Article about Chinese Stone Lion Guardians

It would be a super short post, but still...
Today, after a few days writing the article I finally published it and can share the link.
Stone Lion Guardians - 石狮   

I decided to write articles about China on a regular basis, I do not promise even to myself that it would be very often, but at least once a month.

My TPT seller journey - part 1

Since I've just started my journey of perfecting my lessons on TPT there are a lot of new things I need to take into consideration, so I thought..why not to record the process.

The Content

It is important to find your niche and what is it that you can do better than others.

Even though I do teach both ESL and Chinese I decided to focus mostly on Chinese, because there are already plenty of good resources on ESL and not so much on Chinese.

I love hands-on activities and games, and love making interactive notebooks, so I always try to include as many games as possible to make the learning fun, cause seriously a lot of time spent on learning Chinese is based on writing and remembering characters, so making handwriting fun can be a challenge. 

What is it that I can do better? I have a degree in History of China, so I try to use it in my lessons, by including interesting facts in some of my lessons. I think that is my advantage, and I do love everything cute, so, I do my best to make all my lessons aesthetically pleasing.

Target audience

 Most of my students' age is 6-10, so my lessons were initially targeted at this age group, but then some of my buyers used the lessons for the age 2-3children, so it made me reconsider the age, so i remade some of my lessons so that younger kids of 4-5 years can also use them, by making the lessons cuter, characters bigger.

Planning

I love planning and I think planning ensures consistency and I'm sure that consistency and strategy is an important part of any success. I started with the topics, basically, the topics were the easiest I just wrote what topics we study with kids in a year. 

The lessons should be useful, so i usually create lessons along with something we study in the class. It is also a good way to test lessons on real students before publishing cause even though i might print and check hundreds of times, only in practice you can notice some errs or see the reaction to the lessons and improve the lessons.

Brainstorm

So, the next step after choosing the topic is a brainstorm. What are the words/phrases we need to practice, what kinds of games can be included to make it fun, how it can be connected to other topics, what more can be done, are there any interesting facts about it? 

Structure
The structure is also important and is a part of the style, my structure usually looks like this:

1.Beautiful Cover

2.Contents

3.Objective - is a recent decision, cause I feel that content is not enough

4. Main part - flashcards, exercises to introduce new vocabulary, to implement new vocabulary, activities to practice it, sometimes I try to include teachers instructions and advice on how to extend the topic

5.Parts that can be printed for interactive notebooks

6. Handwriting sheets - usually have a big character to colour or decorate for younger kids and tracing characters hand sheets for older kids.

7.List of active links

8.Credits 

So when I'm done with the designs of each page I organize the pages accordingly.

Powerpoint and security

I usually use powerpoint. And I purchase cute digital paper, clipart, fonts, borders and frames to make my lessons cute. With all this come a responsibility to secure the product. So, I figured a two-step security.

Step one - flattening

After I'm happy with how the lesson looks I save each slide as png and then create another ppt and insert a png image, then save it as pdf, if you just save the first presentation to pdf you can still copy the text and pictures out of the pdf easily, just by opening it in adobe reader

Step two - protection

After the flat version is converted to pdf it is not entirely safe, so the next thing is to open it in adobe and protect it with password from editing and changes and also write the description and ownership. It will not guarantee the safety for 100% but at least it will not be too easy to steal some images.

 Also most of clip art artists insist on not allowing the images on the white background and insist that the clipart should not be used as it is and it should not take more than 50per cent of the page, each artist has his/her own requirements so it is important to check the license requirement before purchasing the clipart.

I also make a separate slide for the preview with at list 9 pages of my product, but I am thinking of adding some explanations to each of the pages to introduce the strong points of the lesson. 

Chinese Phonics aka Pinyin

So, it is probably evident that phonics is an important part of learning any language, but for Chinese, it is even more important.

What is Pinyin?

In short, hanyu pinyin is the official system to transcribe Mandarin /Chinese sounds into the Roman alphabet. It was invented in 1950 and adopted as a standard in Mainland China in 1958. Pinyin literally means - "spelt sounds" aka phonics.
Here are just some reasons why it is important to learn pinyin:
1. That is a great helping tool in mastering the pronunciation and learning how to pronounce the sounds, besides it is not as difficult as English, cause there are no exceptions of the rules and in a very short period of time you can learn all possible sound combinations in Chinese, and there are not so many - about 409, yeah, that is why tones are essential to master too. cause the lack of sound combinations made it really important to follow the correct tones to avoid possible awkward laughter and embarrassing situations.

2. So, the reason number two is basically - tones, it is easier to focus on tones, cause the characters do not have tone symbols, but pinyin conveniently has the tones written above the vowels.

3. You can learn how to read a new character if you know how to read pinyin. So it boosts the confidence of the learner, which is important because at times learning a completely different language might be frustrating, so it is an important pillar that helps you not to float.

4. You can easily find the word in the dictionary if you know both the stroke order and pinyin.

5. You can type in Chinese, sorry to burst some people's bubble but Chinese use the same keyboard as everyone in the world, well some also have Zhuyin which consists of phonetic keys, but most people I know just use either pinyin or handwriting recognition to type.

So, as you see pinyin/ 拼音 is an integral part of mastering Chinese and avoiding learning pinyin might slow down the progress of learning. But beware, even though pinyin is based on roman letters, the sounds they represent do not precisely resemble the English ones. Don't carry away with familiar letters.

Where to start?

I'd recommend starting with vowels and tones. Besides, there are not so many vowels.

Next, go the consonants. I like to use the element of zhuyin, the bopomo song.

I also love this video, it is funny and the melody is catchy, though the ad for their app is getting on my nerves, but oh well, the audio cool so I feel like it is worth sharing =D

I think the easiest way to practice is by singing and playing with flashcards, so I made cute flashcards to play with, you can check the cards by clicking on the link below:

http:// https://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Sellers-Im-Following/Add/Yulia-Store

Some simple ideas to play with flashcards:
1. One person names the sound - or combination of sounds - other people show the flashcards.
2. One person shows the flashcards other people say/shout and vice versa.
3. Show the character and let the students show the correct flashcard or write it down.
4. Let one student choose some flashcards and read them, let other students write pinyin in the notebooks, then show the flashcards to check if they wrote correctly. There are plenty of ways how to incorporate the flashcards into the class routine.
A fun way to teach pinyin is to let students practice typing. First, introduce how pinyin input works and let them type a simple text. Then check if the characters were correct. =)
Hope my post was useful, and I would love-love-love to hear your feedback. ^_^

Ideas for Teaching Colors in Chinese - part 1

Teaching colours is a very interesting and easy topic. Kids love it. For toddlers, I'd recommend introducing one colour a day, so make it a week of an exciting journey into the colourful world. And for older kids - three colours a day + words you can use them with. it can either be I like +color (我喜欢X色) or just some objects like:
红色的苹果
黄色的香蕉
and so on...
I also absolutely recommend this song, almost all the kids can sing it. 

Here some ideas on how to introduce colours to kids. 

RED/ 红色

1. Find as many red items in the room as possible and name them. 

2. Paint both hands red and with fingers closed together stomp them to the paper to make a heart.

3. Bring tomatoes, apples, strawberries, blindfold the kids and let them guess what is what.

4. Let the kids cut out triangular, square, rectangular and circle from the red paper.

5. Think of at least five objects that are red and draw them.

There are plenty of other ideas on Pinterest, but these are my favourite.

Using the big posters like this one.

And then use a play dough, stickers,  markers or paints to decorate the character. You can just make a bigger version in word or in powerpoint.

Yellow/黄色

1. Draw the sun with a toothbrush or a spoon.2. Let the kids use fingers or cotton pads to make yellow spots, then use a marker to draw eyes, beaks and legs to turn it into a chick/小鸡。3. Dye the rice yellow or use the kinetic sand to hide some yellow objects inside. Let the kids enjoy the treasure hunt.4. Let the kids cut out triangular, square, rectangular and circle from the yellow paper.

When the two colours are introduced, use any flashcards, or objects for the sorting activity. 

Blue/蓝色

1. Take a brush or an old toothbrush dive them into blue watercolour and let the kids shake it on the white paper to make raindrops.  

2. Draw an umbrella/雨伞 use white school glue to make dots, then hung the pictures to dry. This will give you the raindrop effect! It is not my idea, but I find it absolutely adorable. here is the source

3. 蓝色的大海

Fill the container with water put some blue or sea related objects inside and let the kids take them out with a scoop.

Green/绿色

1. Fringe green paper strips to make grass/草. Then cut the grass.

2. Find the twig, cut out the leaves/叶子 from green paper and let the kids stick green leaves to the twig! 

3. Bring a jar of beans/peas/绿豆 let the kids grab the beans, let them first estimate how many beans they got, then let them count the beans to check the guess.

4. 黄+蓝=绿

Prepare zip lock bags put some yellow and blue paint inside. Zip the bags, make the kids mix the colours. 

Orange / 橙色

1. 橙=橙子

Cut an orange into a half, dip the cut side in orange colouring and stamp it on the white paper.

2. 橙色的鱼

Cut out the fish shape and cut the circles from the orange paper, let the kids glue the “scales” to the fish/鱼. 

3. Put the bottom of the plastic bottle into the orange paint and let the kids stamp it to make pretty orange flowers/花.

Purple/ 紫色

Purple flowers

1. Put the white flowers into the purple coloured water, wait until the flowers turn purple.

2. Sort m&ms or skittles, take out all the purple ones

3. In a small plastic or glass bottle put some red/红 and blue/蓝 dye, add water and glitters or glue with glitters. Shake it to see the glitters dance and the water turns purple.

4. Make small balls of purple play dough and stick them to the paper to make grapes/葡萄.

Print three sets of flashcards with colours, with pinying and with the meaning, mix them all together and let the kids sort them.

To Be Continued.

I will try to make a video tomorrow on how to play with colour palettes.

Body Parts in Chinese

I'm happy to announce that I've finally accomplished my new lesson on Body Parts in Chinese. It's been almost a month of writing, testing with my students and adjusting. 

It is a very easy no-prep lesson that introduces 12 new words. Four adjectives (big, small, long, short) and nine body parts (head, eyes, nose, ears, mouth, hair, hands, feet, body) It contains 56 pages and is designed for 3-4 hours of teaching.
It is not a secret that one of the most effective ways for students to understand new concepts is through hands-on activities. Students learn more when they enjoy their time. 
I included as many fun activities as possible. The lesson has big colourful flashcards with pictures and pinyin, as well as flashcards without pictures, with just characters, which the characters flashcards without pictures can be used for review. 

Please, also check my article 10 Ways to Use Flashcards  

It is made for kindergarten and primary students, but some of the exercises can be extended to older children as well. There are bright posters and worksheets to match all the body parts. There is a version for boys and a version for girls.

This lesson has big printables for each new character to colour. They are big enough to colour with play dough or some stickers. Smaller kids can enjoy colouring with their fingers, or the printable can be used as a poster.  It can also be laminated to provide a more physical activity, such as jumping on the right character.  The characters can also be cut out from coloured paper so the students can create their own posters. 
There are plenty of ways to use them.

Children love to search for hidden objects, so I added "I Spy" sheets for all the new words. Students can either colour the targeted characters or as shown on the picture below, use plastic chips to highlight the characters. This way it helps to save the paper and it can be reused again later.

There are plenty of interesting drawing, colouring, matching, cutting and pasting activities to help young learners remember the characters in a fun and interactive way.

Some of the tasks are also designed to fit in a notebook.

I also included handwriting practice sheets for each word, and a list of songs together with youtube links, that can be used as an extension of the lesson. It contains progress monitoring sheets.

 Please leave me a comment and/or check out my lesson at:

https://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Body-Parts-in-Chinese-3665258

Would really appreciate your review or see any Feedback from you - Your reviews and Feedback helps me make better lessons! ^_^

10 Ways to Use Flashcards Effectively

Flashcards are an easy and convenient resource to have and can be useful at every stage of the class. Especially with young learners, because kids are visual creatures. Bright pictures would appeal to most of the learners and make an even greater impact on younger ones. 
They are a great way to present, practice and review vocabulary, either in big groups (students show the right cards), smaller groups (speaking activities, memory games) or individually(naming cards, sorting, matching).
I also give each student his/her own set of flashcards to take home to play with their parents and siblings. 

You can buy cards, make them yourself, or let the students make their own unique set of cards.
I love making my own cards and make the students colour and decorate them.
1/ Acting out
One of the students acts out and the rest of the kids try to guess which card is it.
2/ Describing the card
Very similar to the first activity, when one student tries to describe the card, and the other students try to guess the word.
3/ Undercover
Some parts of the character are hidden and students try to guess the character, or you can flip the card very fast so that students can only see a glimpse of it.
4/ Combining radicals to make a character
5/ Combining characters to make a word
6/ Matching
Matching pictures, pinyin and characters. I like to make separate sets to play with.
7/ Memory games
Students have one minute to remember the cards. Then they should name as many cards as they've remembered. Take away few cards and let the students say what cards are missing. Students can also write down as many words as they've remembered. Print two sets of flashcards (pictures/ character, character/pinyin, character/character) and put them face down on the table. One student can only open two cards at a time, if the cards match - take them away, if they don't, the student flip them back and let the other student try his/her luck.
8/ Exchanging cards
Distribute different cards among the students. The task is to ask the questions and exchange the cards. There can be different questions like: "I don't have a cat, but I have 2 dogs, and you?" ("我没有猫， 但是我有两只狗， 你呢？") Let the students exchange the duplicate cards until they have a full set.
9/ Making as many combinations as possible with the targeted flashcards. 
10/ Sorting
Sorting the flashcards by the same radical, or the same category. Sorting out the character that doesn't match the requirements. For example long, short, small, cat (大，短，小，猫) depending on the level you can make a multiple choice option and let the students explain the logic.

Games and tricks to remember Chinese Characters for kids - part 1

Learning Characters might feel overwhelming at times, especially the writing routine and the need to write a lot. It might kill any enthusiasm quickly.
So, what can be done? First, you might try to write with brushes, markers, clay, fingers. You can write on the send and on the tray with rice.

1. Writing on the other person's  palm. No need to really write anything on the palm, just move the finger on the palm, as if you are writing it, the other person needs to guess what character is it. If it is a group of students it is even better. each one writes on their partner's hand and the last person should say the character. Usually, someone makes a mistake by the end of the chain the character is changed completely. A good way to check the correct order of the radicals can see it very clearly when students try to write it on someone's palm. The other way is to pretend to write on each other back.


2. Make flashcards, play memory games and bingo

3.Write characters on white beans, pumpkin seeds or stones. And try all kinds of the sorting, matching activities. Mix some characters together and sort them into any category.

4. Print the characters and try I-Spy with characters.

5. Cut the words or characters into their radicals or even lines and reconstruct them back. Make the task more difficult by mixing the radicals of 5-10 different characters

6. It is similar to the previous one, but in this case, you can cut out the radicals 5-10 copies of each radical and "build" the characters you remember. Can play words with the group of students. To add excitement make it to a competition, and give the score to those who made more words.

7.Play Tic-tac-toe, but instead of empty space, fill it with characters. The students must name the character before they can actually write X or O on it. IF it is a group we choose a leader, then one team plays against the other, by naming the targeted characters and the leader writes X, O on the relevant character. A good way to check if the students including the leader at the desk learning the new characters.

8. Coloring and cutting out the characters to make them pretty also helps. Making characters with clay or play dough is also fun. Coloring with a play dough is a good exercise and since it requires some effort it also helps to remember the character.

9. Children can trace their hands or feet or any other object and to fill in space with targeted characters who can write the most characters in that space, or who would be the fastest to finish gets the score.

10. Print characters, laminate them and let the students step or jump on them when you name them.

11. Hide the characters around the classroom and ask to find and bring them.

12. Try to play words but with radicals - ask students to remember all the characters with one of the radicals for example name all the characters with radical heart (心) then the students might come up with  意，思, 芯，慰， 感， 秘密， 必 and so on.

I will add pictures to this article tomorrow. it is just I want to write so much, but because I want to write so much, I postpone writing it. =)