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Mid Autumn Festival

Mid Autumn Festival is coming up soon on September 29 2023. It’s a time to gather with friends and family and enjoy delicious foods like mooncake while gazing at the moon. Here’s a few books, songs and activities that you can do with the kids this year.

Mid Autumn Festival Books

A Big Mooncake for Little Star (小星的大月餅) by Grace Lin

ISBN: 9789865535193

A story about a little girl who sneaks a bite every night of her mooncake. This book is available in Chinese and English.

English version: Kozzi, Amazon; Chinese version: Kozzi

Cantonese read aloud: 采姐姐的故事王國 Lillian’s Story Kingdom

Mooncakes by Loretta Seto

ISBN 1459814312

This book features a family celebrating Mid-Autumn Festival while telling three of the festival tales. This book is in English.

Buy it here: Kozzi, Amazon

English read aloud: The Dream Big Bookshelf

Bitty Bao Mid-Autumn Festival Set

Our Moon, Mid Autumn Festival and Mooncake

Bitty Bao has a collection of board books for festival. Buy them as a set or individually. There is a Cantonese version and a Mandarin version.

Buy it here: Bitty Bao, Yuto, Kozzi

Peppa and the Moon Festival

ISBN 9780241369067

Peppa and her friends celebrate the Moon Festival with lanterns and mooncakes.

Buy it here: Taobao

幸福月餅店 by 鄭宗弦

ISBN 9789578602731

A family own bakery shows us how to make mooncakes for Mid Autumn Festival.

Buy it here: Kozzi

Cantonese read aloud: Cantonese Mommy, Michigan Cantonese Storytime

14隻老鼠賞月 by 岩村和朗

ISBN 9787544812351

This mice family builds a moon lookout in a tree. When the moon arrives they eat delicious food and thank the moon.

Cantonese read aloud: Cantonese Mommy

Other Mid-Autumn Festival Books

Mid-Autumn Pop Up Book – 中秋節 and 團圓中秋節.

Thanking the Moon: Celebrating the Mid-Autumn Moon Festival [an English book about Mid-Autumn Festival, by Grace Lin; available on Little Kozzi and Amazon]

Mid Autumn Festival Songs

望望月光 食食月餅 by Eveline (Rhythm N Rhyme) and Dorothy (Locy Lee Learning)

月餅歌 by 嘉芙姐姐

中秋佳節 by 嘉芙姐姐

中秋歌 by Sunshine Nursery Rhyme

點點燈籠 by Bettina Wan (曉樂兒歌 HealingVoices Music)

圓圓的中秋 by Che Che Music (車車姐姐)

Mid Autumn Festival Activities

If you are looking for a one stop shop for activities, try out my Mid-Autumn Activity Book, available on Little Kozzi. There are flashcards to learn related vocabulary, colouring pages with stroke order characters, activities, and crafts to learn about the different traditions in an interactive, hands-on way. This activity book is bilingual and includes English and traditional Chinese characters on each page. Flashcards include jyutping (Cantonese pronunciation) and a vocabulary list that includes jyutping is included if you cannot read Chinese. Templates for all the crafts are also included. An art tutorial to draw lanterns is also included, hosted by Cherry 老師 from Children’s Cues in Cantonese. Purchase here: Mid-Autumn Activity Book

Another fun activity to do with the little ones is make mooncakes together. You can bake them or you can make them with playdough. You can purchase mooncake molds at your local Asian market or you can try Amazon. If you cannot get molds, Kumara Squad (@kyl.scrapbook) has shared a fun ecofriendly way to make them using recyclable materials. You can watch it here on her IG account, @kyl.scrapbook Playdough Mooncakes.

Lanterns is also another fun must activity for Mid-Autumn Festival. Check out these fun ideas here by Spot of Sunshine, and TVB Hands Up (Cantonese Video).

Mid Autumn Festivals Videos

Follow Kala EE to a bakery to make mooncake for her favourite Mirror members while learning vocabulary. Follow Kala EE to shop to learn about lanterns and make them together while learning vocabulary (traditional Chinese characters and English translations). Toddlers to school age children will enjoy Kala EE fun and positive personality.

Learn 5 Mid-Autumn Festival vocabulary while also learning about the festival with Uncle Calvin. Great for toddlers and preschoolers. Jyutping included. Turn on subtitles for English.

TVB Hands Up has a fun skit featuring lantern riddles and toy lanterns.

Sunshine Nursery Rhyme teaches us about the tales and customs of Mid-Autumn Festival.

Learn about different vocabulary that contain the word moon 月 and also a little about the tales of Mid Autumn Festival.

Twinklebots Cantonese teaches us Mid-Autumn Festival vocabulary, Jyutping included.

Mid Autumn Festival Toys

Bitty Bao: 13-Piece Magnetic Wooden Mooncake Toy Set [Bitty Bao, Little Kozzi]

My Heart Felt Toys Felt Mooncake [My Heart Felt Toys]

Baby Snack Time Mid Autumn Moon Festival Wooden Tea Pretend Play Set [Baby Snack Time]

More Cantonese Children Apps and Resources

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My First Bilingual Busy Book

You can purchase My First Bilingual Busy Book 快樂學習廣東話 or 快樂學習普通話 in Cantonese or Mandarin here. It is available in traditional or simplified characters with the corresponding pronunciation guide (jyutping or pinyin).

Update: The video below is the original version created in 2021. The newest edition (2023) is bilingual with English and Chinese and contains more language options for Chinese, image below.

I’m so happy to share with you another activity book. This book was made in request by another parent. This one is geared towards young children (toddlers, preschoolers, kindergarten, early primary). It includes a lot of first words that your child will find helpful. This activity book was designed to be interactive and to be used more than once so that they can really learn the vocabulary. Kids learn best through repetition, consistency and through play. You may have seen this kind of book available in English. It goes by other names such as busy book or learning binder. If you are unfamiliar with these types of books, please read on.

Essentially, the pages in these books work like a puzzle. There is one correct position for the pieces and the child has to match it to the correct spot. I have included many hints to help your child do this independently such as, colour coding pieces to its correct spot and including silhouettes or outlines for your child to match. Every pieces has its corresponding Chinese character to help your child learn to identify characters. For this book, the Chinese characters that were chosen were spoken Cantonese words so the child can use them in speech. Jyutping is included for parents who are unable to read Chinese characters. Also, a QR code is available on each page that provides the audio from a native speaker for each word as well. You might recognize the voice. It’s from one of the co-founders of Little Kozzi, Charing. With these, I hope that you and your child are able to expand your vocabulary and become more comfortable including Cantonese apart of your everyday speech.

Note: This video contains a sample of the old version created in 2021.

In addition to the matching pages, I have given your child an opportunity to start on writing. You will find two pages with the eight most common Chinese strokes. Your child can practice writing them in a fun way by finishing the picture. The page that introduces numbers also includes a colour-coded stroke order to help your child learn about sequence and learn that Chinese writing follows an order. For the car page, the page with the large 車, your child can use the cars provided, and drive the car following the stroke order.

The book covers a range of topics, sample pages below:

  • Numbers
  • Shapes
  • Colours
  • Emotions
  • 12 Zodiac Animals
  • Kitchenware
  • Time
  • Music
  • Calendar, weather, seasons
  • Emergency and construction vehicles
  • Chinese strokes and character symmetry
My First Bilingual Busy Book contains 24 pages of playing and learning.

How to Construct the Book

There are many ways that you can construct this book. I will write some recommendations here. Please note, the hard part of constructing this book is cutting out each individual piece. You do not have to complete it in one sitting. If time is an issue, I would start off by cutting the pieces for the main pages that you want to learn first, and as your child starts to master the vocabulary, add on more pages and pieces so that you and your child is not overwhelmed.

• You will need Adobe Reader to open the PDF file. It can be downloaded for FREE at: http://get.adobe.com/reader/

To assemble this learning binder you will need:

  • colour printer
  • white paper/cardstock
  • a laminating machine (like this) and laminating pouches (like this or like this) *See notes at bottom of page
  • clear velcro dots (hook and loop dots)(like this)
  • paper fastener (brad fastener/split pin)(like this)
  • scissors
  • ring binder

ASSEMBLY

  • Prepare your materials.
  • Print all the pages with a colour printer (*at home or printing services).
  • Laminate the pages (*at home or laminating services). Cut out pieces you may choose to laminate whole page and then cut. Alternatively, you may choose to cut, laminate and cut again.
  • Cut out pieces. For some of the pieces, you can choose to cut close to the image or leave some extra space around the image (i.e. continents cut out pieces).
  • Affix velcro dots to the worksheet and pages. Use clear hoop and loop dots to have words or images still visible.
  • Punch a small hole into clock hands and centre of clock. Fasten the hands with a paper fastener.
  • Insert pages to a ring binder.
  • Use a dry erase or washable marker for written tasks.

There is no one correct method of utilizing a learning binder. Find what works best for your family. Here are some suggestions to guide you through the process.

  • Find a quiet space that is free from clutter.
  • Choose a time that your child is ready to learn (nourished and rested)
  • Work through one page at a time.
  • Place activity in a tray or work from the binder.
  • Your child can remove the pieces themselves (fine motor skill strengthening). You may also choose to have the pieces removed and placed on the table or in a small tray.
  • Invite your child to join you in a new activity.
  • Point to a piece and call it by the correct name. Example, red colour, say “紅色” (red colour in Cantonese is hung4 sik1). Invite your child to say the new word. Look at the worksheet together. Point out the red colour. Say “red” again. Show them how to place it on the worksheet connecting the velcro dots so it sticks. Let your child choose a piece. Call it by name if child doesn’t say it. Encourage the child to do the tasks independently while introducing new words if child does not voice it.
  • Repetition is apart of learning. Allow your child to do the activity again if they want to before moving to a new page.

*If you do not own a printer or laminator, you can bring the file to a specialty store that can help you print and laminate it. You might find printing services at your local library, pharmacy, courier store or technology store. Please call to find out about pricing. There are also self laminating sheets (like this, like this, or like this) where you do not need to use a laminating machine. I have not use these before, but they look like they should be fairly easy to use. You may also use sheet protectors (like this). Please note, with sheet protectors it is harder for the child to pull the pieces off with the velcro since it’s more flexible and movable. This only works for the full pages and not the individual pieces.

*You may also choose to use this one time by just making this a gluing activity. Once they are complete, you can make it into a book to read.

You can purchase My First Bilingual Busy Book 快樂學習廣東話 or 快樂學習普通話 in Cantonese or Mandarin here. It is available in traditional or simplified characters with the corresponding pronunciation guide (jyutping or pinyin).

First Words Poster

Also check out the poster version of the book. You can simply print and display the posters in your home space to create a print-rich home to increase exposure to Chinese. Available in Cantonese, Mandarin and with simplifed or traditional characters: First Words Poster.

More Cantonese Children Apps and Resources

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