我渴了
wǒ kě le — I’m Thirsty
📐 Standards alignment
ACTFL World-Readiness: Communication (interpersonal, presentational) · Cultures (chopsticks and table manners) · Connections (fine motor skills and the senses)
Can-Do targets (NCSSFL-ACTFL, Novice Low):
- I can say that I am thirsty in Chinese.
- I can say one food I like and one I do not like.
- I can name chopsticks and try to use them.
Learning objectives
- Say 我渴了 wǒ kě le as well as 我饿了 wǒ è le from last lesson
- Use 我喜欢 wǒ xǐhuan and 我不喜欢 wǒ bù xǐhuan to give an opinion about food
- Name and have a go at using 筷子 kuàizi
Materials
A pair of chopsticks (child-size or a pair held together with an elastic band at the top), two bowls, and something easy to pick up — pom-poms, cotton balls, dry pasta or large cereal. Plus milk and a boiled egg if you have them.
Prior knowledge
Unit 8 Lesson 1. Today finishes the unit: 我饿了 wǒ è le comes back and gets a twin, and the foods from last lesson get opinions attached to them.
Key vocabulary
牛奶 鸡蛋 筷子 渴 好吃 喜欢
Hungry or thirsty?
Act out being hungry — hold your tummy, look sad — and say 我饿了 wǒ è le from last lesson. Then act out being thirsty: fan yourself, stick your tongue out, reach for a glass, and say 我渴了 wǒ kě le. Swap: your child acts one of the two and you have to guess which in Chinese. The pair is much easier to learn together than apart, because the actions are so different.
Six words to finish the unit
Tap each card to flip it over. Look at the characters, say the word out loud, then check the back for the meaning — and press 🔊 to hear it.
我喜欢 and 我不喜欢
我喜欢 wǒ xǐhuan means “I like”. To turn any sentence into its opposite in Chinese you slide one small word in front of the verb: 不 bù. So 我喜欢鸡蛋 wǒ xǐhuan jīdàn becomes 我不喜欢鸡蛋 wǒ bù xǐhuan jīdàn. That one little word is the whole of “not” in Chinese, and it will be used in every grade from here on. Go round the fridge using both: 我喜欢牛奶 wǒ xǐhuan niúnǎi, 我不喜欢鸡蛋 wǒ bù xǐhuan jīdàn.
Round the table
Take it in turns to name a food from this unit and say whether you like it, using 我喜欢 or 我不喜欢. Disagree loudly and cheerfully — the point is that your child hears the two patterns side by side many times, and nothing makes a five-year-old repeat a sentence more readily than announcing that they do not like something.
Memory game — find the pairs
Every Chinese word has its English meaning hiding somewhere in the grid. Tap two cards to see if they match.
Find the matching pairs!
Listen and choose
Press each play button and pick what you heard.
1. Press play. Which one did you hear?
2. Press play. Which one did you hear?
3. Press play. Which one did you hear?
The chopstick challenge
Put pom-poms, cotton balls or dry pasta in one bowl and race to move them to the other bowl with 筷子 kuàizi. Count out loud in Chinese from Unit 4 as each one lands. For small hands, tape the chopsticks together at the top so they work like tweezers — that is how children in China often start. Nobody is graded on this: trying is the entire point, and most five-year-olds need another year or two.
Show what you know
1. Which word means “chopsticks”?
2. How would you say “I do not like eggs”?
3. You need a drink of water. What do you say?
Great work!
Today your child added 牛奶, 鸡蛋, 筷子, 渴, 好吃 and 喜欢, and learned to say what they do not like as well as what they do. That completes Unit 8: eight foods, hungry and thirsty, an opinion either way, and a first go with chopsticks. Unit 9 moves into the classroom.
Take it home
Chopstick score card
Try to pick up five different things with 筷子 — a pom-pom, a piece of pasta, a grape, a cube of cheese, a pea. Draw each one in the box as you manage it, and say 好吃 hǎochī when you get one across.
Name: Date:
Like it, do not like it
Ask three people at home to name one food they like and one they do not, then write or draw their answers on the lines. Report back in Chinese using 我喜欢 and 我不喜欢. Colour a star for each person you ask.
Note for teachers & parents
Pacing: the chopstick challenge is the part your child will ask for, so hold it back until the flashcards and the two patterns are done — then let it run as long as they are enjoying it.
Watch for: 渴 kě (thirsty) and 饿 è (hungry) are the pair to keep apart — children mix them up for weeks. Tie each one to its action, fanning yourself versus holding your tummy, and the action will fetch the word. And 筷子 kuàizi has the light ending again: KWHY-dz, not kwhy-ZUH.