Chinese Apps for Kids: Chinese New Year App Recommendations
Apps offer a fun way to learn at home and at school. The iPad apps listed below are my personal picks for Chinese New Year-themed learning, teaching and fun! We are always open to new ones so please feel free to share your favorites too!
Note: This is not a sponsored post. These apps are currently on my iPad for my children and students to use.
This is a fun cultural game for the whole family. It is arranged according to the major Chinese New Year traditions. Users will learn about Chinese New Year facts and work on fun tasks like cooking the Laba porridge, cleaning windows, doing paper cutting, writing the lucky character “fu”, making dumplings and yuan xiao rice balls, solving number riddles, and setting off fireworks. Younger children will need adult assistance to complete each task within the time limit.
Written form options: English with traditional Chinese or simplified Chinese
How about learning some Chinese words and phrases when you are playing games at the carnival. Learn about basic colors, places to go, sports, feelings and fruits You can always start from “Learn” section to get to know the new words and then have fun playing the carnival game. The “sentence patterns” area is great for reviewing the new words and using them in a sentence. This is a well-designed Chinese learning app for children who are learning Chinese as a second language.
Subtitle options: Simplified Chinese, traditional Chinese, pinyin
This is an ebook about the “Nian” beast. It is read in Mandarin Chinese only, with subtitles in Chinese and pinyin. Children will enjoy the colorful drawings and listening for the words they know. My children and my students in lower grades really enjoy this story. If your child can read pinyin you can use the record function and have him or her read the story on their own, one page at a time, and have fun together!
Written form options: traditional Chinese, simplified Chinese and pinyin. (English translation provided at the end.)
You can watch this story in animation or listen to the story in Chinese with Chinese and pinyin subtitles. This is a very simple story with limited words in Chinese for beginning readers.
