I need ideas for an after school Chinese club

[EricJMa]

Hello, I’m an elementary school teacher in the US. Since I’m the only teacher that can speak Chinese (HSK 4 level) at my school, I was assigned an after school Chinese Club for 30 students grades 3-6.  

The club is just 1 hour long and only meets once a week. So it will only be a fun introduction class for them. I am looking for ideas such as crafts, songs and especially lessons I can teach once a week as an after school enrichment class.

Thanks for all your help.

[Shelley]

What sort of materials do you have access to ie. paper and pens only or computers, tablets. Do you have a source for text books,  libraries or such?

From memory grade 3-6 is about 8 years to 11, 12 years approx?

 

The reason I ask is because there is so much out there these days that its good to know what type of thing you have access to. For example there are some very good apps for children (free). Alternatively there are some text books aimed at children that are good too.

 

If you do a search for things like "songs for children age ..... to learn chinese" you will find a lot of things.

 

I will go and have a look at some things I have and come back later with some names of books and things.

[889]

I think kids that age would enjoy some traditional Chinese games of chance. Nothing like gambling to teach them the practical importance of mathematics. Of course you can use something like M&Ms -- or more appropriately 麦丽素 -- in place of cash.

 

Fan-Tan, the buttons under the bowl game, might make the best introduction. Rules are simple, and the game is easy to set up and run.

 

It's also a good way to teach them that, over the not too long run, the house always wins.

[feihong]

It's not really clear, but from your post it sounds like these kids aren't actually in a formal Chinese class, right?

 

If so, that really limits the songs that we could seriously recommend.

 

As for lessons centered around the language, there's very little you can retain if you study a language only once per week. I guess you could teach them some tourist phrases, and maybe a bit of calligraphy.

[陳德聰]

Sounds like really you should treat it as more of a club than as a class. Mileage may vary by age and prior exposure to Chinese:

 

- Do up a set of cards with basic characters on them for "memory" or "concentration" or whatever that game is called where you flip two over and try to find matches. Eventually if you intend on teaching the vocabulary rather than just acquainting them with the characters, you can add rules like "you only get to collect the matching cards if you also are able to read the character aloud'.

 

- A song often taught to learners early on in the game that makes me want to peel my skin off and sling it across the room is 蝸牛與黃鸝鳥

 

- Teach them 象棋

 

- Mid-Autumn Festival is coming up soon. When I was little we learned the story of 嫦娥 chilling on the moon with the 玉兔, then talked about 月餅 and 燈籠. I guess really when special occasions come around you sort of get a freebie for lesson ideas.

 

- Find or make your own colour by number pages, except instead of numbers use Chinese characters.

 

Edited to add:

 

- Teach them 成語 but only the ones with amusing stories behind them.

[roddy]

Game I used to play with young kids, which was great for a bit of running about and blowing off steam (and can be adapted if you have to keep them in their seats). I'll recount it in English, but easily changed.

 

Get a bunch of minimal pairs

https://www.englishclub.com/pronunciation/minimal-pairs-i-ee.htm

 

Do a quick teach of the difference. Make one side of your space the 'i' side, the other the 'ee' sound. Kids all gather in the middle. You call out one word, they have to run to the side they think is right. You'll end up with some on either side, running back and forth as they change their mind. Once they've settled tell 'em if they were right or not. Move on to the next word. Do points and teams, they're suckers for that kind of thing. If they can't run about get them pointing at either side of the classroom. 

 

Extra tricks:

Bamboozle them by looking at the kids on the correct side as if they're wrong. Are you sure? Listen again. Oh, you want to move now? Shame, you were right first time.

Get some of the kids to do the reading - you tell them what word to say, they've got to say it well enough the others can get to the right side.

Fire words at them so quickly they're frantically running back and forth. Once they're exhausted, take them back to their seats and enjoy teaching calmer children.

 

In Chinese you'd do zhan / zhang; jing / qing; or do tones, with each corner a different one. 

 

Counting games. Teach the numbers. Each student counts one number. 1...2...3...4... ok, you can do that. When I raise my hand we start counting backwards. Skip a number if you're wearing a red top. Take too long? You're out, sit down for two minutes.

 

Show 'em cartoons. They don't need to understand everything, just get them listening for pre-taught vocab. Clap your hands every time you hear '你‘, tap the desk for '好’. 

Classroom vocab treasure hunts. Which team can first bring me... a red pencil... a green book. 

[刘慧婷]

There's a game called where the wind blows aka 大风吹。

Have each student grab a chair and arrange it into a circle facing inwards. Since there's 30 kids form 2 circles to lower the likelihood of injuries, may also depend on the space you have access to.

One child stands in the middle and starts the game saying 大风吹. Everyone sitting on a chair replies with 吹什么？The child in the middle answers 吹___________ (name a description, characteristic or feature e.g. people wearing black shoes, people who have a younger brother, etc.). Let's use people who have brown hair for example.
Everyone who has brown hair has to get up and find a new seat before the person in the middle does.
My extra rules would be: no going back to the same seat and no moving to the seats on either side of your old one. Get the children to play referee so no one cheats.
At the very least, they should be able to learn those 6 words and if you do end up teaching them some content then they can have listening and speaking practice by inserting words they've learned in the blank space. For example, you might teach numbers and colours first: 吹今年8岁的男孩，吹今年不是10岁的孩子，吹有红色的shirt，有蓝色的pencil case, 有绿色的bag.

It's not a traditional Chinese game but it involves movement so it'll allow the children to blow off some steam while learning some Chinese 

All the best!

 

[Shelley]

From the other replies and the fact that I have gathered you are not doing any sort of formal lessons, any suggestion I was going to make are too structured for your needs.

[DrWatson]

On 9/7/2017 at 1:01 AM, 陳德聰 said:

- Teach them 象棋

 

I think that is a great idea. I volunteer and help teach 将棋 in an after school club, a Japanese game that is similar to 象棋 and standard international chess. All of the students very quickly learn to visually differentiate the characters on the game pieces, whether they can read the characters or not. Children are so resilient to new things and adapting to their environment, it is amazing. I feel like they learn games very easily too.

 

I will warn, however, if you have kids who are quiet "active", they can have a hard time sitting for a period of time to play a board game like 象棋.  Perhaps it might be a good idea to have another activity for kids who like to move around a lot as well? Some sore of playground game?

 

I have also found that calligraphy is very popular with all kids. You can provide some samples that they can try to model their attempts after yours, and most kids, regardless of whether they can read it or not, have a really good time with the writing brushes.