Check out this YouTube video of the 注音符號 alphabet song.
If you want to teach your kids Chinese, but don't speak it yourself, you've come to the right place. The resources I've chosen to compile here are a result of my experiences (as a mom and teacher) and the influences of my background in language development, literacy, and education. I hope that the ideas here will help you find creative ways to teach your children Chinese.
Showing posts with label Songs. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Songs. Show all posts
Friday, August 31, 2012
Friday, February 17, 2012
Auto-immersion
This list is from the Bringing up Baby Bilingual blogsite, a record of a mom's efforts to teach French to her children as a non-native speaker. I'm reposting her list here just in case her blog gets lost. This is a direct copy and paste.
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Those of us who are doing our best to raise our kids with something other than the community language know that we have to seize every possible moment to barrage them with lots and lots of input in the target language. (This is especially challenging for those parents who work full-time and have a very limited number of hours most days to share their language with their children.)
When we're at home, we can take advantage of games, books, toys, videos, and the simple fact that we're engaging in face-to-face interactions with their accompanying gestures, expressions, and props--we have a lot of tools to provide contextualized prompts for conversation and activities in the target language.
But what about those endless hours in the car, chauffeuring from one playgroup to another lesson, running errand upon errand? The parent is driving, facing forward, no eye contact, hands occupied--not ideal conditions for practicing another language with small (or bigger) children.
So here's my challenge to us: let's take advantage of the fact that the kids are a trapped audience to immerse them in our language of choice! Let's brainstorm as many as possible ways to engage our kids in the target language when we're driving them here and there and everywhere! Here, I'll start:
Music (duh): Listen to songs in the target language--children's music, yes, but also pop music, rap music, folk songs, music from all the countries where the language is spoken. Sing songs to (or with) your children. (Griffin, approaching age four, has learned to sing in a round, which sounds so lovely to my ears.) And don't forget the nursery rhymes!
I still remember the trip Griffin and I took to visit with a friend in another city, a 45-minute drive, when he was about six months old. I turned off the tape player (yeah, my twelve-year-old Toyota, Earl Grey, is so basic that he doesn't have a CD player!) to see if I could sing French children's songs the whole way there. To my surprise, we made it to my friend's house without my repeating a single one!
Rhyme time: You say a word in the target language; your kids reply with words that rhyme. Then let them pick the words to start with.
Counting: Count to 100 together, then count solo and pause for the kids to fill in the next number, then alternating (you count the odd numbers, your kids the evens), then by tens, fives, twos, then backwards (whatever the children are capable of); count objects that you pass (stop signs, cows, blue cars).
Twenty Questions: Play this vocabulary-rich game that involves guessing what object someone is thinking of, where the guessers can only ask yes/no questions. A child who can't form complete sentences (much less questions) can still show his understanding of your questions by answering them while you guess! (Unless your interlocutor is like three-year-old Griffin, whose answers tend to lead to things like "something green that's made of metal and bigger than the universe").
I Spy: Another fun and easy game that involves sighting an object (inside or outside the car) and giving clues so that the others can guess the object.
Un truc dans un machin: "A thingy in a whats-it" is what I call this activity, where I pretend to misunderstand something Griffin said, repeating it back to him as inaccurately as possible (and making it as silly as I can). For example,
Griffin: Regarde, Maman! Il y a un chien dans la camionnette! (Look, Mommy, there's a dog in that pickup truck!)
Maman: Quoi? Il y a un dinosaure dans ta poche? (What? There's a dinosaur in your pocket?)
Griffin (giggling): Non, il y a un chien dans la camionnette!
Maman: Quoi? Il y a un extra-terrestre dans l'arbre? (What? There's an alien in the tree?)
And so on; Griffin usually joins in and makes up other strange combinations. We can do this for a good ten or fifteen minutes before one of us (okay, moi) tires of it.
And a related activity: sing a familiar song but insert other silly words here and there. For instance, "Au feu, les pompiers/Voila la maison qui brule/Au feu, les pompiers/Voila la maison brulee/C'est pas moi qui l'ai brulee/C'est la coccinelle/C'est pas moi qui l'ai brulee/C'est l'arraignee" (instead of "la cuisiniere" and "le cuisinier").
Storytelling, of course! I find that listening to audio books in French in the car is too challenging for Griffin at this point, unless it's a story he's already very familiar with because I've read it to him multiple times and he's seen pictures illustrating it. (We have a small handful of stories-on-tape like Boucle d'or et les trois ours.) Rather, I'll pick a story he knows much less well and tell it to him, simply at first, then gradually adding details and length. Changing my voice for each character helps him follow along (Occasionally I change it up to see how quickly he notices the differences, a la "Boucle d'or et les trois girafes.")
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Friday, January 27, 2012
Auto-immersion
When we're at home, we can take advantage of games, books, toys, videos, and the simple fact that we're engaging in face-to-face interactions with their accompanying gestures, expressions, and props--we have a lot of tools to provide contextualized prompts for conversation and activities in the target language.
But what about those endless hours in the car, chauffeuring from one playgroup to another lesson, running errand upon errand? The parent is driving, facing forward, no eye contact, hands occupied--not ideal conditions for practicing another language with small (or bigger) children.
So here's my challenge to us: let's take advantage of the fact that the kids are a trapped audience to immerse them in our language of choice! Let's brainstorm as many as possible ways to engage our kids in the target language when we're driving them here and there and everywhere! Here, I'll start:
Music (duh): Listen to songs in the target language--children's music, yes, but also pop music, rap music, folk songs, music from all the countries where the language is spoken. Sing songs to (or with) your children. (Griffin, approaching age four, has learned to sing in a round, which sounds so lovely to my ears.) And don't forget the nursery rhymes!
I still remember the trip Griffin and I took to visit with a friend in another city, a 45-minute drive, when he was about six months old. I turned off the tape player (yeah, my twelve-year-old Toyota, Earl Grey, is so basic that he doesn't have a CD player!) to see if I could sing French children's songs the whole way there. To my surprise, we made it to my friend's house without my repeating a single one!
Rhyme time: You say a word in the target language; your kids reply with words that rhyme. Then let them pick the words to start with.
Counting: Count to 100 together, then count solo and pause for the kids to fill in the next number, then alternating (you count the odd numbers, your kids the evens), then by tens, fives, twos, then backwards (whatever the children are capable of); count objects that you pass (stop signs, cows, blue cars).
Twenty Questions: Play this vocabulary-rich game that involves guessing what object someone is thinking of, where the guessers can only ask yes/no questions. A child who can't form complete sentences (much less questions) can still show his understanding of your questions by answering them while you guess! (Unless your interlocutor is like three-year-old Griffin, whose answers tend to lead to things like "something green that's made of metal and bigger than the universe").
I Spy: Another fun and easy game that involves sighting an object (inside or outside the car) and giving clues so that the others can guess the object.
Un truc dans un machin: "A thingy in a whats-it" is what I call this activity, where I pretend to misunderstand something Griffin said, repeating it back to him as inaccurately as possible (and making it as silly as I can). For example,
Griffin: Regarde, Maman! Il y a un chien dans la camionnette! (Look, Mommy, there's a dog in that pickup truck!)
Maman: Quoi? Il y a un dinosaure dans ta poche? (What? There's a dinosaur in your pocket?)
Griffin (giggling): Non, il y a un chien dans la camionnette!
Maman: Quoi? Il y a un extra-terrestre dans l'arbre? (What? There's an alien in the tree?)
And so on; Griffin usually joins in and makes up other strange combinations. We can do this for a good ten or fifteen minutes before one of us (okay, moi) tires of it.
And a related activity: sing a familiar song but insert other silly words here and there. For instance, "Au feu, les pompiers/Voila la maison qui brule/Au feu, les pompiers/Voila la maison brulee/C'est pas moi qui l'ai brulee/C'est la coccinelle/C'est pas moi qui l'ai brulee/C'est l'arraignee" (instead of "la cuisiniere" and "le cuisinier").
Storytelling, of course! I find that listening to audio books in French in the car is too challenging for Griffin at this point, unless it's a story he's already very familiar with because I've read it to him multiple times and he's seen pictures illustrating it. (We have a small handful of stories-on-tape like Boucle d'or et les trois ours.) Rather, I'll pick a story he knows much less well and tell it to him, simply at first, then gradually adding details and length. Changing my voice for each character helps him follow along (Occasionally I change it up to see how quickly he notices the differences, a la "Boucle d'or et les trois girafes.")
Friday, February 10, 2012
朋友, Friend
Try learning this Sesame Street song and substituting the word 朋友(péngyǒu, friend) for amigo. My preschoolers love this!
朋友, 朋友, another word for friend.
Come with me, 朋友. There's lots of time that we can spend.
Together, 朋友. We'll have a lot of fun.
It's so nice feeling friendly towards someone.
(Refrain:) La-la La-la La-la La-la La-la 朋友
A-La-la La-la La-la.La-la. I like you.
A-La-la La-la La-la.La-la.You're friendly.
A-La-la La-la la. 朋友
朋友朋友, come on and take my hand.
A friend is a good thing.
A friend can really understand.
And wherever we go, we'll each have someone near.
朋友 I'm so happy that you're here.
(Repeat Refrain)
So let's you and me go a'running down the hill.
Make wishes, catch fishes.
Or sit awhile and just be still.
I need a 朋友 and I can be one too.
朋友 I'm so glad that I have you.
(Repeat Refrain)
朋友, 朋友!
Monday, September 5, 2011
GenkiChinese.com
GenkiChinese- written by Richard (sorry, no last name) this website posts songs and simple games that can be used to teach and reinforce simple vocabulary and sentence memorization. Types of vocabulary include: numbers, colors, body parts, names of fruits, the months of the year, directions, names of countries, and different types of drinks.
There are two components to most every game on the site. The first is the vocabulary introduction. This is where the user can click around the screen and hear the vocabulary. The simple characters and the pinyin pronunciation also flash up on the screen to help reinforce character recognition. The second component is the game. Typically the game asks the user to listen to a vocabulary word and then correctly identify it on the screen. These games are easy and anyone with a mouse can play- even my five-year old!
I would suggest reviewing the fruits vocabulary with your child before having him/her play the game. There are two reasons:
- During the game, the picture for grape is a picture of one grape; however, during the review the picture is of a bunch of grapes. This may be confusing to some students.
- Some of the vocabulary is new/different. Some children learn 菠蘿 (鳳梨 (
The site also has songs to help language learners remember sentences. For example, he's produced a song called "你好吗?" (ㄋㄧˇ ㄏㄠˇ ㄇㄚ˙?, Nǐ hǎo ma?, How are you?). It's a good representation of the types of songs he creates. Be careful- the songs tend to stick in your head!
Please, preview the songs first before sharing with your children. In the song called "请给我" (ㄑㄧㄥˇ ㄍㄟˇㄨㄛˇ, Qǐng gěi wǒ, Please give me) the word "beer" appears.
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