A Watercolor Rabbit for Chinese New Year

If you want exactly proportioned Chinese Characters, this is not the place, but if you want a little craft that may help kids remember a Chinese Character, this rabbit may be it.

2011 is the Chinese Year of the Rabbit, so I thought writing the Character for Rabbit painted with watercolors like a rabbit might be fun.

I've given the order of strokes for Rabbit in Chinese here. There are 8. Following the correct order is great, but this is just for acquainting children with the Character, so perfection is not my goal.

The pronunciation is "tu" similar to the English "to" as in "Me to!" With great emphasis on "to" for the down tone. And yes, I do believe trying to pronounce the tones is important even if the proportions in my Characters aren't perfect.

After I had practiced the order of the strokes a few times, I wrote it in crayon. I used a cotton swab and watercolor paint to make the shape of the rabbit over the Character. After the paint had dried, I drew a face with marker.

Look mom, I can write "sun" in Chinese!

First stroke for "ri"

Here's the order of the strokes for writing the Chinese character for sun.

It is pronounced "ri" which is the fourth tone, the down tone, in Mandarin. It is a little like making a rrrr sound of starting a car, but the rrrs are not drawn out and sounds as if the speaker is a little angry that the car won't start. R!

The first stroke starts on the left hand side from the top down.

Second stroke in "ri"

The second stroke starts at the top of the first, but goes over and down.

Third stroke in "ri"

The third stroke crosses the middle from left to right.

Fourth stroke in "ri"

The fourth stroke closes the bottom from right to left.

Now the watercolor started yesterday can be finished with a yellow sun up in the sky and rays of light flowing from it.

Have fun!

Link:

Look mom, I know Chinese!

"Hill" and "sun" Chinese characters

Look mom, I know Chinese!

Chinese characters in watercolor

For children who don't know Chinese, this painting might be a craft that helps them remember two Chinese characters.

A hill is the background for the Chinese character "shan" (pronounced with a short "a" sound a little high pitched and drawn out much as you might sing, "The hiiiiiiiills are alive with the Sound of Music!" "Shan" is the first tone in Mandarin and means mountain or hill.

Here's the steps for drawing the character.

First stroke in "shan." 

The first stoke is the tallest in the middle. Start at the top and go down.

Second stroke.

The second stroke turns a corner, but it's all one stroke. It's shorter than the middle stroke. Lower on the hill so to say. Start at the top, go down, around the corner, and over to where it will eventually meet the last stroke.

Third stroke.

The third stroke is the other side of the hill, and is short also. Start at the top and go down to meet the end of the second stroke.

Viola! Chinese your youngster may remember and use when used to paint a hill in a watercolor painting!

I'll be back with the instructions for "sun" in Chinese this later today or tomorrow.

Link:
                              Look mom, I can write "sun" in Chinese