4 Activities to Learn about Spring
Spring is the best time of the year to be a kid. All the bugs, muddy soft ground, puddles, rainboots, picnics...you get the picture. So here are some activities to buck the winter blues and introduce some new Cantonese words about spring to your little (or not so little) ones.
Sing a song
Singing is an amazing way to dramatically expand a kid's vocabulary. Throw in a few silly moments and I can guarantee that your kids will be singing the song over and over (and over and over...) again. Here are three songs that are related to spring - you can find the song sheets on my website here:
小蜜蜂 (Jyutping: siu2 mat6 fung1) Little bird
有隻雀仔跌落水 (Jyutping: jau5 zek3 zoek3 zai2 dit3 lok6 seoi2) A bird falls in the water
點蟲蟲 (Jyutping: dim2 cung4 cung4) Ladybug
Cook and learn
Kids love to show off what they have learned. We have a vocabulary poster on the kitchen wall (laminate it to protect it from dirty/sticky fingers and occasional rough play!) and I change it regularly. My daughter loves to hang out with me in the kitchen when I cook, so I try to practice Cantonese with her in the meantime. We will lay the poster on the kitchen counter and go through the words together. Or she will just point at the poster on the wall and "teach" me all the words. Here is an A3 poster about spring for you.
Race to the card as a ...
When it is raining outside, you can do this with your kids indoor. First you need to show your kids how different bugs move around. For example, you can flap your arms slowly to fly like a butterfly, or you can move around with buzzing noise like a bee. Then they need to pick a bug that they want to be. Now you stick the laminated flashcards around the room, call out one of them, and your kids will race to them like the bug that they have chosen.
Movement
Squish Preschool Ideas has shared this great idea to make the butterfly lifecycle topic a whole body sensory experience. Get down on the floor and show your kids the lifecycle of a butterfy - an egg 蛋 (Jyutping: daan2), a caterpillar 毛蟲 (Jyutping: mou4 cung4), a chrysallis 蛹 (Jyutping: jung2), and a butterfly 蝴蝶 (Jyutping: wu4 dip6)!
Are you ready to hop on to spring?
