Resources
Discover China with your pupils using resources from Cardiff Confucius Institute.
Cardiff Confucius Institute resources
Use our activities in the classroom, at home or as independent learning. No knowledge of Mandarin Chinese is necessary.
Chinese festivals
Chinese New Year
If you are looking for activities to do with your classes this Spring Festival, then check out our range of Chinese New Year videos and resources created by Cardiff Confucius Institute tutors.
The Dragon Boat Festival
Find out about the origin and traditions of the Dragon Boat Festival, make your own dragon boat, and learn how to prepare zongzi (traditional rice dumplings).
The Mid-Autumn Festival
The Mid-Autumn Festival is a traditional event observed in East and Southeast Asia. Cardiff Confucius Institute’s tutors have prepared online resources for teachers to use in class, or for children to enjoy at home.
Life in China videos (key stages 3 & 4)
Our tutors at Cardiff Confucius Institute have designed a range of videos to give older children and young people a real taste of Life in China. They include topics such as:
- making ‘Biangbiang Mian noodles’ using lasagne
- peeking inside a real Chinese teahouse
- discovering youth culture
- finding out how technology is used in China
- learning makeup techniques from a real-life Chinese opera star
Explore our Life in China videos on YouTube
Additional resources to accompany videos
Chinese Health and Wellbeing
Our Health and Wellbeing resources include eye exercises, a song and dance routine, the Yin and Yang of Chinese food, and Tai Chi.
For access to any resources mentioned or additional activities related to the topic, email confucius@cardiff.ac.uk.
Other resources
Institute of Education (IOE) Confucius Institute for Schools
This is the national centre for advice on and support for the teaching and learning of Chinese and about China in secondary and primary schools in England.
Their website contains useful teaching materials and schemes of work for primary schools.
British Council
The British Council offers a wide range of resources to give your class a glimpse into other cultures and provide a base to develop international partnerships.
YCT and HSK qualifications
These websites provide schools wanting to find out more about the Youth Chinese Test (YCT) and Hanyu Shuiping Kaoshi (HSK) with an overview of the tests and their requirements.
Help with Chinese characters
These handy resources provide a list of the most common Chinese characters ordered by frequency, characters sorted by level first used in the new HSK and character strokes/order with the websites Hhanzi5 and Chinese-tools.
Websites
- Chineasy (Visual methods to help with reading Chinese)
Linguascope - Yellow bridge (Dictionaries, Tools, and Resources for Learning Chinese)
- Written Chinese (online dictionary/grammer/podcast)
- BBC Chinese
- Study more Chinese
- Pronunciation help
- Chinese Foreign Language Worksheets and Printables
Apps
There are a wide range of apps available to help you and your pupils get to grips with learning Mandarin. Here are some recommended ones:
- You can find Chinese Flashcards on Quizlet.
- Learn to write Chinese characters with Skritter.
- Learn Chinese through videoswith FluentU.
- Learn Chinese through podcasts with ChinesePod.
- Learn Chinese by reading the news with The Chairman’s Bao.
- Learn Chinese via flashcards with Memrise.
- The best offline Chinese-English dictionary Pleco.
- Learning Chinese through stories with Zizzle.
Find out more about what we do and how you can get involved.
