Spring Book Review: A Nest in Springtime

Spring is finally upon us, and I could not be more excited to see the tips of daffodils and tulips poking through the dirt in my garden.  To celebrate spring's arrival and the conclusion of our number study in my beginning Mandarin class, I shared the bilingual children's book, A Nest in Springtime: A Bilingual Book of Numbers by Belle Yang (Candlewick Press, 2012). Although written for a younger audience, my 1st-3rd graders enjoyed hearing me read the endearing story, first in Mandarin and then translating to English words they had not studied yet. They participated by reading all the numbers in the story (in Mandarin, or course=).  

A great book for beginning Mandarin students and their families: It's not easy to find a Mandarin language children's book that beginning language students can read. 

• A Nest in Springtime is great for kids who are learning to read Chinese characters, especially those who are familiar with the characters for numbers 1-8. They will be able to read 3-4 pages of the book!
• The story is simple with a limited vocab (it's a board book). English translations are shared on opposite pages, and pinyin pronunciation for the Chinese characters in the story is provided on the last page. This option is great for people like me who aren't super at reading traditional characters (繁體字) or who are new to learning Chinese.  
• Beautiful jewel-toned illustrations. These make story a joy to read!

To learn how to count from 1-10 in Mandarin, check out this great video put together by Daily Noodles: 

To practice writing your numbers 1-10 in Chinese characters, check out my post: Back-to-school Printable: How to write Numbers 1-10 in Chinese characters. 

 How will you be celebrating the arrival of spring? 

Countdown to Spring...in Mandarin 数九歌

The holidays have passed, and although we haven't had a real winter yet (according to the kids), the winter doldrums have set in and we (...um..that would be me) have begun the countdown to spring. 
My mother-in-law shared this great Mandarin poem that was used long ago in China as a way to keep track of the days between Winter Solstice and the spring planting season, The Number Nine Song (数九歌, shǔ jiǔ gē).
Winter Solstice (冬至, dōngzhì) is a Chinese holiday celebrated by family get-togethers and tāngyuán (汤圆), which are those wonderful glutinous rice dumplings with sweet or savory fillings (my favorite are black sesame paste), floating in a vat of steaming hot water. Yum!

Back to the poem: 

Number Nine Song describes the changes in the weather that occur between the Winter Solstice and the beginning of the spring planting season from a child's perspective.  Time is counted in increments of 9 days, so the "1st 9" in the poem refers to the first 9 days beginning from the Winter Solstice, the "2nd 9" the 9 days after that, and so on. 

    Click here for a free download of this poem

What I love about this poem:

• Good for intermediate students. Chinese poetry can be confounding (to say the least), but this is a pretty approachable poem for intermediate language learners due to its heavy use of numbers.
• It's a riddle! Once you understand that the 9's in the poem refer to increments of 9 days, the poem can be used as a riddle. Have your kids figure out when the 1st 9, 2nd 9, 3rd, 9, etc... occur (Hint: Winter Solstice was December 22 last year). 
• Great lesson idea for Winter Solstice. Yup, it's already passed this year, but put it on the calendar for next year (December 21, 2016) and plan to eat some steaming hot tāngyuán (or eat those now just because you never need an excuse to eat tāngyuán).
• You can hear it performed on a goofy youtube video. There is a goofy youtube video that animates the poem's text (recited by children). FYI: the third line of the poem slightly differs in the video.

How do you count down the days until spring?