The Ugly Vegetables Extension Activity

This is a quick and easy activity that I whipped up to do with my Kindergartners last week.  They are loving The Ugly Vegetables, and are very intrigued by the part of the book where the mother labels the Chinsese vegetables she plants with her daughter with Chinese characters. If you look closely, you can see them in the lower right hand corner of the book cover.

 

 First, I printed off a bunch of photos from Google images to show how tools are used to write Chinese characters.

Then, I printed off a bunch of Chinese Character Cards and illustrated them so that the children could read them easily.  I slipped all of the pages into heavyweight page protectors, sealed the top with tape and put a binder ring through the top hole.  Voila!  A quick and easy book for the children to reference.

I put the book into our Art Center, along with black crayons, colored pencils, thin paint brushes and black paint.  The kids LOVED experimenting with characters.  It was definitely the most popular center of the week.