Last Updated on Wed, 21 Jun 2023

Celebrating festivals together with your child can be a great way to immerse them in the vibrant tapestry of language and customs associated with the festivals.

NTUC First Campus (NFC) has released a new song titled ‘Dragon Boat Festival’. It details the traditions of the Dragon Boat Festival, such as enjoying a plate of zongzi (sticky rice dumplings) and dragon boat racing in commemoration of Qu Yuan’s death every year on the fifth day of the fifth month of the Chinese lunar calendar.

Watch our latest release titled ‘端午节’ (Dragon Boat Festival) now on YouTube!

NTUC First Campus (NFC) is one of the first preschool operators in Singapore to produce original, high-quality Chinese Language songs to pique children’s interest in learning the language. Produced by a team of Mother Tongue Language Specialists at NFC’s Child Development Department, the songs are set in the local context with catchy tunes, tailored for children from 0 to 6 years old.

Currently, it is difficult to find nursery rhymes and songs that feature the local context, and cater to the learning styles of children in Singapore. Recognising this gap, NFC started writing and producing songs in 2019 to complement its story books for children aged 0 to 3 years old, and also songs about Chinese festivals.

The other themes include activities in the children’s daily lives, both in school and at home, as well as encouraging words to better support children in coping with new routines and emotions, and learning about etiquette. The team worked closely with different songwriters and composers to finetune the lyrics and tunes to make them simple, fun and catchy for children to learn.

The team received good feedback from teachers and children at My First Skool preschool centres, and continued to produce songs since. Today, the team has produced 65 songs, and aims to produce 100 songs by 2025.

“It is necessary to use different methods in engaging our children to learn the Chinese Language. At NFC, we use original books, songs and teaching aids to nurture a love for the Chinese Language among our children, and effectively engage them in mastering the language,” said Dr Connie Lum, Director of the Mother Tongue Language Curriculum and Professional Development at NFC.

Besides these songs, NFC has produced 70 original Chinese Language books since 2017.

“NFC believes the best way for children to learn the Chinese Language is through ‘Living Chinese’. Hence, we created books, songs and learning moments for our children to learn and use the language in their daily lives. Our focus is to make the lessons fun, interactive as well as relevant and applicable to their daily lives. We do this through the constructive use of play-based learning materials and by encouraging conversations between our children and their teachers and peers,” Dr Connie Lum said.

Interested in piquing your child’s interest in learning the Chinese Language? Stay tuned for more songs on NFC’s YouTube channel.