A postcard from Houhai, Beijing

Here’s an open letter to my 6-year-old nephew, Bertie. I sent him a postcard from Houhai in Beijing with a link to this blog post written on the postcard. If he receives it, it will give him some fun themed activities he can access himself or with his class mates if his teacher thinks it might be relevant. I sent the postcard to him via his school.

This blog is part of a series on a similar theme. If you would like to read another blog post in this series, click here: A postcard from the Olympic Park, Beijing.

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Dear Bertie

I hope you and your friends are well.

It’s especially cold here in Beijing. When I go out, I make sure to wrap up warm as the temperature can be as low as -10c! This was never more important than the other day when I went skating on Houhai lake! I had never been to Houhai, which is a popular lakeside district in Beijing, so I was keen to go.

Let me tell you, I had a great day! The area around the lake was very interesting but the frozen lake itself was the thing I was most looking forward to. I have skated before but never on a frozen lake and certainly not on a bike! Yes, you heard me right, a bike!

They had bikes, sledges and even sleighs ‘pulled’ by toy dogs! I tried a few bikes in order to find the fastest. I had to be careful though, as some of them could go pretty quickly and stopping on ice is trickier than you would imagine.

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Here’s a video from my day:


Video link: https://youtu.be/LDgYeCe2W6I?feature=shared

What did you think? It looks fun, right?!

Later on, I started thinking about useful phrases related to snow and ice. Here’s a game you can play with a friend. First you will need to download and print this worksheet: Grid Game. Winter phrases

Here are the rules:

  • Each player will need a different counter, e.g. a coin.
  • Hide the answers at the bottom of the worksheet or cut them off.
  • Decide which player goes first.
  • Each player can enter the board with their counter at any point onto one of the outer rectangular shapes containing a word.
  • At the start of their go, a player can move one space in any direction to any available rectangular space. As each player can only move one space at a time, dice are not needed.
  • When a player lands on a rectangular shape, they must guess the phrase.
  • The player is then permitted to check the worksheet to see if they were correct.
  • If the phrase has been guessed correctly, the player writes their initials in both rectangular shapes (the rectangle their counter is placed in and the rectangle with the correct phrase).
  • This signals the end of the player’s go and the start of their opponents turn who now repeats the process.
  • All players are not allowed to enter any rectangular shapes that have initials in them. These spaces have now been used and are therefore out of bounds for the rest of the game.
  • If a player guesses the phrase with a word(s) that their opponent is currently positioned over, the opponent remains in this position until it is their go. Naturally, the opponent moves from this space but is not permitted to return to this square as it is now out of bounds.
  • Players can land on the same rectangle at the same time as long as the phrase has not been guessed.
  • The player who manages to block their opponent from moving is declared the winner.

Grid Game example

Take care and I’ll send another postcard soon!

Uncle Oliver x

References:

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Houhai

https://www.travelchinaguide.com/attraction/beijing/houhai.htm

Are you a teacher? If yes, you might be interested in these adaptable games and board games, including a language dominoes template: Games and board games

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