Numbers , ants , and yikess....!!!!!

Yesterday, finally the CD "Simple songs for Preschool" by Deborah J.Stewart was arrived. How excited I am, I play the CD immediately when I got home. The songs are so awesome, this is what I was looking for all this time. It will be one of my rare collections at my home. When I let my baby daughter to listen the songs, she's just moving her hands and shaking her body LOL :D. I think Deborah really  understands the children's needs for songs. Even my 11 months old baby is loving it.

It's really a coincident that I already palnned for chinese teaching material last week for today, counting numbers of "the ants" and also counting ant's legs. I pick one of the songs from the CD : "There's an Ant" Track 7. But firstly translate into chinese, here's the translation :

一只蚂蚁 靠近我身边

yi zhi mayi, kao jin wo shen bian

one little ant, come near on me

一只蚂蚁 靠近我身边

yi zhi mayi, kao jin wo shen bian

one little ant, come near on me


我怕 我 eeeeeeehhhhhhhhhh................

wo pa, wo eeeeeehhhhh.............

I'm scared I'm eeeeeeeehhhhh............

它来我身边

ta lai wo shen bian

It still come near on me

一只蚂蚁 靠近我身边

yi zhi mayi, kaojin wo shen bian

one little ant, come near on me

I changed the translation  for finding the suitable words in chinese language.

We had so much fun from the song. When we were singing the song, we also did the motions :

1. We do the "ant's face" by putting our both index finger on our forehead, pointing to front.
2. We do the "crawling things" by playing our finger just liked an ant crawling and towards to us.
3. we do the "eeeeeehhhhh......." the yikes part by jumping on the spot and shaking our body and both hands.

In this session, I also introduced all about the ants to the children.

How's the ants' crawling ? or

What do the ants like to eat ? or

Why do the ants crawl in the line ? or

Where do the ants crawl ? or

What's it called the pair of pointing stuff on ant's forehead ? the answer is the antennas.
Alot of children didn't know what it's called, they just called it,"ant's horns" or "ant's hair" or "ant's moustache" or "ant's ears" ....................hahaha LOL :D

After the class, I still can hear they are singing the song together at the playground :)

Ma yi = ant

How to hold chopstick ( children version )

Are there anyone can use chopstick ? :)
Today I am teaching chinese lesson for the kids. I am bringing many pairs of new chopsticks from home to show them to the kids.
I am always collecting chopstick , usually I took home an new extra pair of chopsticks from the restaurants. I never brought home the ones that I used to eat. So don't worry about that :)

I already prepared the learning tools which are : Chopsticks, numbers shape (EVA) and a small bucket.

When I come to class bringing chopsticks, the children are saying ,"Wow we are gonna to eat noodles."
Then I said," Nope, we will play with it. Is there anyone can use chopstick ?"
"I can !!!" " I can !!" " I can !!!!"
Hahaha everyone said," I can............ !!"

" Really ???!!" I replied it with a doubt.

I started to give the chopsticks, each one got a pair then. I guided them how to hold a chopstick  just like the last post ( Chopstick ). My hands are in the air when I demonstrated to hold the chopstick.
Everyone already held their own chopstick, as demonstrated by me.

"Ok, you start to grab the number "wu" (5) with  your chopstick and put it in the bucket." I pointed Vio.

He just cannot maintain to hold the chopstick in the right position, but he didn't give up.  Finally he succeded to lift up the number with his own way :)
I didn't say it wrong to them, because in this lesson I try to encourage them to practice to use chopstick.
Chopstick is the best way to practice their fine motor skill.

I am watching them using chopstick to grab the numbers shapes,there are 5 positions how to hold chopsticks :

1. Using both hands : each hand hold a single chopstick, just like holding a spoon and a fork. This technique is quite difficult, maybe I hardly do that too :D.

2. Sword and shield : haha this technique is the easiest one, they hold a pair of the chopstick in one hand. And then together using the other bare hand to lift up things :)

3. Crossing the sticks : They hold a pair of chopstick in one hand, the chopsticks is in cross position. And they successfully lift up things. { I have no idea how this can really work :D LOL, personally I can't do that }

4. Pushing : This might be against the chopstick's user manual book :) . They are just pushing stuff with chopstick, just like a hockey player :)

5. Big Jab : Haha with a big jab they stroke things with chopstick. This technique is very common among us when we eat a meat ball :)

I start to use chopstick when I was 4 years old. Start at young age makes me even better to hold chopstick when I'd grown up.
To learn to hold chopstick at young age, it just like when we want to learn to swim.

So everybody go and buy a pair of chopstick, use it when you eat noodles or even spaghetti.

Chopstick : kuai zi ( chinese )

Chopstick

It is a chinese traditional tool for eating. It's already exist thousands of years before. They use chopstick ,especially when they eat noodles, but you can use the chopstick to eat any kind of food.
You can use chopstick to eat meats or vegetables or beans , peanuts , even to eat rice. Have you seen peoples eat rice using chopstick before ?
Tomorrow I am planning to teach the children to use chopstick.
I am expecting all of them are able to use it :)

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Imagining the finger trace

Chinese language or mandarin is very difficult for most of peoples, even the Chinese people also said so. When the first time I suggest to put chinese language in kindergarten curriculum. There were a lot of pro and contra. The "contra" said,"How come, a very young child can understand chinese." or "it's too difficult" or "we as parents don't understand that" or ......................... (a lot).
After we explained to them, and convinced them. They finally agreed with us.

Writing Chinese :

There are so many way to learn to write chinese character, and you can do writing practice at anytime, anywhere, anyplace.

1. Writing in the air

What I mean is we can practice to write the chinese character in the air. Write the every character strokes one by one in the air. This will make the children having a pictorial image to every chinese words.
They have to imagine the chinese word is hanging in front of them, and tracing the strokes. They must use their pointer finger to write it, and keep the stroke trace in their mind.
This practice can be done at anywhere and anytime.

2. Writing on the flour

This is the method for the beginner. And I believe this method is as old as the human civilization. We use flour as the media and pour it on a flat surface, for example : a tray. Then the children can write the chinese character on the flour.The different to writing on the air is the finger traces are visible. This is quiet fun for them, because I make it as a "flour mark" game.
If they forgot one stroke in a chinese word, they have to put one flour mark on their face.

So everybody won't easily forget in the future.

The first time I teach using the flour to write, when I came into the class with a tray on my hand, the children were asking," What do you want to cook, sir?"
I answered them," I want you all to help me and get dirty......"
"Hooraaayyy............!" they're yelling.

That's the story of how our class civilization is beginning :D LOL

Numbers, teeth and yawning

This is a review from the last year lesson, numbers in mandarin session in my class. The numbers are until 18 (shi ba).
When we start to begin counting 1 to 18, it happened that one of my students was yawning so big that the whole inside view of his mouth was seen by me. Well it's still in the morning, but I never dreamed of last night that I will see the biggest yawning today in the morning :)

"Wow Zio, you are yawning in front of everybody." He's just smiling while still yawning.
Suddenly I have an idea................................................
"And now everybody must count Zio's teeth."  I am saying it with my wicked smile. LOL :D. Because  I think this is a good idea for learning numbers.
"Count only the upside teeth." I continued. Because I was teaching them 1 to 18 only.
"Ok Zio you start yawning in count of three, 1.......2.........3........yawning........ !!! "  :)
And then everybody got closer to Zio and start to count his teeth.


" Oh Zio, you only had ten teeth on upside. And now I will open my mouth, and everybody count my upside teeth." I was asking.

After finish counting, they all said," You have 16 teeth, Mr.Danny."
"Why do you have 16 teeth, sir ?"

I answered it," Because I am already grown up, and anyway my mouth is bigger than yours." :)
"All of you will have 16+16 teeth later when you are big."

"And Zio next time, please go to sleep earlier at the night before, so you won't yawn again in the class in the morning." :)

1 = yi

2 = er

3 = san 

4 = si

5 = wu

6 = liu

7 = qi

8 = ba

9 = jiu

10 = shi

11= shi yi

12= shi er

13= shi san

14= shi si

15= shi wu

16= shi liu

17= shi qi

18= shi ba

Yue lai yue xiao

My topic for teaching mandarin today is "yue lai yue da, yue lai yue xiao" (it's getting bigger and bigger, and it's getting smaller and smaller).
Although the weather is a little hot outside, and our classroom's air conditioner got a little bit of problem ( not cool enough ). But the children are still so excited about our mandarin session.
"Ok children, we say it together ... 1..2..3...." And all of students say it together," yue lai yue da".
After that I asked them," what kind of stuff that is getting bigger and bigger ?"
All of them said," a baby !!! A tree !!! We are also getting bigger and bigger!!! ........"
"All of you are absolutely right", I replied.
"And now let's say together yue lai yue xiao"
"Yue lai yue xiao!"
" And now what kind of things that is getting smaller and smaller", I asked.
"........................????", *silent* and they 're just looked like the audiences that start mumbling each other.
"What ??? Can you all answer it ? Look at surround you, and find a thing", I said.
"I don't know Mr. Danny."
(Hmmmmm..... I think it's a little bit hard to answer even who read this post have to think it very hard, am I right ? :)
And suddenly one students ,name Arvio, start to answer it. Arvio basically is a smart boy, but sometimes he is too busy to talk to his friends rather than answer my question :)
He answered," An eraser, sir." (He means rubber eraser).
"GOOD ANSWER!! ", I said.
Finally ..... After 5 minutes waiting their answer.
" Any other ??? " I asked.
" A pencil, Mr. Danny."
" Good answer too."
" Felicia ...." Luckily Felicia is the smallest girl in class. It's a desperate answer I think.
" No, she is not getting smaller. But she is just smaller than you."

And until the class is over, we only got those two right answers :(
Any ideas from all of you ?

Yue lai yue da = it's getting bigger and bigger.

Yue lai yue xiao = it's getting smaller and smaller.

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Imaginery Taxi

Today the K-B class (K-2) are learning mandarin, the topic is about get on and get off the taxi.
We move their chairs to make two lines, which looked like inside the taxi's seat. Front seat and back seat. When I said "Shang Che" it means get on the taxi, they must do exactly as real taxi. Open the door first, then get on your leg and sit on inside, after that get on the other leg. It's so much fun, because a lot of them skip to open the imagery door car. And I say," Oh no, you can walk thru  the door." They are all laughing, and they repeat it again. After they get on the taxi, the imagery taxi just start to go without closing the door first. I say,"Oh my God, it's very dangerous if you dont close the door car first." They laugh again. After finish getting on the car perfectly, then I ask," Who's driving?" They immediately point to their friend who sit on the right front seat. (FYI : we are in Indonesia use to drive on the right side, right side steer). It's amazing that they perfectly know which side should the driver sit on. They really paid attention on this issue before. They aware it.
After that the imagery taxi is starting to go with 3 passengers inside......... Brrrrooommmmmmm................
"Don't forget to pay before you get off the car ya...........!", I yelled.

Shang che = get on the car

Xia che = get off the car