This book, “My Fun Chinese Book: Animals Level 1 (Traditional Chinese)” includes 36 DailyDumpling™ FUN-Sheets—discrete projects that cover the 12 Chinese zodiac animals. Daily Noodles utilizes American-style games like dot-to-dot, matching, pattern recognition, and coloring along with 3D paper crafts to make traditional Chinese characters familiar. Paper crafts, for example, are highlighted by each animal’s name in Chinese characters. By showcasing Chinese in context, young learners readily recognize Chinese characters over time.
Page-per-day DailyDumpling™ projects cultivate kids’ problem solving, fine-motor skills, pattern recognition, and persistence. Daily progress can be tracked on our star chart; completing each book culminates with a certificate of achievement. To be comprehensive, we offer free videos at DailyNoodles.com/workbooks that help kids hear proper pronunciation of all the featured vocabulary words from each book. The progressive nature of our DailyDumpling™ FUN-Sheets and FUN-Books builds your child’s confidence learning Chinese.
We want kids to ‘noodle’ in Chinese every day even if parents may not speak themselves. While our books are designed expressly for kids, parent involvement in their children’s language learning provides a meaningful foundation. We purposefully use pinyin (the phonetic system of transcribing Mandarin pronunciation into the Latin alphabet) so parents who don’t know Chinese can keep up with their kids. We also provide hints, tips, and answer sheets in our books to set students (and parents) up for success.
Stay tuned for more of DailyNoodles’ “Mandarin Chinese kids gobble up” product offerings in the form of both web-based and in-hand games, stories, songs, and more.
This book is appropriate for:
Kids ages 3 to 13 with no/minimal Chinese language background who are looking for a low-cost, effective introduction to Mandarin Chinese Young Mandarin Chinese language learners who are studying traditional Chinese characters — Kids in full-immersion Chinese programs
— Kids attending after-school or occasional Chinese classes each week
— Kids whose parents/caregivers speak Mandarin Chinese at home
About DailyNoodles, Inc.
DailyNoodles supports kids learning Mandarin Chinese and their parents, schools, and teachers. We want kids to reach their full potential and inspire a world of opportunity. We provide curriculum-guided digital and hands-on fun that kids enjoy to create a strong environment of Chinese at home.
DailyNoodles FUN-Books are designed for kids 3 to 13 who are learning Mandarin Chinese as a second language. Carefully-crafted in every page of our books is the latest thinking on child development combined with lessons learned from being parents of and teachers to American kids learning Chinese for dozens of years. Numerous US-based Chinese teachers and parents from diverse backgrounds have provided feedback on ‘what works’ and ‘what is needed’ for American kids learning Chinese. Understanding the needs of young Mandarin language leaners beyond the classroom has been at the center of every product we are developing. The sum of these perspectives brings to life our “My Fun Chinese Book” series.
Our FUN-Books span a range of curricular themes that spark kids’ natural curiosity, creativity, and interest in Chinese. Themes under development include animals, numbers, the body, the outdoors and more. In each book, we introduce Chinese characters, the proper pronunciation, and cultural tidbits. Kids are inspired by the vibrant colors in our books—the work of our award-winning children’s illustrator who is also a credentialed teacher with 15 years teaching American students Chinese. Together, these Chinese language-learning elements engage kids’ spatial perceptual skills and depth of perspective.
Andrea Chen Lin learned conversational Chinese from college and working in Asia. Upon becoming a parent, she was determined to raise her children bilingually. After all, the research on brain benefits of bilingual language learning at a young age were compelling and the economic impact of China globally were obvious. However, many imported books and DVDs were difficult for an illiterate parent to use. And, when her kids were two, she realized her vocabulary would not support her son's interest in every type of dinosaur or her daughter's interest in fairies. She went to great lengths to learn 'kids vocabulary' and create materials that were fun for their American culture. From these frustrations, grew DailyNoodles--fun stuff for American kids to 'noodle' in Chinese every day. Andrea’s career has included management consulting, business development, and operations. She received an MBA from Harvard and her BA from UPenn. DailyNoodles is the third company Andrea started from the ground up. DailyNoodles is her true passion. Yalan Tsai always carries at least two suitcases when she is heading to teach Chinese. They are stuffed with ‘fun stuff' she uses to engage kids with Chinese--custom animations, art projects and hands-on fun. Yalan’s passion for kids and teaching added to her artistic talent makes her one of the most sought after Chinese teachers in the Bay Area. This book series captures Yalan's spirit and natural connection with kids. It gives flight to her teaching methods and spreads the smile she brings to kids learning Chinese to a broader audience across the US and beyond. Yalan is from Taiwan where she received her Certificate for Teaching Chinese as a Second Language (K-12 Pedagogy program). She also obtained a MFA in Illustration in San Francisco, a skill she enjoys putting to work to keep the classroom fun and interesting for her students. She is also an award-winning children's book illustrator. Yalan's experience includes having taught over 300 American kids Chinese over 15 years. Yalan has two boys, ages 11 & 13 who are proud to be fluent in Chinese and very good with a Chinese yo-yo! Yalan is leading the curriculum development efforts at DailyNoodles. Andrea's and Yalan’s skills combined bring you a curriculum of digital and hands-on Mandarin Chinese kids gobble up!
