How do we get children engaged in learning and REMEMBERING Chinese numbers? Should we sing the numbers song 10 times over and over again? Should we write rows and rows of Chinese characters?

Well, this week I did two fun and engaging games with the children. The lesson objective is simple, to say (verbalize) the numbers as many times as possible so that the 'sound' is imprinted in the students mind. Recognizing the characters and writing them is not the goal of the lesson.

So, first, the Gummy bears board game. Tools needed are a DIY-ed board game numbers till 48, a die, game piece for each player and gummy bears. The suspense lies here, each time a player lands on a number with an Acorn Valley logo, he is rewarded with a gummy bear (but he should not eat it yet). But if he later lands on a bomb / dynamite, he should return the gummy bear to me! The students were thrilled and excited all through the game.

The second game is the conventional Bingo game. With a Bingo sheet for each student, we played four rounds of the game. Each time they draw a number, they should say it in Chinese, and this reinforces their memory.

Lastly, and surely, we did the numbers song together before class is dismissed.