Teaching Chinese music can be intimidating when you’re not Chinese. I’ll admit I was nervous about it! Despite my nerves, I knew it was important to include Chinese culture and music in my classroom. After all, teaching students about Chinese music helps foster cultural awareness and celebrate diversity. Here are 4 fun ideas to try in your music class!

Sing A Chinese Nursery Rhyme

My first graders are working on Sol and Mi melodies right now and I discovered a tune called Zhuó Mù Niǎo which is a traditional Chinese Nursery rhyme about a Woodpecker. The lyrics are as follows…

Dīng dōng shéi zài jiào?
Dīng dōng shéi zài jiào?
Dīng dōng zhuó mù niǎo,
​Dīng dōng bǎ shù qiào.

I usually teach the melody first using Curwen hand signs for Sol & Mi and some echo singing. Afterwards, I will have the students practice the pronunciation (make sure your practice yourself!) I am not Chinese, but I always do my best to be as accurate in my pronunciation as possible. After students learn the pronunciation we sing! It’s a really cute song for K-2 students. Interested in using this resource? Click here!

Lunar New Year Rhythms

My district always recognizes the Lunar New Year each year! I created these Lunar New Year rhythms to help my 1st graders review their Ta and Ti-Ti rhythms with some Lunar New Year inspired musical phrases!

Here are just a few examples…

• “Red Fans Yellow Ribbons” (Ta, Ta, Ti-Ti, Ta)
• “Rat, Ox, Snake, Horse” (Ta, Ta, Ta, Ta)
• “Eat Dumplings Yum Yum” (Ta, Ti-Ti, Ta, Ta)

Music of China Lesson

Are you teaching Chinese music to older students? My Music of China lesson has been a success with my sixth graders year after year. It teaches students all about Chinese culture including the location, flag, fashion, food and more! It also highlights important holidays such as Chinese New Year and Dragon Boat Festival. In addition, it introduces genres of Chinese music and musical instruments. Last, it also includes a bonus notetaking sheet, instrument classification worksheet, Google form assessment and drag-and-drop activity. Check out the resource for yourself here.

Chinese Instrument Coloring Activity

I wanted to conclude this post with a FREEBIE! These are some simple coloring sheets that you can print out or assign virtually through TPT’s Easel platform. These simple coloring sheets would make a great sub activity, early finisher activity or extension. There are 4 different Chinese instruments referenced on these coloring sheets – Ehru, Gong, Hulusi and Yueqin.