I’m happy to present a shadow puppet video that tells the story behind the Dragon Boat Festival in a fun way that kids will like! The benefit of listening to short bilingual videos are many-fold. If your kids are just beginners, it is a good way to expose them to how the language sounds. If they are more advanced, they can start to pick out words or phrases that was mirrored in their first language. If they are fluent, they can practice retelling the story in both languages. I hope whatever your level, you and your family can enjoy this simple explanation to a beloved Chinese holiday.
If you would like more ways to celebrate the Dragon Boat Festival, Tiny Chinese Homeschool has released fun videos and activities for the whole month of June that you can explore.
As part of the Tiny Chinese Homeschool Dragon Boat Festival Virtual Celebration, we are sharing a free activity you can do at home with your kids. Shadow puppets were a traditional way to tell stories in ancient China. My first exposure to it was watching “To Live” by Zhang Yimou. It seemed like something that looked simple but took a lot of skill. Here is an example you can see from the movie (you’ll need to skip to 25:18 and just watch 1 minute of it):
I wanted my kids to try it out, so I made a simplified version of it so they could control the little puppet with just two hands and chopsticks. And guess what? They loved it! My daughter found it fascinating to manipulate the hands and body. She made up her own stories or reenacted Chinese stories I had told her. I hope you can try it out too!
You will need:
cardstock paper
brads
tape
scissors
chopsticks
parchment paper
Instructions:
Print out the free printable below. Cut out the man and body parts.
Use brads to connect the hands to the arms and the arms to the body. Make sure to refer to the colored circles to know which part connects to which part. Use a brad to connect the legs to the body. You need to make this brad loose so the legs can swing freely as the body wiggles.
Take the square cut out and curl up the white part so it makes a cylinder just big enough to fit a chopstick or pencil. Tape it closed. Then use the colored tab at the end of the square as a flat point to connect it to the puppet with tape. Again, make sure to match the colored rectangles to affix it.
Now you can take a pair of chopsticks and stick them in the cylinders. You may need to pinch down the opening of the cylinder so it fits more snug around the chopstick. You can now move your puppet!
Use parchment paper make a screen where the puppets can show flat against. I used two benches and placed them on top of one another to make a stage. Tape the sides of the parchment paper firmly so it will not move when the puppets press against it. As long as you have a light or a bright window behind your stage, you are ready to go!
I hope you will have a lot of fun with your puppet! And once you get the basic idea, you can experiment with your own designs or even cut our eyes in the faces!
My kids and I used these shadow puppets to create a video that tells the story behind the Dragon Boat Festival. I hope you check back next week to see it–it will be a real treat!
This is week #2 of Tiny Chinese Homeschool’s Dragon Boat Festival Virtual Celebration! Dragon Boat Festival or 端午節 would not be complete without these delicious triangles of rice steamed in leaves. It is an ambitious recipe, but worth a try. My kids are picky eaters, but the novelty of this dish interests them to get involved and try it. It’s one of my son’s favorite dishes.
Zòngzi Recipe
Ingredients
2.5 cups sticky rice
1/2 cup peanuts
1/2 package dried bean curd
1/2 lb pork belly
4 shiitake mushrooms mushrooms
4 shallots
pinch of salt
12 or more bamboo leaves
string
Seasoning A
2 tbsp soy sauce
2 tsp sugar
Seasoning B
4 tsp soy sauce
1.5 tbsp sugar
1/2 tsp Chinese five-spice powder
2 dashes of sesame oil
Steps
Rinse sticky rice. Stir in peanuts. Set aside.
Dice pork, then marinate in Seasoning A for 5 minutes.
Dice dried bean curd.
Soak mushrooms, remove stems and slice.
Pare and slice the shallots.
Soak bamboo leaves in water. Then rinse and dry.
Fry pork, dried bean curd, shallots, mushrooms, Seasoning B, and a dash of a water with 2 tbsp oil until fragrant. Add a pinch of salt. Spoon it into a bowl and pour the remaining sauce/liquid into the sticky rice for flavor. Mix well.
Take one bamboo leaf and fold it into a cupped triangle. Spoon some rice/peanut mixture to fill the bottom of the triangle. Add a heaping spoonful of pork/dried bean curd/shallot/mushroom mix. Pack more rice on top to fill the triangle to the top. Fold over and bind with string.
Steam the zòngzi for 1 hr. Enjoy!
Zòngzi is so delicious! The rice has a special flavor from being steamed in bamboo leaves. The rice breaks open with a curtain of steam and sweet aroma of meat and mushrooms. The peanuts are softened but still add a chewy crunch to the dish. What better way to celebrate this holiday than with this savory treat? Hope you and your family love it!
Dragon Boat Festival or 端午節/DuānWǔJié is on June 25th, this year (2020), and Tiny Chinese Homeschool is throwing a virtual celebration for you to join in with your family at home. Every week this month, we will release a fun activity or video.
June Week #1: Dragon Boat Festival-themed printables (available now at the bottom of this post).
June Week #2: Zòngzi cooking video and recipe – this is a very ambitious recipe, but it is delicious and an essential part of the holiday.
June Week #3: Shadow puppet tutorial – Shadow puppets were a very traditional way to tell stories in ancient China. Use this tutorial to make a puppet of QūYuán, the person who’s memory we honor in the festival.
June Week #4: The Story of QūYuȧn video premiere! Watch a dramatic shadow puppet video that tells the history behind the Dragon Boat Festival.
We hope you will check back weekly (whether on Facebook or this blog) to celebrate with us!
端午節快樂！
Dragon Boat Festival Printables – Dot to Dot: Not only is this a simple way to introduce two traditions associated with the Dragon Boat Festival, this helps kids practice reading their characters from 1 to 10!
For those of you who have not yet bought the book, now is the time to get it! The 2nd edition of Tiny Chinese Homeschool Vol. 1 has 46 more pages and is on sale for a limited time. For those of you who already have a 1st edition in your hand, check the bottom of this post!
Why make a 2nd edition?
The very first buyers of Tiny Chinese Homeschool Vol. 1 have given me great feedback. Some have said how invaluable the audio has been. Others have complimented the artwork and structure. There was one piece of feedback that really hit a chord with me, and it was from a friend with no previous Chinese experience. She said, “We tried to introduce our child to Chapter 1 today and only got to one page. The material on there is packed!” At the time, I interpreted it as the book being well worth the price because there was so much to learn on one page. As time went on, I’ve thought back and realized the density of information could make it less approachable to new learners and especially young children, the very people this book was made for.
Then, as if I had an itch to scratch, I started making simple worksheets to supplement the lessons already in the workbook. Instead of worksheets that tested both the vocabulary and dialogue phrases, I created mazes and dot-to-dots that simply reestablished one vocabulary word or one phrase. Last year, when I was creating the graphics to the book, I only had access to Illustrator on my computer, so graphic creation was slow. This year, I could create graphics on my tablet so I was able to draw in shorter but more frequent spurts–making it possible for the new worksheets to have original artwork.
After a couple weeks of feverish activity, I had the new manuscript as it was always meant to be. Please scroll through the first chapter and note some of the changes:
Some of the changes include:
2-3 additional worksheets per chapter
colorful and simple activities for younger children
easier character practice sheets in EVERY chapter with pinyin practice
no additional vocabulary or audio (for easy integration with the previous assets)
Additionally, the review chapters are expanded to include cut-out pages that you fill in with information about yourself. After you have finished all the review chapters, you will have a book that answers the following questions about yourself: How many people are in your family? How old are you? What do you look like? What do you like to eat?
Originally, the Pinyin Playground had no worksheets because I just assumed the learner could practice on their own. I’ve since added 3 worksheet pages to that chapter to help reinforce pinyin writing and tone writing.
When I submitted the new manuscript for print, I had to raise the price of the book to compensate for the additional printing costs of a thicker volume. To my delight, Amazon has decided to discount the new book to the original sale cost of $19.99 (at no loss to me). This might be for a short time only, so for any one still thinking of trying out this book in their family, now is the time.
What about those who already have the 1st edition?
For those of you who were the pioneers of this learning material and purchased the 1st edition, I thank you! It was your support and your interest that helped me value the book enough to make improvements.
I am offering the digital version of all of the new worksheets for free so long as you contact me with proof of purchase. Just email me through the contact form. In the comments section, type the worksheet instructions you see on page 50 of your Vol. 1 book. I will respond with a link to the newly added digital pages.
What things are on the horizon?
Vol. 2 is in the works and will continue to learn from the lessons from Vol 1. There will be more worksheets with simpler activities, repetition, and utilizing vocabulary in mini-stories. Hopefully this volume will be finished at the end of this year!
Next month is the release of another easy-reader: Turkey Rides a Rocket. Think of it as the Chinese “Hop on Pop,” where two words are introduced and then put into context–usually in a humorous way. It is fun, fresh, and there is simply nothing out there like it. I’m excited to tell you more about it next time.
Thank you to all of you and your love of learning. Never give up! You got this.
Tiny Chinese Homeschool 