烤箱。
  5. 将面团分成16份. 排在铺了烤纸的烤盘上。
  6. 准备十字糊: 将水,糖和面粉放在新的碗里,搅拌. 盛入裱花袋。在表面呈十字型挤上十字糊。
  7. 入烤箱烤20分钟。中间最好转一下烤盘。

pèi liào :

sì chá chí jiào mǔ

sì fēn zhī yī bēi táng

yī bēi bàn wēn niú nǎi

sì bēi miàn fěn

huáng yóu 80 kè

yī gè jī dàn

yī chá chí ròu dòu kòu

yī chá chí ròu guì

yī bēi pú tao gān

shí zì hú : sì fēn zhī yī bēi shuǐ 、 liǎng chá chí táng 、 sì fēn zhī yī bēi miàn fěn

zuò fǎ :

1 . bǎ jiào mǔ fàng zài wēn niú nǎi zhōng huà kāi 。 jiā rù táng hùn yún 。 fàng zài wēn nuǎn chù shí fēn zhōng 。

2 . jiāng miàn fěn hé huáng yóu , fàng zài wǎn lǐ , cuō chéng xiè zhuàng 。

3 . dào rù jiào mǔ hùn hé wù , jiǎo bàn 。 jiā rù jī dàn 、 ròu dòu kòu 、 ròu guì hé pú tao gān 。 jiǎo bàn , rán hòu róu miàn tuán 。 fàng zài wēn nuǎn chù jìn xíng fā jiào yī gè xiǎo shí 。

4 . yù rè 200 ℃ de kǎo xiāng 。

5 . jiāng miàn tuán fēn chéng 16 fèn . pái zài pū le kǎo zhǐ de kǎo pán shàng 。

6 . zhǔn bèi shí zì hú : jiāng shuǐ , táng hé miàn fěn fàng zài xīn de wǎn lǐ , jiǎo bàn . chéng rù biǎo huā dài 。 zài biǎo miàn chéng shí zì xíng jǐ shàng shí zì hú 。

7 . rù kǎo xiāng kǎo 20 fēn zhōng 。 zhōng jiān zuì hǎo zhuǎn yī xià kǎo pán 。

在挠痒痒一次 One More Tickle! Mandarin Motion Song and Story Time Wed 15th /Thurs 16th March 2017

We will be reading ‘One More Tickle’ this week at our Mandarin Motion Song and Story Time.

你的脚怕痒吗?看看吧。停停停!nǐ de jiǎo pà yǎng ma ? kàn kan ba 。 tíng tíng tíng !Are your feet ticklish? Let’s see. Stop Stop Stop!

Tickle in Chinese is 挠痒痒 (náo yǎng yang). ‘Ticklish’ is 怕痒 (pà yang) literally ‘scared of being tickled’ 🙂

In this book ‘Little Nutbrown Hare’ 小栗色兔子 (xiǎo lì sè tù zi) gets tickled on many parts of his body!  So watch some of those songs with body parts in before you come to class!  Here are a few:

Happy Tickling!  See you Wednesday or Thursday 🙂

 

月份歌 Months of the year song

Some of my older students are learning the months of the year this week!  They are really easy, because once you can count in Chinese, and know the word for month 月 (yuè), then you know the months! One of my students pointed out that the character for month in Chinese also means ‘moon’.  That’s because months in China were originally counted by the moon cycle!

Learn this song so that you know the months off by heart:

Lyrics to the song are:

一年有几个月? 请你告诉我。

一月,二月,三月,四月,五月,六月, 七月,八月,九月,十月,十一月,十二月

没有十三月!

yī nián yǒu jǐ ge yuè ? qǐng nǐ gào su wǒ 。

 yī yuè , èr yuè , sān yuè , sì yuè , wǔ yuè , liù yuè , qī yuè , bā yuè , jiǔ yuè , shí yuè , shí yī yuè , shí èr yuè

 méi yǒu shí sān yuè !

How many months in a year?  Please let me know.
January, February, March, April, May, June, July, August, September, October, November, December.
There is no month 13!

Then you can play this months of the year game to help you listen out for the correct month!

 

我的袜子在哪里? Where are my socks? Mandarin Motion Song and Story Time Wed 1st/Thur 2nd March 2017

This week in our Wednesday and Thursday Song and Story Time class, we will read this book:

 

我的袜子在哪里?(wǒ de wàzi zài nǎlǐ ?) Where are my socks?

我的袜子在哪里? 我的条纹短裤在哪里? 我的蓝背心在哪里? 我的黄袜子在哪里? 我的牛仔裤在哪里? 我的红毛衣在哪里? 我的斑点鞋子在哪里? 我的绿夹克在哪里? 现在,我们一起出去玩吧!

Key words we will repeat are    我的  (wǒde) ‘my’  在哪里  (zài nǎ lǐ) ‘where’ and of course clothes: 袜子 (wà zi)  ‘socks’  背心   (bèi xīn) ‘vest’    短裤   (duǎn kù)  ‘shorts or undies’   牛仔裤  (niú zǎi kù) ‘jeans’    毛衣  (máo yī)  ‘jumper’    鞋子( xié zi) ‘shoes’.

Children will also starting from this week each take turns taking Dawei or Lili the Teddy Bear home each week! They are visiting Brisbane from China, and need a family to look after them every week, to help them get dressed each morning, and undressed each night! Children will also take Dawei’s or Lili’s ‘diary’ home with them, to enter a drawing or photograph of them helping Dawei or Lili get dressed, and sticking a sentence to accompany the drawing! For parents wanting more vocab, or if any other Chinese teachers are wanting to do a similar activity with their students, you can click on the following PDF : Dawei’s diary cover page This cover page will be already inserted into the diary when your child takes it home.

Here is a song I wrote (to the tune of the Addams Family), to help you remember clothes vocab! My wonderful kids made a video to it so that you can watch to sing along to. Lyrics are below.  They recorded and edited themselves and are becoming my best little teaching assistants 🙂

Chorus : chuānshàng yīfu (clap clap) chuānshàng yīfu (pāi pāi)

穿上衣服 (拍 拍)穿上衣服 (拍 拍)

chuānshàng yīfu chuānshàng yīfu chuānshàng yīfu (pāi pāi)

穿上衣服 穿上衣服, 穿上衣服 (拍 拍)

wǒ chuānshàng wǒ de Chènshān,   wǒ chuānshàng wǒ de duǎnkù,

我穿上我的衬衫,   我穿上我的短裤,

wǒ chuānshàng wǒ de wàzi, wǒ kànshàngqù hěn kù.

我穿上我的袜子, 我看上去很酷

(repeat chorus)

wǒ chuānshàng wǒ de jiākè, wǒ chuānshàng wǒ de xiězì,

我穿上我的夹克,  我穿上我的鞋子

wǒ daishàng wǒ de màozi,  ,wǒ kànshàngqù hěn kù.

我带上我的帽子, , 我看上去很酷
(repeat chorus)

 Translation: Chorus: Getting Dressed (clap clap), Getting Dressed (clap clap), Getting Dressed, Getting Dressed, Getting Dressed (clap clap), I put on my shirt, I put on my shorts, I put on my socks, I look very cool, I put on my jacket, I put on my shoes, I put on my hat, I look very cool. Adults can click fingers, children can clap, or they might like to just imitate you clicking fingers. Replace shorts with skirt using ‘qúnzi’ 裙子 if you want to!  More vocab is on the PDF above.

See you Wednesday or Thursday 🙂

关掉! Turn it off !

Our older students are going to save our planet this week, by learning a song to help us save electricity! In doing so we will also get to learn lots of useful vocab of things we use everyday in the house.  Remembering to turn things off to save electricity can be hard…but if we actually have to think harder to say ‘Turn it off’ in Chinese, and by making signs in Chinese next to some of our switches…it might help us to not only learn some Chinese…but help us to remember to TURN IT OFF!

Here is the Groovi Pauli song that we will learn.

I made a ‘Turn it off Powerpoint’ with the lyrics of the song on, with images to help students with the meaning of each line.  Singing this song with kinaesthetic gesture in class will also help reinforce the meaning. Click here to download the lyric and image Powerpoint Slide Show turn it off pp

This video, Groovi Pauli helps you to understand the song:

Here are some piks of signs that my kids made to stick next to some powerpoints in our home to help us remember to ‘Turn it off’.

We will make a some signs in class that you can take home and stick next to something at home that you sometimes forget to ‘Turn off!’.
You can purchase Groovi Pauli’s whole Green Album to help you learn other ways to save our planet in Chinese!!! Groovi Pauli on his Green Album.

Homonyms 同音异义词

Here are the links to the videos we watched with the older kids this week, to show the extent of how Chinese is a language built on homonyms!

There are lots of examples of Homonyms in English, ’There, their’, ‘two, too, to’, ‘buy, by’ etc. Words that sound the same but have different meanings.  But this happens much more in Chinese! 星星   猩猩 are both pronounced ‘xīng xing’, even have the same tone, but the first means ‘Star’ and the second means ‘Gorilla’.

Homonym in Chinese is 同音异义词   (tóng yīn yì yì cí) meaning ‘same sound different meaning word’.

To highlight this, we can use the poem in the The Lion-Eating Poet in the Stone Den 施氏食狮史; Shī Shì shí shī shǐ; literally: “The Story of Mr. Shi Eating Lions”)  by Yuen Ren Chao.  Every syllable in this poem is pronounced shi!

Here is the poem with the Chinese characters (note characters are traditional, I will add the simplified version below)

Here is the poem read out with the English translation for you as it is read:

Here is the simplified character version:

《施氏食狮史》
石室诗士施氏,嗜狮,誓食十狮。
氏时时适市视狮。
十时,适十狮适市。
是时,适施氏适市。
氏视是十狮,恃矢势,使是十狮逝世。
氏拾是十狮尸,适石室。
石室湿,氏使侍拭石室。
石室拭,氏始试食是十狮。
食时,始识是十狮尸,实十石狮尸。
试释是事。

Here is the pinyin:

“Shī shì shíshī shǐ”
shíshì shī shì shī shì, shì shī, shì shíshí shī.
Shì shí shíshìshì shì shī.
Shí shí, shì shí shī shì shì.
Shì shí, shì shī shì shì shì.
Shì shì shì shí shī, shì shǐ shì, shǐ shì shí shī shì shì.
Shì shi shì shí shī shī, shì shíshì.
Shíshì shī, shì shǐ shì shì shíshì.
Shí shì shì, shì shǐ shì shí shì shí shī.
Shí shí, shǐ shi shì shí shī shī, shí shí shí shī shī.
Shì shì shì shì.

Have fun trying to recite 🙂

 

 

Mandarin Motion Song and Story Time Wednesday 22nd Feb 10am and Thursday 23rd Feb 4pm

We will read this book this week …拉㞎㞎 (lā bǎ ba), or ‘Doing a Poo’ for both our Wednesday and Thursday sessions.  We have some lovely little Panda Cubs that came to our first session on Thursday last week, and we will be joined by a couple more this week…looking forward to having fun with these little ones on their Mandarin learning journey!

doing a poo book

We will heave some fun with the tones of Mandarin through some funny parts of our story, for more info on the tones in this story you can see an old blog post on tones and poo!

We will get to chat lots about colours…as our main character in the story has to try many toilets with different coloured doors! 这是什么颜色? zhè shì shén me yán sè? What colour is this? A strategy to remember the colour names to answer the questions will be going through our colour songs.

We will sing lots of songs, but keeping with the theme we will have to dance and sing to the cool ‘Wiping Bottom’ song!  For the full transcript and lyrics of this video, you can visit an old blog post on ‘Wiping Bottoms’.

Following from last week with our Thursday group, we will also play our Big Green Monster Puppet game

green monster

To remind us of our face parts to play this game you can click on this link and watch our face song, this is a little video of Aurora singing this for you! Plus the lyrics to sing along to!

The song we use to play the game is here Where is my Friend? – We don’t actually play this song in class, we will use the basic lyrics though to ‘substitute’ the word ‘Friend’ for whatever we are looking for in class when we play a game…but here is the link to the very original and well known song in Chinese if you want to become familiar with the tune and basic lyrics!

See you Wednesday or Thursday!