食物
Shíwù — Food
Food is where Chinese culture lives, and it’s the vocabulary children use soonest in the real world — at a restaurant, at a friend’s house, at the dinner table tonight. Eight foods, two feelings, and one very useful sentence.
Unit objectives
By the end of this unit, students will be able to:
- Name eight common foods and drinks
- Say 我饿了 — “I’m hungry” — and 我渴了 — “I’m thirsty”
- Say whether they like a food using 我喜欢 or 我不喜欢
- Hold chopsticks and try to pick something up
Key vocabulary
Eight foods plus two feelings every child needs before lunch.
米饭 面条 包子 水 牛奶 苹果 香蕉 鸡蛋 我饿了
Food you can name and eat
Eight foods
Flashcards with audio, then a pretend restaurant where students order by pointing and naming.
Start Lesson 1Hungry, thirsty, chopsticks
我饿了 and 我渴了, then the chopstick challenge — moving pom-poms between bowls.
Start Lesson 2Name one thing at dinner
Every night, name one thing on the plate in Chinese. Even if it’s the only Chinese word said all day, it lands.
Rice in the north, noodles in the south — or is it?
The old saying has it the other way round: wheat grows in the drier north, so northern China eats noodles, dumplings and steamed buns, while the wetter south grows rice. It’s a rough rule with countless exceptions, but it’s a useful one for children, because it makes “Chinese food” stop being a single thing. A meal in Xi’an, Chengdu, Guangzhou, Taipei and a Chinese-American kitchen in New Jersey can share almost no dishes at all — and all five are equally Chinese.
Unit 8 progress check
A light, no-pressure way to see what’s sticking:
- Can your child name four foods?
- Can they say 我饿了 at the right moment?
- Can they say one food they like and one they don’t?
Chopstick skill is not assessed — trying is the entire point, and most five-year-olds need another year or two.