Mrs. Zhang, our Lower School Chinese instructor, came to me a couple of weeks ago and asked how we could create something to share with parents so they could hear what their children were learning.

She had been working with her 3rd graders on family vocabulary while the 4th graders had been learning animal names. The students had made paper booklets by cutting out images from a worksheet and then had learned a sentence about each picture.

3rd grade – families

4th grade – animals

What we decided to do was have each child use the Book Creator app to create an ePub book. This would enable students to take a picture of their paper booklet, insert into the app, and record their narration.

In making the book, the students learned about taking focused photos and then cropping them. They learned that the pen tool in Book Creator is perfect for writing their name in Chinese characters. And then the recording began!

What an authentic way for children to share their knowledge of another language with their parents! I don’t know about you, but when my boys were younger, they weren’t very eager to share much about school – now parents are able to open the book and listen to their child speak a sentence in Chinese. Due to a lack of time to get everyone recorded, we did not ask the students to read the sentence in English; but they can always share that with their families.

If you would like to see the books the students have created, visit the 3rd and 4th grade Chinese ePub book pages. While on an iOS device, download a book and open in iBooks.