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. =)