Curriculum Resource

Activity 1: Know, want, learnt and numbers revision

Know–Want–Learnt part 1

Teaching and learning goal: Students demonstrate what they already know about the topic and what they would like to learn during the learning sequence.

Dimension(s): Writing

Teacher notes: Students work on computers to complete the Know-Want-Learn (KWL) template in Microsoft Word. KWL stands for the following:

• K = What I Know
• W = What I Want to Learn
• L = What I have Learnt

In the K column, students write down what they already know about the daily routines of students in China.

In the W column, students identify in what they would like to learn about the daily lives of the students in their Chinese partner school.

Students will complete the L column at the end of the sequence.

Ask students to share what they would like to learn in this sequence. This will support you to plan supplementary activities to cater to your students interests.

Numbers revision

Teaching and learning goal: Students revise the Chinese vocabulary for numbers 1-20.

Dimension(s): Reading and listening

Teacher notes: Students independently explore the following Quizlet learning games to revise numbers 1–20 in Chinese. This will prepare them for the activities to follow which will use numbers 1-12 in telling the time.

• Numbers flashcards – Students review the Chinese numbers and their English meaning with audio.
• Learn numbers – Students listen to the number in English and select the correct Chinese number.
• Number scatter game – Students drag the Chinese numbers onto their corresponding Arabic numerals to make them disappear.
• Numbers speller game – Students listen to the Chinese number and then select the correct Arabic numeral.

Activity 2: Time of the day

Telling the time

Teaching and learning goal: Students learn to tell the time in Chinese.

Dimension(s): Listening and speaking

Teacher notes: Explain to students how to say the time of the day in Chinese. You may wish to write this up on the whiteboard for students to refer to. 

• ____o'clock= (number)+点(diǎn)
• Half past ___=(number)+点半(diǎnbàn) Explain to students that the only exception to this rule is for 2 o'clock, i.e. You cannot say 二点(èr diǎn); you can only say 两点 (liǎng diǎn).

Use the interactive clock face on the interactive whiteboard to select a number of different times and ask students to call out the times in Chinese.

Time games

Teaching and learning goal: Students practise telling the time in Chinese.

Dimension(s): Listening, reading and writing

Teacher notes: Students complete the 'Telling the time' worksheet using Chinese characters. They may wish to refer back to the Quizlet activities to support them with writing the numbers.
Students then attempt the following interactive games independently on computers.

Time memory game: Students read the time in Chinese and match it to the pinyin.

Time matching game: Students listen to a time of the day in Chinese and match it to the English meaning.

Activity 3: Daily routine words

Total physical response

Teaching and learning goal: Students become familiar with the vocabulary for daily activities in Chinese.

Dimension(s): Listening and speaking

Teacher notes: Introduce the daily activities in the list provided by acting them out at the same time as saying them in Chinese. Ask students to mimic the actions and repeat the words in Chinese.

Then, say the word in Chinese without acting it out and ask students to act out what they think it is. Once all students have had a guess, act out the word to confirm their understanding.

'Minus one' game

Teaching and learning goal: Students practise vocabulary for daily activities in Chinese.

Teacher notes: Divide the class into seven groups. Cut up the daily activities list into strips and give each group one daily activity strip, a piece of A4 card and a packet of markers. Allow students about 10 minutes to create a drawing on the A4 card to represent that activity. Collect the drawings and hold each one up as a flashcard saying the Chinese word.

To play the 'Minus One' game, hold up one of the cards and say the word on the card as many times as you like (ideally, not more than 10 times). Students then repeat the word, paying attention to correct tones, the same amount of times minus one time. For example, if you say the word five times, students must repeat the word four times. If any student says the word too many times or not enough times, they must sit down. Any group that still has all members standing after going through all of the flashcards earn five points each. You can play a number of rounds of this game. 

Daily activities interactive games

Teaching and learning goal: Students further practise vocabulary for daily activities in Chinese.

Dimension(s): Listening and reading

Teacher notes: Student independently complete the daily activities interactive games:

Activities matching game—Students listen to the activity in Chinese and select the corresponding English word to match.
Activities Tetris game—Students position the shapes into the grid, as in the game of Tetris, aiming to fill a line so that a line of blocks is deleted. After positioning four shapes, a quiz question will appear. Students read the Chinese (with pinyin above) and type the English translation. A new quiz question will appear after every four shapes. There are eight questions in total.

Daily activities charades

Teaching and learning goal: Students practise vocabulary for daily activities in Chinese.

Dimension(s): Speaking

Teacher notes: Ask students to spread out around the classroom. Select one of the daily activity words and act out the activity without speaking, as in the game of charades. Students raise their hand to guess which daily activity is being acted out. Select the student who had their hand up first and if the selected student answers correctly, they may take two large steps in any direction and 'tag' any student(s) within their reach. Any student who is tagged must sit down in their spot.

Select a student from those sitting down to become the 'leader' in your place. Hold out all of the picture cards (face down) in a fan arrangement and ask the leader to select one card without showing anyone. The leader then acts out the activity for students to guess and the above process is repeated. Repeat until there is one student remaining who has not been tagged. This student is the winner.

Talking about your daily routine

Teaching and learning goal: Students practise saying what time they do a particular activity.

Dimension(s): Listening and speaking

Teacher notes: Students watch the tutorial on how to say a particular activity at a particular time. Students can view the video at their own pace, pausing and replaying as required.

Following this, ask students to construct a sentence using this sentence pattern and share these with the class.

Invite students to construct one sentence each and say it aloud to the person sitting next to them.

Activity 4: Nonsense sentence scramble

Teaching and learning goal: Students practise constructing sentences to describe daily activities.

Dimension(s): Listening, reading, writing and speaking

Teacher notes: Prior to the lesson, cut up the daily routine cards in the template provided. The cards include different times of the day, various daily activities and three cards with the word 我 (I).

Divide students into groups of three and give each group an envelope containing the daily routine cards. Say a sentence aloud, either in Chinese or English, such as 'I go to school at 9.00am'. Allow time for students in each group to work together to arrange the cards in the correct sequence to create the sentence you have given them.

Then, ask students to each take a 我 (I) card and use it to create at least 5 sentences using the time and activity cards. These can be nonsensical sentences, such as ‘I go to school at 6:00’ or ‘I eat dinner at 2:30’ Students write each sentence in their workbook and share each one with their group. They then select one sentence to share with the whole class. 

Activity 5: Daily schedules

Mini-book: My daily schedule

Teaching and learning goal: Students practise using the sentence structure to describe the activities and times in their daily routine.

Dimension(s): Writing

Teacher notes: Distribute an A3 sheet of paper to each student. Ask students to refer to the instructions provided which demonstrate how to fold and cut the paper to turn it into a mini book. Using the sentence structure '我 + time + activity', students write one sentence on each page of the book about their own daily routine, such as 我八点吃早饭 (I eat breakfast at 8.00). Students should draw a picture to represent each sentence they write.

Students may wish to refer to the video tutorial again to revise the sentence structure.

Asking about someone's daily routine

Teaching and learning goal: Students are introduced to the question structure: 你什么时候 + activity? 你几点 + activity?

Dimension(s): Reading and listening

Teacher notes: Explain to students how to ask the question: 你什么时候 + activity? which means 'What time do you _____?' You may wish to demonstrate this structure on a whiteboard and give a few example sentences.

Students view and listen to a cartoon story about two characters: Gemma and Xiaoming. Gemma is asking Xiaoming about his daily routine and Xiaoming responds by stating the time that he does a variety of daily activities.

Explain to students that they can also use 你几点 + activity? You may ask students to replace “什么时候” with “几点” in Gemma’s questions in the cartoon story.

Talking about someone else's daily routine

Teaching and learning goal: Students are introduced to the sentence structure for describing someone else's daily activities.

Dimension(s): Reading and writing

Teacher notes: Explain to students that to describe someone else's daily routine in the third person. They can simply replace the 我 in the sentence structure with the person's name. So the sentence structure becomes: Name + time + activity. For example: 小明四点半回家 means 'Xiaoming goes home at 4:30'.

Students then complete the online comprehension true/false quiz about the cartoon story.

The teacher should highlight the use and structure of the third person in this exercise.

Students view A Day in the Life: China, Fu Zhaomeng and the teacher checks their comprehension with a few quick questions, whilst the students have the text in front of them. Eg. What does Fu Zhaomeng like to eat for lunch?  How does Fu Zhaomeng get home from school?

Students then work in pairs to talk about Fu Zhaomeng’s day, using the third person ‘他’. For example: 他四点十分回家

Following this, students complete the daily routine worksheet in which they translate four sentences into Chinese, and then submit it for assessment. For the people's names, students may simply use the English name of the person. For the times of the day, students may refer to the Quizlet games. For the activities, students may refer to the daily activities list, picture cards of matching games. A solutions sheet is provided.

Activity 6: Roleplays

What time do you ___?

Teaching and learning goal: Students further practise asking and responding to the question: '你什么时候 + activity?' '你几点 + activity?'

Dimension(s): Listening and speaking

Teacher notes: Inform students that they will soon be participating in a video conference with students at their Chinese partner school to gain first hand information about Chinese students' daily routines.

Ask students to share with the class what they think the Chinese students might want to know about a typical day in their lives. Then ask students to share what they want to know about the daily routine of students in China? Students may refer back to the KWL template that they started at the beginning of the sequence and may choose to update their KWL.

Next, ask students to find a partner and practise asking and responding to the question: ‘你什么时候 + activity?’ or '你几点 + activity?' for a range of different daily activities.

For example:

Q: 你什么时候吃早饭? – What time do you eat breakfast?
A: 我八点吃早饭。– I eat breakfast at 8.00.
Q: 你几点去上学? – What time do you go to school?
A: 我八点半去上学。– I go to school at 8.30.

Students may wish to use Fu Zhaomeng’s day as a basis for ideas for this activity, even though their day will look different to his in many parts.

Students can work in groups to compare their days to Fu Zhaomeng’s day.  What activities and times are similar?  Which ones are different and why?

Students share their ideas back to the class and the teacher can lead a discussion on similarities and differences between Australian and Chinese students.  The teacher should highlight which aspects of the differences are due to cultural differences and discuss these with the students. 

Schedule a video conference with your Chinese partner school and hold a practice session with the Chinese teacher beforehand to ensure you are able to clearly communicate with each other using your selected video conferencing application*. Before the video conference session, ask the teacher in China to give the Chinese students a quick revision of how to express their daily routines in English.

*It is recommended that you test a number of different video conferencing applications to determine which will work best for your school and your partner school. Some free applications to try are: Skype and BlackBoard Collaborate vRoom.

Activity 7: Video conference – Sharing daily routines

Teaching and learning goal: Students practise learnt sentence structures in an authentic conversation with native speakers, and gain first-hand insights into the difference between the daily routines of Australian and Chinese students.

Dimension(s): Listening and speaking

Teacher notes: Ensure that all students have their completed mini-books handy during the video conference.

Create a list of your students names and a list of the students in your Chinese partner class and place them in a hat or bag.

Once connected to the video conference, select one student's name from your hat/bag. Ask the Chinese teacher to select a student from her class to begin by asking the selected student a question about his/her daily routine. For example, 你什么时候起床？or 你几点起床？(What time do you get up?)

The Australian student answers the question, referring to his/her mini-book if necessary. The student then selects a Chinese student's name from the hat and asks that student the same question, or a question of their choice. Alternate between students of the Australian class and the students of the Chinese class.

Meanwhile, all students should take notes of the daily routines of the Chinese students in their workbooks. They will use this information to create their digital cartoon story.

Following this, ask the Chinese students to explain in English what they believe are the main differences in the daily routines of the students in the two classes. Invite them to ask questions of your class (in English) about why these differences might exist. Then, invite your students to ask questions of the Chinese students about any similarities or differences that they found interesting (in English)*.

At the end of the video conference, put all the students' names back in the hats. Alternate selecting one Australian student and one Chinese student to pair up for the collaborative cartoon story activity to follow. Write down the pairs for your records.

*The Chinese students will likely have greater proficiency in English than your students do in Chinese, allowing for this higher level discussion to occur in English. However, you should check with your partner school teacher whether this discussion would be appropriate for the students in the Chinese class.

Activity 8: Collaborative cartoon story

Make a cartoon

Teaching and learning goal: Students practise writing the learnt sentence structures and using correct pronunciation when saying them.

Dimension(s): Speaking and writing

Teacher notes: Prior to this activity, arrange for students in your class and your Chinese partner class to have access to an online collaborative space*.

Ask your students to download the Languages Online Cartoon Story Maker. They must create two fictional characters using the software: an Australian character and a Chinese character.

They are to create speech bubbles for both characters.

In the Chinese character's speech bubbles, they are to include questions and sentences to create a conversation in which the two characters describe their daily routines. Record audio to add the speech bubbles in Chinese, paying attention to the pronunciation they heard in the video conference and in the interactive games in this sequence.

Leave the speech bubbles for the Australian character empty as these will be completed by their Chinese partner in English. When finished, students save their cartoon stories, zip the files as a compressed zip folder and upload them to the online collaborative space.

Each Chinese student at your partner school should download and unzip their partner's zip folder from the collaborative space and download the Cartoon Story Maker application. They complete the cartoon by inserting English text into the speech bubbles to describe the Australian character's daily routine. Record and add audio to the speech bubbles in English. When finished, the Chinese students then re-zip and save the cartoon story folder back to the collaborative space.

Extension activity (optional): Some students may choose to create a comprehension quiz about their cartoon story, including true false questions which incorporate the third person sentence structure. For example, True or false: Jane 十点吃早饭 (Jane eats breakfast at 10.00). They can download the Languages Online Comprehension Task Maker to do this.

Cartoon sharing and submission

Teaching and learning goal: Students edit their cartoon story, share their work and submit it for assessment.

Dimension(s): Reading, writing, listening and speaking

Teacher notes: Ask students to download and review their Chinese partners' finished cartoon story, then send feedback to their partner via the online collaborative space.

Divide students into groups of 4-5. Students share their completed cartoon story with the other students in their group. Students will then share their cartoon stories with other classes across the school. Arrange for each group of students to visit one class and share their story with a small group of younger students. Students should invite the younger students to offer feedback on the story—what they learned, what they liked and what they didn't like.

Encourage students to make any final edits to their cartoon story and then submit it for assessment. Assess the finished products based on pronunciation, tones, fluency, accuracy (of grammar and vocabulary) and presentation.

*Two online platforms you may wish to explore for collaboration with your partner school are Wikispaces and Edmodo

Activity 9: Conclusion

Venn diagram

Teaching and learning goal: Students reflect on the similarities and differences between the daily routines of students in Australia and China.

Dimension(s): Reading and writing

Teacher notes: Prior to the lesson, print the Venn diagram template onto A3 paper for individual student use. Also print the template (or hand draw a large Venn diagram) onto A1 paper for whole class use.

Whilst you wait for your partner class to complete their part of the stories, students will create an individual Venn diagram showing the similarities and differences between the daily routines of students in Australian and China. This information will be based on their notes and understandings from the video conference.

Once students have completed their individual diagram and submitted it for assessment, they may contribute their understandings to a whole class Venn diagram. Each student contributes one word in turn to a large poster-sized diagram.

KWL Part 2

Teaching and learning goal: Students demonstrate what they have learnt during the learning sequence.

Dimension(s): Writing

Teacher notes: Students complete the L column of their KWL sheet, reflecting on what they have learnt during the learning sequence.