Farm Themed Cantonese Language Activities

Children love themes with animals. As spring is arriving in less than a month, I thought we would have a farm (農場; Jyutping: nung4 coeng4) theme - so your kid can learn the names of some farm animals before you visit some baby animals in a nearby farm or petting zoo.

So here's an A3 poster with some things and animals that you can find on a farm. Go through the words with your little one and learn the animal noises. You can also explain what animals do. For example,

牛食草。Cows eat grass. (Jytping: ngau4 sik6 cou2)

母雞生蛋。Hens lay eggs. (Jytping: mou5 gai1 saang1 daan2)

公雞啼叫。Roosters crow. (Jytping: gung1 gai1 tai4 giu3)

豬玩泥。Pigs play in the mud. (Jytping: zyu1 waan4 nai4)

In English, there are different names to describe baby animals. For example, a young sheep is called a lamb. But in Cantonese, you can simply add the word 仔 (Jyutping: zai2) to describe baby/small animals - e.g. 牛仔 (Jyutping: ngau4 zai2) is a calf.

You can also use these flashcards to practice the vocabulary. My daughter loves a game we call "flippety flip". I flip a flashcard very quickly until my daughter can guess what it is on the flashcard. But my daughter likes to be the one flipping the card for me to guess. I usually guess it wrong a couple times and my daughter enjoys revealing the answer to me - i.e. she says the answer out loud in Cantonese.

You can also pick out all the animal flashcards to play another game. You pick a card and hold it up without seeing what's on it. Then your child makes the noise the animal makes so you can guess the animal. All the funny animal noises make this a very amusing activity.

Farm animals are a classic theme that little kids love. I have therefore put together a "Crafts: Farm Animals" Pinterest board with some of my favorite farm animal crafts.

Last but not least, no farm theme would be complete without this classic song that children love to sing. Here's the Cantonese version of "Old MacDonald had a farm" and you can find the song sheet here. To make it more interesting, print out these adorable farm animal masks by Kim at Life Over C's to perform the song. If you have a group of children, assign them each an animal mask so they stand up when the animal is up in the song.