了解世界 Learning about the World

Visitors to our classroom have probably seen some snippets of information being added to our big world map!

Lucas has been having fun picking random places in the world and finding out a little more about them 🙂 As he does it he writes some things he found interesting in English and some things in Mandarin.  This way he can write what he feels comfy in Mandarin, and the other things in English.  It makes for a nice colourful knowledge of the world journey around our big world map 🙂

We have used Randall Munroe’s  万物解释者 (Mandarin version of his book ‘Thing Explainer’) to springboard these little journeys of knowledge.  It is great, as Munroe has only used vocab from the most common 1000 words, making reading about things in a second language (for an intermediate reader) less tedious! Another thing that has been great about it, is that the little bit of writing to each place is really nothing more than a curious tidbit…inviting you to find out a little more about that particular part of the world!

So Lucas chooses a place, reads what Munroe has written about it in Mandarin, then tries to find more information about the place in English.  He has learned all about Victoria Falls today in Zambia/Zimbabwe, and now wants to visit the Devil’s Pool 🙂 Up to now we have learned about New Zealand being much bigger than it looks above the sea!  How Iceland is fire! How Alaska had the biggest ever recorded wave! And how they dug a tunnel through Panama so that ships didn’t have to go all the way around South America 🙂

I highly recommend Munroe’s book translated into your target language for LOTE learners!!!  It has been really cool to be reading about countries on a world map in Chinese!  Then delving into more research to find out what Munroe is talking about! A different way to find out about a different place each week 🙂

For more info about Munroe’s book read on about the other things kids can ‘springboard’ off  🙂

Randall Munroe’s  ‘Thing Explainer’) in your target language is perfect for the LOTE learner! The author who works for NASA, claims to be able to explain complicated stuff in simple words, using a vocab of no more than 1000 words. Things like how the Mars Buggy lands and works.

How bathroom pipes work.

Lots of other random stuff, how washing machines work, how car engines work, how a biro works, how a cell in the body works…to the control panel of a space rocket….

What I really liked about it, is the appeal to an older student (diagrams look like they would contain pretty scientifically difficult captions to explain)…but the language is quite simple, so if you are reading in a second language the content is interesting but not too out of reach for an intermediate learner 🙂 Readers can find out about stuff in a second language, and if it rocks their boat, then delve deeper into the science, technology, or maths.

The book has been published in many languages…so just search for the language you are learning and learn the language and a little science at the same time 🙂

迷你厨房 Mini Kitchen

Doing a little fun tech and design has taught us a new word in Chinese: 迷你 (mínǐ) or ‘Mini’ 🙂

My daughter has gotten into the ‘Mini Kitchen’ craze!  Everything in this kitchen is handmade by my daughter, workable, and 迷你 MINI!

In Chinese the word for ‘mini’ 迷你 is a loan word, so one that ‘sounds’ like the western translation.  It is used for Mini Coopers and Mini-skirts!  The 迷 (mí) means to ‘bewilder’, and can also mean ‘an enthusiast, or a fan of something’.  This is a really good phonetic to use for the ‘mi’ part, as often something ‘mini’ is made for a trend, (like a mini-skirt or a car!) or something to bemuse or bewilder us! The 你 (nǐ) part means ‘you’.  So basically something 迷你 (mí nǐ) kinda means something made mini as a trend to bewilder / bemuse you!

There’s lots of Chinese we can integrate into such a fun project 🙂

First we have to plan, get the materials and make the 迷你厨房 (mínǐ chúfáng)  ‘mini kitchen’

设计迷你厨房   shèjì mínǐ chúfang            Plan / Design Mini Kitchen
迷你厨房材料   mínǐ chúfáng cáiliào         Mini Kitchen Materials
做迷你厨房       zuò mínǐ chúfang                Make the Mini Kitchen

Some things in the 迷你厨房!

迷你厨房水池      mínǐ chúfáng shuǐchí    ‘Mini Kitchen Sink’
迷你粘土烤炉     mínǐ niántǔ kǎolú            ‘Mini clay oven’
迷你锡罐烤炉     mínǐ xīguàn kǎolú           ‘Mini Tincan oven’
迷你厨具              mínǐ chújù                        ‘Mini Kitchen Utensils’
迷你蛋糕              mínǐ dàngāo                     ‘Mini Cake’
迷你食谱书          mínǐ shípǔ shū                 ‘Mini Cookbooks’

Here’s a video of the 迷你厨房 in action:

做迷你蛋糕 (zuò mínǐ dàngāo) ‘Making Mini Cakes – Fun Mandarin in Motion 🙂

We are learning Auslan sign :-)

Our family at Mandarin Motion have been learning AUSLAN sign language 🙂 So we will now use these signs more and more in our Mandarin Motion Song and Story Time as we learn them 🙂 Doing actions with words gives us a multiple intelligences work out, and helps us remember the vocab of a second language with the associated gesture, and we get to learn Auslan vocabulary in the bargain! Here are the kids practicing with the Hungry Caterpillar 🙂

In this sentence the kids are saying 星期一毛毛虫吃了一个苹果。(Xīngqīyī máomaochóng chī le yī gè píngguǒ) ‘On Monday the caterpillar ate one apple’.

Auslan is a language, with its own grammar, word order and culture, just like any other language.  When we learn another language we have to learn a new set of grammar rules, and often a word order that is different to our first language.  But in doing so we actually get to understand our first language better!  Mandarin has a different word order to English at times, and some grammatical particles that just don’t exist in English.  But as we learn the language, we get used to these differences.  Auslan too has a different word order to English! So it is important to know, that if you want to learn Auslan, I would really recommend enrolling in a course, like the ones Lisa Mills Online has.  That way you can become a multi lingual and communicate in Auslan!

What we are hoping to do at Mandarin Motion, is to include actions as we tell stories and sing songs, in Mandarin. We feel using Auslan Sign is the best way to do this, as then kids are learning vocabulary for two languages at the same time!  It is important to know though, that we are using the signs alongside Mandarin, and of course in Mandarin word order 🙂 The bonus is, not only does it help our brain network Mandarin, we are getting a foundation of Auslan vocabulary in the bargain 🙂 

In the above sentence there are 2 words that don’t exist in either English or Auslan! These are 了 pronounced ‘le’ and 个 pronounced ‘ge’.  But we want to include a sign for these words, because we just can’t ignore these words in Mandarin!  So for  了, which in this particular sentence is changing the verb 吃 from ‘eat’ to ‘ate’, we have used the  Auslan alphabet letter ‘L’ sign.  For 个 we have used the Auslan letter ‘G’ sign followed by the sign for ‘counting’ , as 个 (ge) is a measure word used when counting things in Chinese.  

Hope we can have fun learning to sign together, as we sing and share stories in Mandarin 🙂

 

我是格鲁特 I am Groot

Guardians of the Galaxy fans, learn how to say ‘I am Groot’ in 15 languages. In Mandarin Groot says ‘我是格鲁特‘ (Wǒ shì Gélǔtè) ‘I am Groot’. (If you would like to find out a little more about how foreign names are formed in Chinese you can click and read the blog link).

LOTE students can do all sorts of cool things using familiar characters and movies, like making memes or captioned photos like the one above…

…to making things like cool and cute bookmarks like the one my little girl just made for me (I love books and baby Groot!).

The name of the ‘Guardians of the Galaxy’ movie in Mandarin is  星际异攻队 (Xīng jì yì gōng duì), literally ‘Interstellar Strange Attacking Team’ which didn’t go down well as a good translation!

Watch this video to learn how to say ‘I am Groot’ in 15 languages….from the comments I think there may have been a few grammatical and pronunciation errors as I think Vin Diesel actually says all these 🙂 But all the more to discuss these errors with your students 🙂

Here is Vin Diesel talking about how he (apparently!) did the voice over for every foreign language translation of the movie…you can hear his Mandarin pronunciation put on the spot…I am sure he will be praised (politely :-)) by his Chinese audience 🙂

 

拼拼凑凑的变色龙 The Mixed-Up Chameleon

We will read 拼拼凑凑的变色龙 (Pīn pīn còu còu de biàn sè lóng) ‘The Mixed-Up Chameleon’ by Eric Carle at our Mandarin Song and Story Time this week.

This is a nice story about a chameleon who fancies himself as something bigger, but realises he finds himself happy just the way he is.

Seeing as our little chameleon imagines himself as lots of animals, maybe we will sing our ‘What animal?’ song this week too?  Here it is to sing to at home.  This song also has face parts in it, if you need a reminder of face parts, see blog post for a refresher on the face song.

It kind of goes to the ‘Skip to My Lou my darling’ tune, but here is my little girl singing this one for you. Animals and lyrics below. Maybe at home you can sing your own version using some of the animals in the book, other face/ body parts and different adjectives?  See you Wednesday at 10am 🙂


兔子 (tùzi) 兔子 (tùzi)大象 (Dàxiàng) 大象 (Dàxiàng)

河马 (Hémǎ) 河马 (Hémǎ)

青蛙 (Qīngwā) 青蛙 (Qīngwā)
Here are the lyrics for you in characters, followed by pinyin and translation for non-Mandarin speaking parents:

什么动物耳朵长?

什么动物鼻子长?

什么动物嘴巴大?

什么动物眼睛大?

兔子兔子耳朵长

大象大象鼻子长

河马河马嘴巴大

青蛙青蛙眼睛大

Shénme dòngwù Ěrduo cháng?

Shénme dòngwù bízi cháng?

Shénme dòngwù zuǐbɑ dà?

Shénme dòngwù Yǎnjing dà?

tùzi tùzi Ěrduo cháng

dàxiàng dàxiàng bízi cháng

hémǎ hémǎ zuǐbɑ dà

qīngwā qīngwā Yǎnjing dà

What animal has long ears?
What animal has a long nose?
What animal has a big mouth?
What animal has big eyes?
rabbit rabbit has long ears
Elephant elephant has long nose
Hippo hippo has big mouth
Frog frog has big eyes

 

 

 

艾德希兰 Ed Sheeran

Ed Sheeran’s Chinese name is 艾德 希兰 (àidé xīlán) or 红头艾德 (hóng tóu àidé) ‘Red Head Ed’.

There are lots of Mandarin cover versions of his songs on YouTube.  So if you like his songs, try searching and singing along to some of them in Mandarin. Singing along to songs in Mandarin is soooo good for Mandarin learners.  You can study the lyrics, or just sing along without knowing word for word…either way it gets Mandarin in your brain!

Here is a cool video of one of his songs ‘Shape of You’, ‘疯狂的爱上你’ (fēng kuáng de ài shàng nǐ), by Echo Lee. Below that is a link to a Mandarin version of Ed’s ‘Perfect’ by Sophie Chen. The lyrics in both videos are in traditional characters, so I have converted them to simplified below the videos for those studying simplified Chinese.  I have also converted to pinyin for your singing along convenience 🙂

Shape of You

去酒吧是因为夜店不是一个
找寻真 爱的 好去处
我和朋友们 喝烈酒 喝得快
超过我们说话 的速度 恩~~
你缓缓的走来 我们开始了邂逅 这感觉
不需任何 理由
相信我 会 握住你的双手
带领你 跟着这节奏
想被对妳共 我苏耀你ㄟ爱
你的出现是因为我的存在
跟着恋爱的节拍
不想今晚这么快 就说掰掰
也许有点坏 慢慢的逼近 将你心房打开
跟着恋爱的节拍
就跟着恋爱的节拍 嗯
我已疯狂的爱上你
像是磁铁的正负极
我的心正在靠近
就想和妳在一起
将你搂进我的怀里
香味还留在被单里
每天发掘你身上不同惊喜
我已疯狂的爱上妳
喔 爱 喔 爱 喔 爱 喔 爱
我已疯狂的爱上你
喔 爱 喔 爱 喔 爱
喔 爱 我已疯狂的爱上你
喔 爱 喔 爱 喔 爱 喔 爱
就想要和你在一起
每天发掘你身上不同惊喜
我已疯狂的爱上你
Verse2
你的美 让我如此沉醉 在每一刻和你的约会
餐厅不需要最贵 只要有你坐陪 都是最甜蜜的滋味
和你在一起的时间 快得好比火箭 好像永远都不会

Qù jiǔbā shì yīnwèi yèdiàn bùshì yīgè
zhǎoxún zhēn’ài de hǎo qùchù
wǒ hé péngyǒumen hē liè jiǔ hē dé kuài
chāoguò wǒmen shuōhuà de sùdù ēn ~~
nǐ huǎn huǎn de zǒu lái wǒmen kāishǐle xièhòu zhè gǎnjué
bù xū rènhé lǐyóu
xiāngxìn wǒ huì wò zhù nǐ de shuāngshǒu
dàilǐng nǐ gēnzhe zhè jiézòu
xiǎng bèi duì nǎi gòng wǒ sū yào nǐei1 ài
nǐ de chūxiàn shì yīnwèi wǒ de cúnzài
gēnzhe liàn’ài de jiépāi
bùxiǎng jīn wǎn zhème kuài jiù shuō bāi bāi
yěxǔ yǒudiǎn huài màn man de bījìn jiāng nǐ xīnfáng dǎkāi
gēnzhe liàn’ài de jiépāi
jiù gēnzhe liàn’ài de jiépāi ń
wǒ yǐ fēngkuáng de ài shàng nǐ
xiàng shì cítiě de zhèng fù jí
wǒ de xīn zhèngzài kàojìn
jiù xiǎng hé nǎi zài yīqǐ
jiāng nǐ lǒu jìn wǒ de huái lǐ
xiāngwèi hái liú zài bèidān lǐ
měitiān fājué nǐ shēnshang bùtóng jīngxǐ
wǒ yǐ fēngkuáng de ài shàng nǎi
ō ài ō ài ō ài ō ài
wǒ yǐ fēngkuáng de ài shàng nǐ
ō ài ō ài ō ài ō ài
wǒ yǐ fēngkuáng de ài shàng nǐ
ō ài ō ài ō ài ō ài
jiù xiǎng yào hé nǐ zài yīqǐ měitiān fājué nǐ shēnshang bùtóng jīngxǐ
wǒ yǐ fēngkuáng de ài shàng nǐ
Verse2
nǐ dì měi ràng wǒ rúcǐ chénzuì zài měi yīkè hé nǐ de yuēhuì
cāntīng bù xūyào zuì guì zhǐyào yǒu nǐ zuò péi dōu shì zuì tiánmì de zīwèi
hé nǐ zài yīqǐ de shíjiān kuài dé hǎobǐ huǒjiàn hǎoxiàng yǒngyuǎn dōu bù huì lèi

Perfect

这样的你
多么神奇
可以让我不顾一切道理
这样的你
多么甜蜜
难以相信这是命中注定

爱上你的我是多年轻
不懂如何珍惜
但这次绝对不放弃

再给我一个吻
感受爱有多深
让你感到我多认真

Baby

点缀了夜晚
天空变璀璨
我找到了答案
原来一切就这么简单
不想要继续隐瞒
只要在你的身边
就能感觉
幸福多么温暖

这样的你
比谁都坚强
想和你分享同个未来
同一个家

爱着你的我虽然年轻
有时有点任性
但这次绝对不放弃

慢慢地靠近你
紧紧地抱着你
让你感到我多认真

Baby

点缀了夜晚
天空变璀璨
我找到了答案
原来一切就这么简单
不想要继续隐瞒
只要在你的身边

Zhèyàng de nǐ
duōme shénqí
kěyǐ ràng wǒ bùgù yīqiè dàolǐ
zhèyàng de nǐ
duōme tiánmì
nányǐ xiāngxìn zhè shì mìngzhòng zhùdìng
ài shàng nǐ de wǒ shì duō niánqīng
bù dǒng rúhé zhēnxī
dàn zhècì juéduì bù fàngqì
zài gěi wǒ yīgè wěn
gǎnshòu ài yǒu duō shēn
ràng nǐ gǎndào wǒ duō rènzhēn
Baby
ài
diǎnzhuìle yèwǎn
tiānkōng biàn cuǐcàn
wǒ zhǎodàole dá’àn
yuánlái yīqiè jiù zhème jiǎndān
bùxiǎng yào jìxù yǐnmán
zhǐyào zài nǐ de shēnbiān
jiù néng gǎnjué
xìngfú duōme wēnnuǎn
zhèyàng de nǐ
bǐ shuí dōu jiānqiáng
xiǎng hé nǐ fēnxiǎng
tóng gè wèilái
tóng yīgè jiā
àizhe nǐ de wǒ suīrán niánqīng
yǒu shí yǒudiǎn rènxìng
dàn zhècì juéduì bù fàngqì
màn man de kàojìn nǐ
jǐn jǐn de bàozhe nǐ
ràng nǐ gǎndào wǒ duō rènzhēn
Baby
ài
diǎnzhuìle yèwǎn
tiānkōng biàn cuǐcàn
wǒ zhǎodàole dá’àn
yuánlái yīqiè jiù zhème jiǎndān
bùxiǎng yào jìxù yǐnmán
zhǐyào zài nǐ de shēnbiān
jiù néng gǎnjué xìngfú duōme wēnnuǎn

十字面包 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!’

Well it’s nearly Easter again! Here is a video the kids made last year (at age 9 and 11) to help you make Hot Cross Buns in Chinese! Easter is not traditionally celebrated in China, so there was never really a name for hot cross buns…so what do we call them when we want to let our Chinese friends know what we are doing for Easter? Well, the Chinese character for the number ten is written like this 十. Kind of cross shaped, so we call hot cross buns 十字面包,( shízì miànbāo ) or ‘the number ten character bread’ 😊Easter is 复活节, fùhuójié 复 meaning to duplicate, and 活 meaning life, 节 meaning festival, so kind of duplicate life festival…or being born again festival 😃

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 。

头脑特工队 Inside Out

看看脑袋里谁在帮你出主意。 

(Kànkan nǎodài lǐ shéi zài bāng nǐ chū zhǔyi.)

Take a look inside your head and see who’s helping you make decisions.

We have put the Chinese names of the ‘Inside Out’ characters in the above picture. In the movie these characters are collectively called 情绪小人 (qíngxù xiǎo rén), literally meaning ‘state of mind little people’.  There is something quite common though about words in Chinese that have something to do with emotions, feelings, thoughts or the mind….

 The character for heart in Chinese is (xīn).  Can you see this character in this drawing by Aurora?

can also be a ‘radical’ component (心字部首xīn zì bùshǒu) in more complex characters, and can appear in two different ways. It can be squashed down the bottom of a character like in Anger’s name above 怒怒. Or modified and squashed to the side of a character looking like thisin Fear’s and Sadness’s name  怕怕 and 忧忧.  Characters containing the heart radical are often to do with emotions and thoughts.  

In Anger’s name the top part of the character means ‘slave’, together in it’s kind of like saying a ‘slave to the heart’, letting anger control you. The right side component in Fear’s name  is meaning ‘white’. Your heart certainly drains all the blood from your face when you’re frightened and your face goes ‘white’ with fear.  So these are neat little ways to remember these ‘heart’ radicalised emotional characters 🙂

In the movie, every event forms a memory, just like this.

These memories in Mandarin are called 记忆, (jìyì) again we can see this modified squashed to the side heart radical in . The traditional form of this character isThe right side component (having the heart radical itself squashed at the bottom!) means ‘thought or meaning’. You can see how this combined with ‘heart’ creates a ‘memory’.

As stated earlier, these emotional characters in ‘Inside Out’ are called  情绪小人 (qíngxù xiǎo rén) in Mandarin, literally ‘state of mind little people’.  Can you see the heart radical in their collective name?

Here are their names in pinyin so you know how to say them:

As a side note, the movie in Chinese was called 头脑特工队 (Tóunǎo tègōng duì) literally meaning ‘special agent team of the mind’ 🙂

Have fun with their new names, look out for that heart radical (it’s in lots of characters!) and be mindful of those emotions in your head, let them work as a team for you, 全心全意 (quán xīn quán yì) ‘wholeheartedly’ 🙂

That Sugar Film

 That Sugar Film  is on SBS at 8.30pm this Sunday March 18th. Great springboard to integrate health and meaningful everyday maths! But if you want to integrate some Mandarin, or SOSE just to show that the fight against too much sugar is a worldwide problem, have fun watching this ad by the Singapore Government to encourage people not to eat too much sugar over the New Year holiday 🙂

‘That Sugar Film’ teaches us how to read food labels to calculate how much sugar is actually in a product.  For every 4 grams of sugar, this equals 1 teaspoon.  So it becomes easier to visualise that every time you have a squirt of tomato sauce (4.5g of sugar) on your chips you sprinkled just over 1 teaspoon of sugar on them 🙂 It also gets kids motivated to multiply and divide by 4, and comparing quantities over products 🙂  This ad does a similar thing with a couple of New Year Festival favourites. The big letters in gold tell us that:

一份鱼生  = 4茶匙糖   (yī fèn yúhēng = 4 cháchí táng)

‘1 portion of yusheng (strips raw fish) = 4 teaspoons sugar’ 

一杯汽水 = 6茶匙糖   (yī bēi qìshuǐ = 6 cháchí táng) 

‘1 glass of soda = 6 teaspoons sugar’ 

一块黄梨挞 = 1茶匙糖  (yī kuài huánglí tà = 1 cháchí táng)  

‘1 teeny pineapple tart = 1 teaspoon sugar’ 

Getting kids to calculate sugar in their favourite foods, can help them practice maths, make better healthy choices, and if they write their findings in Mandarin, they get to practice measure words, food vocab, numbers and measurements in Mandarin.  Try doing the same as the ad does, and work out how many teaspoons of sugar are in your regular foods, then try reduce them!  Kids can also do up a table, create bar graphs, or a visual representation of sugar cubes per serving of product like we did here, so that they can compare and shop for better options :

The transcript and pinyin to the Singapore ad is as follows:

糖恶霸 (táng è bà) ‘Sugar evil tyrant’ 

一份鱼生  = 4茶匙糖 (yī fèn yú shēng = 4 chá chí táng) ‘1 portion of yusheng (strips raw fish) = 4 teaspoons sugar’ 

哇太甜了吧!(wa tài tián le ba !) ‘Wow how sweet!’

一杯汽水 = 6茶匙糖 (yī bēi qì shuǐ = 6 chá chí táng)  ‘1 glass of soda = 6 teaspoons sugar’ 

汽水也这么甜!(qì shuǐ yě zhè me tián !) ‘Soda’s also so sweet!’

一块黄梨挞 = 1茶匙糖 (yī kuài huáng lí tà = 1 chá chí táng) ‘1 pineapple tart = 1 teaspoon sugar’ 

吃多还得了!(chī duō hái dé liǎo !) ‘Better not have any more’ 

康女侠 (kāng nǚ xiá) ‘Health hero’

还敢加糖 (hái gǎn jiā táng) ‘More sugar, how dare you’ 

化糖神镖 (huà táng shén biāo) ‘Sugar defeating darts’ 

上 (shàng) Attack

快给我吃 (kuài gěi wǒ chī) ‘Hurry, eat!’

降盐扫油灭糖斩 (jiàng yán sǎo yóu miè táng zhǎn) ‘Destroyer of Salt, Oil and Sugar’

去糖大挪移 (qù táng dà nuó yí ) ‘Sugar wipeout technique’

糖分油盐要把关吃得健康过好年 (táng fēn yóu yán yāo bǎ guān chī de jiàn kāng guò hǎo nián) ‘Eat sugar, salt and oil in moderation this New Year’

 

三只青蛙 ‘Three Frogs’ Song and Story

We will read 三只青蛙 (Sān zhī qīng wā) ‘Three Frogs’ this Mandarin Song and Story Time. It is a digital book written and illustrated by 12 year old Xiao Xiao Aurora.  It is based on the ‘3 Jelly Fish sitting on a rock’ song, but with Frogs, a log, and a twist at the end 🙂  We used ‘Story Jumper’ to create the book, which students and teachers can also use to make their own Chinese story books for free. Here is our ‘Three Frogs’ story:

Book titled '三只青蛙'Read this free book made on StoryJumper

This story is great for exploring counting forwards and backwards, the concept of ‘none’ 没有 (méi yǒu),measure words, position, 上 (shàng) and 下 (xià) (as in jumping on and off ) and onomatopoeia.  Making the song into a book form means we can read it as a story (to hear the tones) and then sing it as a song too 🙂 

Remember singing the song with Jelly Fish instead of frogs?? 三条水母! (Sān tiáo shuǐ mǔ!)

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We can use any animal that likes jumping from a rock into the water for this song! 水母  (shuǐ mǔ) 青蛙 (qīngwā) ‘frogs’, 鳄鱼 (èyú) ‘crocodiles’ etc. (not that I have ever seen a Jelly Fish or a Crocodile jump from a rock 🙂

The lyrics to the 3 Jelly fish song are at the bottom of post.  Can you see the differences in the frog version?  Of course Jelly Fish 水母  (shuǐ mǔ) has been changed to Frog 青蛙 (qīngwā).  But also the measure word has to change too, the measure word for Jelly Fish being 条 (tiáo) and the measure word for frog being 只 (zhī) .  We also have the frogs sitting on a log 原木 (yuán mù) instead of a rock 岩石 (yán shí).  

We will also link this story/song with lots of other songs that have 上 (shàng) ‘up/above/over etc.’ and 下 (xià) ‘down/below/under etc.’ in them. In the Jelly Fish song these are also used for ‘on’ and ‘off’ (jumping up ON, and jumping OFF down). Children soon start to make the connections! Because these are simple characters too, children can try and make them with their bodies like this:

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.  You can watch it here but click on the London Bridge link for more details and lyrics of the song.

If you want to have fun at home, make some Jelly Fish, a rock and a bowl of water, or an indoor set up like this one below, and you can act out the song with your little one. Talk about making the jellyfish out of waterproof materials so that they don’t go soggy and rip! We used plastic bowls and cut up plastic shopping bags for tentacles. You could also talk about the correct disposal of plastic bags so that we don’t hurt our Jelly Fish in the sea too!

Our 3 Jelly Fish rock and sea for our song!

3 Jelly Fish rock and sea you can use indoors

Here are the lyrics to the ‘Three Jelly Fish’ song –

三条水母,三条水母,三条水母,坐在岩石上, 一条跳下

两条水母,两条水母,两条水母,坐在岩石上, 一条跳下

一条水母,一条水母,一条水母,坐在岩石上, 一条跳下

没有水母,没有水母,没有水母,坐在岩石上, 一条跳上

一条水母,一条水母,一条水母,坐在岩石上, 一条跳上

两条水母,两条水母,两条水母,坐在岩石上, 一条跳上

三条水母,三条水母,三条水母,坐在岩石上

sān tiáo shuǐ mǔ, sān tiáo shuǐ mǔ , sān tiáo shuǐ mǔ zuò zài yán shí shàng, yì tiáo tiào xià

liǎng tiáo shuǐ mǔ liǎng tiáo shuǐ mǔ, liǎng tiáo shuǐ mǔ , zuò zài yán shí shàng, yì tiáo tiào xià

yì tiáo shuǐ mǔ, yì tiáo shuǐ mǔ, yì tiáo shuǐ mǔ, zuò zài yán shí shàng, yì tiáo tiào xià

méiyǒu shuǐ mǔ, méiyǒu shuǐ mǔ, méiyǒu shuǐ mǔ, zuò zài yán shí shàng, yì tiáo tiào shàng

yì tiáo shuǐ mǔ, yì tiáo shuǐ mǔ, yì tiáo shuǐ mǔ, zuò zài yán shí shàng, yì tiáo tiào shàng

liǎng tiáo shuǐ mǔ liǎng tiáo shuǐ mǔ, liǎng tiáo shuǐ mǔ , zuò zài yán shí shàng, yì tiáo tiào shàng

sān tiáo shuǐ mǔ, sān tiáo shuǐ mǔ , sān tiáo shuǐ mǔ, zuò zài yán shí shàng