我 wǒ (All about me) Families

Support

Ask the children what strategies they might use to try and remember which characters are for mother and which for father. Does mother have a smiley face and father a beard?

Extend recognition of characters to other family members. Place A3 or larger versions of the characters on the classroom wall.

•As in previous sessions, use the pronunciation grid to introduce Chinese as a language made up of different sounds, this time asking the children to close their eyes.

•Introduce the 4/5 tones as 4 different sounds modelling with “ma”.

•Ask children to present their family members to the class using photos or drawings.

•Using the Simpsons (or a famous family of your choice) take on the role of one of the characters of the family e.g. 我叫Lisa Simpson. 这是我妈妈这是我爸爸， 这是我妹妹这是我哥哥 wò jiào Lisa Simpson. zhè shì wo māma, zhè shì wǒ bàba , zhè shì wǒ mèi mei, zhè shì wǒ gēge.(I am called Lisa. Here is my mother, here is my father, here is my younger sister, here is my elder brother.) With the pinyin and characters on a white board, as well as a picture of the character you are adopting and the other characters placed by the pinyin, run through the sentences asking the children to say ‘Lisa’, ‘māma’ ‘bàba’ ‘mèi mei’ ‘gēge’ with you.

Literacy

• Show the pinyin form of the four family words and point out the accents. Specifically show the children 爸爸bàba father and 哥哥gēge elder brother. Ask them if they can write妈妈 māma mother. Have they spotted the repeating pattern?

• Play 摸摸看 mō mō kàn - Touch the Picture. Place flashcards for the family members on the board. Divide the class into two teams. One child from each team comes to the board. Say aloud one of the family members e.g. 我妹妹 wǒ mèimei. The first child to touch the correct picture wins a point for their team. Choose two new children for the next round.

Prepare a multimedia presentation to

introduce family members. (1)

Create family tree template for ICT follow-up activity (1)

Find animated creations of the Chinese characters for mother 妈妈māma and father 爸爸 bàba on the Internet to illustrate brush stroke (1)

Practise saying 再见 zàijiàn (goodbye) with accurate pronunciation.

Play Kim’s Game to consolidate names for the family members - see teaching tips.

Practise recognizing the characters for father and mother on the wall

Try another guessing game. Invite two children to leave the room. The class chooses a Chinese name and one child volunteers to take this new name. The other two children return to the classroom. They have to find out who has the new name by asking你叫什么？nǐ jiào shénme to individual children, who reply with 我叫+ wǒ jiào..+ their name. This continues until the new name has been discovered.

Use the e-book (see ICT follow-up activity) or photos on the interactive whiteboard to practise the structure, 这是我妹妹 zhè shì wǒ mèi mei (This is my younger sister) etc.

Create a family e- book with photos of either the child’s family or the family of a famous person adding the appropriate sound file or pinyin and characters -这是我妹妹 zhè shì wǒ mèi mei (This is my younger sister) etc. Start with the central person and then add brothers, sisters, mother, father etc. End with a picture of the whole family together with all introduced within the same sound file.(2)Ask a partner school to send pictures of some of the families within the class including the relationships between them to create family trees that the children send back to the partner school (2)

Children can:

• 
  understand the meaning of 我妈妈， 我爸爸，我妹妹，我哥哥wo māma, wǒ bàba , wǒ mèi mei, wǒ gēge.( my mother, my father, my younger sister, my elder brother.)
  
• 
  begin to use the structure, 这是我妹妹 zhè shì wǒ mèi mei (This is my younger sister) etc.
  
• 
  say 再见 zàijiàn with accurate pronunciation.
  

Strand 3 Group discussion and interaction; Y1 – ask and answer questions.

4b Think about the lives of people living in other places and times, and people with different values and customs.

• 
  Kim’s Game is a useful activity for helping children to learn new vocabulary. They put picture cards of family members face up on their table. They study them for a few seconds and then, at your signal, turn them over (keeping them in the same order). Invite them to select from memory the card that you ask for and hold it to their chest until you say 请找 qǐng zhǎo. If they have guessed correctly, they put the card to one side. If they have not, they return the card face down, to the same place. The first child to have guessed all of the cards correctly is the winner. You can invite the winner to come to the front and be the caller for the next round of the game. This may also be done on an interactive whiteboard.
  
• 
  For the e-book provide the relevant characters, from which the children must choose, to position against the relevant photo.
  

Pictures of the Simpsons or alternative well known family

Sets of cards for playing Kim’s Game

ICT Resources

Camera for pictures of families

Access to Internet search engines for photos of famous families

e-book generation software or websites

Presentational software for family tree template

再见 zàijiàn

再一次 zài yī cì
这是辛普森一家

zhè shì Xīn PǔSēn yī jiā

Good bye

Here is the Simpson family

我爸爸 wǒ bàba

我妹妹wǒ mèi mei

我哥哥wǒ gēge

这是我妹妹 zhè shì wǒ mèi mei

我叫Lisa Simpson. 这是我妈妈这是我爸爸， 这是我妹妹这是我哥哥

我家 wǒ jiā

这是我家 zhè shì wǒ jiā

再见 zàijiàn

my father

my younger sister

my elder brother

I am called Lisa. Here is my mother, here is my father, here is my younger sister, here is my elder brother

This is my my family/Here is my family.