Hànzì number frieze
Overview
Purpose
To recognise and pronounce numbers 1–10 written in characters, and be able to teach at least one word to others.
Learning outcomes
To identify numbers in:
- characters
- pinyin.
Skills used
- Listening
- Speaking
- Reading
Related units in Hăo! kit
- Unit 3 One, two, three
- Unit 11 One hundred
Type
Individual, pair, group, or class activity
Instructions
In this activity, the students make a frieze of the numbers 1–10 for display in the classroom. The finished product not only acts as a constant reminder of the numbers, but also provides students with visual examples of vocabulary.
Materials
- A5-sized paper (half A4) – this an ideal size for the numbers in the frieze.
- Magazines containing suitable pictures (for students who can't draw).
- Frieze template, which shows how the number pages could be formatted. To download the template, select from the following Word or PDF formats:
Steps
- Allocate one number to each student.
- Students colour in the characters and draw a picture that depicts their number, such as five apples or seven cats. If drawing is difficult for some students, provide them with magazines from which to cut out pictures.
- Students write the word for the number in pinyin in the space indicated.
- Working in pairs or small groups, students teach their number to others, using their picture as a prop.
- When they are confident, students teach their number to the whole class.
Tips
- Ask students to make their pictures fill all the space in the page, so that the image is easily recognisable from a distance.
- This activity is ideal for homework.
Variations
- Before putting the frieze on display, students enjoy seeing their work used as flashcards. Cover or fold the card so that only the picture is visible, then ask the students what the word is on Chinese.
- Cover or fold back the pinyin, then find out who can pronounce the number correctly in Chinese.
- Divide class into teams, and have them stand in line. One student traces, or 'back writes', a character number onto the front student's back. When the front student thinks they know which characters it is, they go to get the correct card on the wall and say the number aloud before the other team.
- Shuffle the cards so they are out of order, then ask students to sort them into the correct numeric order.
Further learning
- Practice writing the numbers with ink and brushes.
- Make multi-sided dice (such as dodecagons) and mark the sides with character numbers. Use the dice when playing board games.
- Practice writing telephone numbers in characters.
Language to use
When using the class set of drawings as flash cards, use the following questions:
- Zhè shì jĭ?
What number is this? - Zhé shì shénme?
What is this? - Zhōngwén zĕnme shuō?
What is this in Chinese?