1. Look What We Got From China Melanie Buchanan Ashland City Elementary School Ashland City, TN 2012

2. Day One Background and Inventions Click here for video

3. CHINA Capital: Beijing Population: More than 1 billion! Language: Mandarin Religion: Buddhism and Taoism. Most Chinese people are atheist. Size: China is slightly larger than the U.S. Main Crops: Rice, tea, soybeans, and wheat Click here to here the Chinese National Anthem

4. The Flag of China China’s flag is red. Red stands for Communism. Communism is a way of ruling a Country. The flag has a large yellow star in its upper left corner. Four small stars are Curved around the large star. These stand for the five different parts of China.

5. Chinese Currency The Chinese currency is call the Yuan, pronounced “you-on”. It takes more than six Yuan to equal one U.S. dollar.

6. Inventions An abacus is a special tool to help with math. The abacus was invented in China more than 2,500 years ago. It was the earliest kind of computer! 1,900 years ago, a man who worked for the emperor invented paper. The Chinese also figured out a special way to apply ink to paper. This invention was called printing.

7. Inventions About 1,000 years ago, a Chinese man mixed different chemicals together and they began to spark and explode. He invented fireworks.

8. Day Two: Food and Tools

9. CHINESE FOOD Rice and noodles are the main foods of China. Peking Duck is a special food in northern China. Tea is served with every meal. Most people eat with chopsticks and spoons. For breakfast, children drink milk made from soybeans. Watermelon is a favorite of the Chinese.

10. ….. More FOOD!! The Chinese were the first to discover the delicious flavor of PEACH! Some people thought that eating a lot of peaches you would live forever! About 4,000 years ago, the Chinese came up with One of the most yummy foods ever – ICE CREAM! Many people think people in Italy invented pasta but the people in China came up with the idea about 3,000 years ago.

11. What DOES NOT come from China? FORTUNE COOKIES! Fortune cookies were invented in the U.S. about 80 years ago by David Jung.

12. Tools Saddle Chopsticks Wheelbarrow Compass

13. Animals Tigers and leopards live in China’s northern forests. Monkeys and elephants live in the jungles Camels carry people across the desert. Chinese farmers raise chickens and pigs. Giant pandas live in the bamboo forests of China. China is the only place that pandas live in the wild. Click here for Panda Cam

14. Day Three: Art, Music, and Exercise

15. Chinese Art People in China use a much different kind of writing than we do. Chinese writing is very beautiful, but it is hard to do well. The name of this art is CALLIGRAPHY. Melanie

16. Chinese Art People in China began making FANS about 5,000 years ago. Many Chinese fans are covered with beautiful paintings.

17. Chinese Music Ancient Chinese Bell Erhu Lute Sheng

18. Chinese Toys and Games Jianzi: (pronounced tee-enz) For more than 2,000, kids have been playing a fun game with their feet. In the U.S., we call it hacky sack. Click for Jianzi demonstration

19. Sports and Exercise One very famous Chinese sport is a special type of boxing called kung fu. This sport is very difficult, one must practice for many years to become good. A popular kind of exercise in China is called tai chi. It is very good for you and very fun to watch. People who do tai chi look as if they are dancing in slow motion. Click the picture for a Tai Chi demonstration.

20. Chinese Acrobats For more than 2,000 years, people have been doing acrobatics. Acrobats perform amazing tricks. Click the picture to watch Chinese acrobats.

21. Major Cities and Lifestyles

22. Major Cities: Beijing The capital of China is Beijing. It is also called Peking. It is the second largest city in China, more than 10 million people live there The Forbidden City is inside Beijing which was where the emperors once lived. In the past, nothing could be built higher than the wall of the Forbidden City? Today, the Forbidden City is a museum. It is visited by many people each year.

23. Beijing

24. Major Cities: Shanghai Shanghai is considered the modern capital of China. It is home to the second largest building in the world, The World Financial Center. To light the city of Shanghai each night until 10 p.m., it costs 1 million American dollars.

26. The Great Wall of China The Great Wall was built more than 2,000 years ago and can be seen from outerspace by astronauts! It is more than 4,500 miles long and attracts millions of visitors each year (including Mrs. B )

27. Life at Home Many Chinese live in large cities like Beijing or Shanghai. Most live in apartment buildings. Families in apartments usually share kitchens and bathrooms with others. Most Chinese live in the country. Houses are usually made of clay, mud, or stone bricks. Many houses do not have power or running water. Most people rise early in the morning to exercise before work. People usually travel on bicycles or motor scooters. China is very crowded. Each family is only allowed to have one child. Many Chinese grow up without brothers or sisters.

28. Going to School Most Chinese children begin school at 4 years old. Schools are open six days a week. There are no school buses in China. Children must walk or ride bicycles to school. Students receive two vacations a year, one week in the winter and one week in the summer. Chinese students are very proud of their school and education is very important to them. They study very hard and often have many hours of homework each night.

29. Internet Resources http://kids.nationalgeographic.com/kids/places/find/china/ http://www.neok12.com/ http://www.chinesetools.eu/names/ http://china.mrdonn.org/zodiac.html http://china.mrdonn.org/index.html http://china.mrdonn.org/powerpoints/jeopardy.html http://www.ipst.gatech.edu/amp/collection/museum_invention_paper.htm http://www.youtube.com http://nationalgeographic.com