Mini-Book 5- 我是 . . . .

我是 . . . . (Wǒ shì . . ., I am . . .)- This is the fifth book in the series.  To locate other Mini-Books, click on the "Mini-Book" label on the right hand side of the web page.

The fifth Mini-Book is designed to reinforce the use of 我是 . . . . (Wǒ shì . . ., I am . . .).  It also continues to expose the reader to common characters in order to reinforce character recognition.

This Mini-Book was created to be personalized by your child.  Please, take the time to paste photos of them into the books.  This makes reading more fun for your child and encourages them to practice reading.  Also, when you print be sure to print on both sides of the paper.  Page 2 prints on the back of page 1, etc.  Then stack the pages so that when they are folded along the center line, the page numbers proceed in numeric order.

我是 . . . . - traditional characters with 注音符號
我是 . . . . - simplified characters with 漢語拼音 (Hànyǔ Pīnyīn)

Mini-Book 4- 妹妹和哥哥

妹妹和哥哥 (Mèimei hé gēgē, Little Sister and Older Brother)- This is the fourth book in the series.  To locate other Mini-Books, click on the "Mini-Book" label on the right hand side of the web page.

The fourth Mini-Book is designed to reinforce the use of 和 (hé, and).  It also includes common everyday actions such as 吃早飯 (Chī zǎofàn, Eating breakfast) and 去學校 (Qù xuéxiào, Going to school).

This Mini-Book is a large file (35kb) so give it time to load.  It is larger than the others because it includes photos.  Please feel free to paste your own photos over these so that your Mini-Book is personalized to your children.  Also, when you print be sure to print on both sides of the paper.  Page 2 prints on the back of page 1, etc.  Then stack the pages so that when they are folded along the center line, the page numbers proceed in numeric order.

妹妹和哥哥- traditional characters with 注音符號
妹妹和哥哥- simplified characters with 漢語拼音 (Hànyǔ Pīnyīn)

Mini-Book 3- 我的朋友

我的朋友 (Wǒ de péngyǒu; My Friend)- is the third book in the Mini-Book series.  To locate other Mini-Books, click on the "Mini-Book" label on the right hand side of the web page.

This book supplements the teaching of the words 我的 (wǒ de; my) and 他的 (tā de; his).  It discusses a boy who is Chinese and his friend who is American.  The book discusses how to two boys are alike and reinforces the idea of friendship between cultures.

This Mini-Book file is much smaller than the first, so if you had difficulty downloading the first you may be more successful with this one.  Also when you print, print on both sides of the paper.  Page 2 prints on the back of page 1, etc.  Then stack the pages so that when they are folded along the center line, the page numbers proceed in numeric order.

我的朋友- traditional characters with 注音符號
我的朋友- simplified characters with 漢語拼音 (Hànyǔ Pīnyīn)

Chinese Magnetic Poetry- Part Two

This is a follow up of a post called "Chinese Magnetic Poetry."

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So you've purchased or created a set of Chinese Magnetic Poetry (with the pronunciation included as necessary).  NOW WHAT DO YOU DO?

I just started using my magnetic set with my kids this week.  So bear with me as I sort through what works and what doesn't and expand this post.

I decided to start with a question/sentence that they have had lots of experience with lately, the 有 . . . 也有. . .  (yǒu. . . yě yǒu. . .; have . . . also have . . .) grammar structure they've been studying at the heritage school.  This is something they have heard a lot about and is a structure they've repeated back in sentence form, but it is not one they have been successful generating verbally independently.  For example, they can repeat the phrase "我有小狗.  我也有貓咪." (Wǒ yǒu xiǎo gǒu. Wǒ yě yǒu māo mī.), and they can fill in the blank in the example 我有____.我也有____., and they understand the meaning of 有 . . .也有 . . .; however, they can not use the grammar structure 有 . . .也有 . . to answer the question "你有什麼?" (Nǐ yǒu shéme?;  What do you have?).

1. I decided to introduce the magnetic characters by creating my own sentence using the 有 . . .也有 . . grammar structure and leaving them on the board.  I also made sure all the other magnets were off the board so that my kids could easily focus on the sentence without being distracted by other magnet pieces.  Then I had each of them individually come look at the "really cool" Chinese magnets.  I pointed out that most of the characters on the board were ones they had seen before and that the pronunciation was next to each character if they need it.  I also pointed out that some of the characters did NOT include the pronunciation because some of the characters were very familiar to them (ex. 小 (xiǎo, small).  This was a nice way of reinforcing to them that they were making progress in learning the read Chinese!
2. Then I had each child read the sentence I had made.  I listened to his/her ability to sound out the characters using the pronunciation guide when it was necessary.  I found that the first time they read the sentence it was very slow; I know from my education background that when children read slowly, their comprehension decreases.  So after my child read it through once, I read it out loud to them and then checked my child's comprehension.  If you notice that your child's reading speed is slow, you will need to read the sentence for them to him/her before asking comprehension questions.  If s/he has difficulty with comprehension you will need to think about whether the vocabulary or the grammar structure is giving them difficulty and address this before moving on to the next step below.
3. The next step is removing some of the support.  In the case of the 有 . . .也有 . . grammar structure, I left the phrase "我有___.我也有___." on the board and left spaces to be filled in.  Then I placed several familiar and appropriate words that could be placed in the blanks.  I asked each child to read the sentence fragment on the board and then find two words to fill in the blanks.  Then I asked him/her to read the sentence s/he had made.  After s/he read it, I repeated it using as native-like speech as possible (meaning that I read it like someone would really say it--with intonation and without over-exaggerating the tones).  Then I checked her/his comprehension of the sentence s/he had made.  Make sure to stay on this step until your child understand what the 有 . . . 也有 . . . means.
4. In step three, you continue to remove support.  Leave all the words necessary to write the sentences "我有___.我也有___." on the board (including several words choices to fill in the blank), but scramble the words so that they are not in the correct order.  Then ask your child to make a sentence about two things they have using the "有 . . ., 也有 . . ." sentence structure.  Ask her/him to read the sentence s/he made.  Does it make sense?  Are the words in the correct order?  If not, stop and show her/him how to fix the sentence; then have her/him make another sentence.  Before moving on to the next step, your child should have good comprehension of the sentence they made and be able to arrange the words in the correct sentence pattern.  Continue modeling correct pronunciation and intonation to your children.*

*I'm making this note here since this is the first time in my blog I've addressed sentence formation.  Particularly for children learning Chinese as a second language, it is important for them to hear correct intonation.  Intonation is how voice pitch changes throughout a sentence.  Intonation can convey important information about how a person is feeling or (in the case of English) whether the sentence is a question or a statement.  For example, in English when someone asks a question their pitch raises from the beginning of the sentence to the end.  When they make a statement the pitch drops at the end.  If you're not sure what I mean, try saying the following sentences out loud.

• Did she really go to the store?
• Yesterday, I went to the store.

 Now try saying the two sentences above as if you are angry.  Now try it as if you were excited.  Notice how your intonation changes.  Chinese does similar things when reading with emotion and even when forming questions.  Without learning correct intonation, a person's speech can sound stilted.  However, you probably don't need to teach this explicitly; just modeling will go a long way.  If necessary, enlist a fluent Chinese speaker to help you (a teacher, a neighbor, a friend, etc.).  You can also expose your children to correct intonation by letting them watch movies in Chinese or by listening to Chinese stories on CD.

Chinese Magnetic Poetry

I strongly recommend purchasing a set of Chinese characters like this one particularly if your child is learning Chinese as a second language (as opposed to a native speaker who just needs to focus on reading and writing).  Consider this . . . when learning a second language (think back to high school) how many things did your mind need to juggle in order to form a correct sentence:  vocabulary, pronunciation, grammar, inflection, meaning/semantics, etc.  This is just the broad parameters of what you need.  Now, ask yourself, "What was easiest to do: speaking, listening, writing, or reading?  Most people would say reading was the easiest because in reading you are simply repeating what someone else has already written; most of the linguistic choices have already been made.  Now, how can we use reading to help our children learn to produce and practice their own grammatical sentences?  We can have them read books (check out the Mini-books) but this doesn't require them to produce their own sentences.  What if we provide them with a limited number of Chinese characters (pre-written) and ask them to organize the characters into a grammatical sentence?  Now the children can focus on the grammar and vocabulary.  Once the characters are organized, you can ask them to read the sentence while they focus on the pronunciation and inflection.  We've split the tasks they must focus on in half between two related exercises; they're still doing all the tasks, but in pieces.  This is a good place to start for kids learning grammar and leads us back to why I encourage you to purchase a set of Chinese Magnetic Poetry for Kids*.  Just do a search on the web.

*Note that the Chinese Magnetic Poetry for Kids uses simplified characters.  If you are teaching your child traditional characters, you can still use this set.  Just let your kids know in simple terms that this set uses a different "font."  Just like English uses uppercase ABC's and lowercase abc's, Chinese has two "fonts" also.  And just like the uppercase and the lowercase letters in English often look alike, they may notice that the two Chinese "fonts" look a lot alike most of the time too.  Here is an example of how similar the simplified and traditional forms can be:  妈 --> 媽 

Finding a set of magnetic Chinese characters is not difficult; however, if you are looking for a set that has the 注音符號, you may be disappointed.  Although, there is at least one popular set (mentioned above) that includes the mainland China's 漢語拼音 (Hànyǔ Pīnyīn), I have not been able to find a set that uses 注音符號.  However, don't let that stop you from using the strategy discussed above.  You have choices!

• The least time consuming choice is to purchase the set and then write the 注音符號 on the magnet with a permanent marker.  
• The cheapest initial cost is to print out the characters on paper and cut them out.  If you choose this, I recommend printing on card stock so the pieces are more durable.  However, inevitably some of the pieces will get ripped, lost, etc.  
• The third choice is to make your own magnetic Chinese characters.  Using Microsoft Word, create a table with cells that are 1.0 inches high and about 0.8 inches wide.  Each cell fits one character.  Fill in the table with characters your child is familiar with (see this post to learn how to type in Chinese) and include the 注音符號.  Print on card stock and glue onto magnets.  I used old magnets that arrive at my house for advertizing purposes, but you can also purchase magnetic strips at any arts and craft supply store.  The advantage of the magnetic strips is that they come already with a stick side.  Also, if you buy magnetic strips that are about 1.0 inch high, then you reduce the amount of cutting you have to do.

I chose to do a combination of choices 1 and 3 above.  I bought the Chinese Magnetic Poetry Set for Kids and wrote the 注音符號 on each piece.  I also made my own magnetic characters in order to include those my kids have learned at school.  The set I bought had some duplicate characters (for example, there are several 我 (Wǒ, I) pieces, which makes sense since this is a frequently used character.  Also, because I have two kids who like to save the Chinese sentences they've written, I also make some extra of the frequently used characters.

Be sure to check out the post "Chinese Magnetic Poetry- Part Two."

Mini-Book 2- 我有很多

我有很多 (Wǒ yǒu hěn duō; I Have a Lot)-  Here's the second book in the series.  To locate other Mini-Books, click on the "Mini-Book" label on the right hand side of the web page.

The second Mini-Book is designed to reinforce the 有 . . . 也有. . .  (yǒu. . . yě yǒu. . .; have . . . also have . . .) . practiced in the previous Mini-Book.  It also introduces 多 (duō; many) and 少 (shǎo; a few) as well as continuing to expose the reader to everyday vocabulary such as fruits and animals.

This Mini-Book file is much smaller than the first, so if you had difficulty downloading the first you may be more successful with this one.  Also when you print, print on both sides of the paper.  Page 2 prints on the back of page 1, etc.  Then stack the pages so that when they are folded along the center line, the page numbers proceed in numeric order.

我有很多- traditional characters with 注音符號
我有很多- simplified characters with 漢語拼音 (Hànyǔ Pīnyīn)