Rhythms and Tones

Rhythms and Tones- This is a wonderful book to expose kids who are learning Chinese as a second language.  It includes a CD with 24 songs that reinforce learning things such as:

• How to say hello/goodbye,
• Using tones,
• Asking basic questions,
• Titles of family members,
• Actions,
• Body parts,
• Numbers and measure words,
• Animals,
• Common phrases,
• Food,
• Radicals and how they look in characters,
• Weather,
• Asking for and saying the time,
• Days of the week,
• Seasons,
• Colors, and
• Chinese holidays.

At the back of the book, the piano music for each song is provided as well as a dictionary of the characters covered in the book.  This book uses mainland pinyin and simplified Chinese characters.  I should also point out that is available at the Iowa City Public Library; The title is Rhythms and Tones and the call number is j495.1834.